Derek Gray, owner of the newly opened Direach Tattoo Gallery, wants his tattoo shop to be different – starting with the moment people walk through the door.

Inside the shop, strings of lights hang from the ceiling, reflecting warmly onto its glossy brown floor. The walls are painted dark gray. The space is open with chic light brown furniture and five tattoo beds. Customers have told Gray the shop has the look and feel of a Raleigh bar rather than a tattoo shop.

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Everything from the furniture to the floor to the string lights, Gray said, was selected to make the shop less imitating and more welcoming for new customers.

“Getting a tattoo in general – whether you have a million of them or none – is a stressful thing. You're putting something on your body, you're going to deal with some sort of pain,” Gray said. “And there is no need to make it worse than it has to be.”

Direach Tattoo Gallery opened last week at 420 Eastwood Road in Wilmington. It’s located in a strip of storefronts that's also home to a brunch cafe, a winery and a Chinese restaurant.

The shop’s unique name, which is pronounced almost like Gray’s first name Derek, came from Gray’s Irish heritage and means “straight lines” in Gaelic.

After years of hanging around tattoo shops and having friends who work in the industry, Gray said he’s noticed many traditional tattoo shops are cluttered with small, enclosed spaces that can cause anxiety for some customers. He also knows the very idea of going into a tattoo shop can put some people out of their comfort zone. He wanted his shop to be different.

“I want (customers) to feel like they're coming into a really nice place,” Gray said. “I wanted to make something that everybody can feel comfortable in.”

That makes the shop’s ambiance a huge focus.

This spring, Gray moved to Wilmington from Siler City to be closer to the beach. Even before making the move, he posted social media ads looking for tattoo artists for the shop, but he’s struggled to find qualified artists. He’s hired two artists but hopes to eventually employ five.

Gray plans to approach his relationship with the shop's artists differently, too. In a typical tattoo shop, artists and shop owners split the cost of a tattoo equally with the owner getting half and the artist getting half.

“A lot of times what happens is the owners can become a little pushy and will try to overwork the artists, and say I want money, so keep working, keep working, keep working, keep working,” Gray said.

That can lead to artist burnout and lower quality tattoos. Instead, Gray aims to get to know his artists and shift the shop dynamics.

“We want it to be more of a community as opposed to a boss and worker bee.”

The money made from tattoos at Direach is split with the artist getting 60% and Gray 40%. Gray, who isn’t a tattoo artist himself, plans to embrace his role as the shop’s owner by doing whatever is needed to help his artists and customers.

“At the end of the day, the artists are what make the shop, and so if they're happy and they're growing, and they're moving forward in their careers, and they're getting better and everything else. I'm doing my job,” he said.

Gray said he hopes his focus on the customer experience and on his artists will help the shop establish itself in the Wilmington tattoo market.

“I want it to be a different experience than your typical run-of-the-mill tattoo shop,” he said.

Reporter Emma Dill can be reached at edill@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: New Wilmington tattoo shop takes unique approach to customers, artists