A grassy wall with a bright neon sign greets you inside of the front door. Beige dreamcatchers hang on the walls. There’s a golden Buddha hand perched by the window, and blazing red roses on a coffee table next to a glass cabinet with sparkling crystals. A sign on the wall reads “happy place,” written in a stringy cursive font.
No, this is not a spa—it’s a Brockton tattoo shop.
It’s hard to find a tattoo studio owned by women of color. For Joana Coli and Courtney Barnette, though, their passion overpowered obstacles in front of them. They began tattooing 15 years ago, and a decade and a half later, they’re still going strong.
Coli and Barnett opened their shop in 2018, renting out a tiny studio in Brockton that they could barely afford. The shop’s address, 111 Torrey St., inspired the name of their shop, 1Eleven Tattoo. The name also has spiritual ties to numerology, where the great master number, 111, is associated with divine guidance and self-confidence.
“We’re literally like family, more like family than friends, ” Barnette explained.
“And not to mention we’re Cape Verdean, so we probably are actually family,” Coli joked.
1Eleven moved to a larger location in 2023 for more space. Now, they’re planning to construct a new yoga studio.
As a general theme, Barnette and Coli commit themselves to creating an environment where clients and staff alike can feel comfortable and celebrated. For the former, this part of their mission comes from her own negative experiences as a woman in the industry.
“I’ve worked with all guys—some of them are pigs,” Barnette recalled. “Sometimes they’re inappropriate. Sometimes they make you feel uncomfortable … during that experience I would think, This is validation for when I have my own job and there’s not gonna be any sexual harassment.”
Polo’s apprentice
Their rise to success was rather traditional, entailing years of consistent grinding before even owning a shop.
When she was first starting to tattoo, Barnette wanted to apprentice under a man named Polo. He had given Barnette her first tattoo at the age of 16 in the back of a house. She didn’t know Polo, and Polo didn’t know her, but the experience stuck with her.
A few years later, when Barnette was 21, she tracked the man down, popped up at his house and asked, Do you remember me? Polo responded, Yeah. I never wanted to give you that tattoo.
“That was crazy because he never remembered anybody,” Barnette recalled.
After reuniting, Barnette asked Polo to apprentice her. Her burning question: Who am I going to practice on? His response: Yourself.
Barnette went home that night and tattooed herself. She came back the next day and showed Polo what she did. “He was like, Oh, shit, you were serious.”
From brief rivals to instant connection
After Barnette had been working under Polo for a month or two, a new client started coming into the shop—a woman named Joana Coli. Coli’s husband Romero had been getting ink from Polo, and Coli started tagging along on his appointment. “I needed to see what he was doing over here, hanging out for long hours, coming home looking like he had fun,” she joked.
Coli would sit and draw in the space while everyone was getting tattoos. She had been working in retail, where she mostly lost touch with her creative side, and her trips to Polo’s shop provided her with some of the creative spark that had been missing. One day, Polo asked if she had ever thought about tattooing professionally. Nah, I don’t think I can do that, Coli responded.
Polo asked her incessantly, frequently broaching the topic. Eventually, Coli agreed to give it a try. She bought her first ever machine with Polo.
The two women were a bit skeptical upon hearing about the other. According to Barnette, her first inclination was to be territorial. However, her mindset quickly shifted; “I was like, Wait what? What am I doing? I don’t own him!” She laughed thinking back on it. “Honestly, I was being crazy.”
As soon as the two met, they hit it off. “I don’t connect with every person I meet, and I don’t attach to people that easily either. So we were meant to be probably,” Barnette said affectionately.
The two women, now in their 30s, have settled into the groove of their life as business owners.
Polo now works with them at 1Eleven, in addition to Aalyah Barros, who Coli and Barnette apprenticed.
Stretching themselves
While the autonomy that comes with owning their own shop is invaluable, the two agree that balancing being mothers, business owners, and soon-to-be yoga instructors can be overwhelming. “As a woman, you’re expected to do everything,” Barnette added.
The duo became interested in yoga as a way to release the stress caused by their jam-packed schedules. As they explained, the physical and mental stress of tattooing is no joke; your body is contorted, put into uncomfortable positions for hours at a time. Yoga helps relieve that stress, something that Coli and Barnette describe as “totally restorative.”
Now, they’re ready to share their spiritual side with their clientele. “I feel like people really will enjoy the slower side. It’s not all about strength and power,” Barnette said. “It’s more about just being able to sit with yourself.”
“It’s a judgment-free zone,” Coli explained. “We’re not here to judge. You can come in whatever shape or form you feel most comfortable in, and we’re just here to work with you. The female energy here is warm and welcoming.”
“It’s an edgy kind of business,” Barnette added, “but we bring a softness to the edge.”
