Thoughts

WordPress page from tedderfamilytattooing.com: "Jeff Cohen" (https://tedderfamilytattooing.com/jeff-cohen/) Jeff Cohen (1947-2018), Founder of The Custom Tattoo Company. Jeffrey Cohen was born November 6, 1947, in the Bronx, New York. He grew up scrappy, resourceful. He joined the Navy. The military took him out of New York and showed him the rest of the country. Before tattooing, Jeff worked at Pike in Long Beach, California. He spent time in Chicago and New York City. Tattooing found him somewhere along the way, and once it did, the rest of the story wrote itself. In 1983, Jeff opened The Custom Tattoo Company in Havelock, North Carolina, directly across the street from the gates of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. The location was deliberate. Marines coming and going, young service members looking for their first tattoo or their tenth. The shop became a fixture, as much a part of the base culture as the barracks and the PX. Jeff ran The Custom Tattoo Company for over three decades. He wasn't chasing trends or building a brand. He was running a shop, the way shop owners did before social media turned tattooing into a spectator sport. Walk-ins were welcome. The flash was on the wall. The work got done. He raised a family in and around that shop. His daughter Lauren grew up watching him work. His son-in-law Dave Tedder would eventually join him. Jeff Cohen passed away on October 19, 2018, at age 70. What he left behind was more than a business. The Custom Tattoo Company was a place, a reputation, and a standard. The family he raised in that shop now runs it. Everything that followed, the awards, the art, the next generation, all of it traces back to a shop across from Cherry Point and the man who opened the door. Milestones: 1947 born in the Bronx. Navy service. Long Beach, Chicago, NYC. 1983 founded The Custom Tattoo Company. 2018 passed away October 19, age 70.