For the past 20 years, the corner of W. First Street by Celestino’s and Chico State has been a tattoo shop. The shop has been swapped from owner to owner over the years, but over the summer, tattoo artists Noe “Weezy” Alvarado and Morgann Villalobos have rebranded the space into their own personalized creation.

The married couple has been working at this location since their arrival at Chico six years ago. The shop has always been home to them, but now they are able to make their workspace a family business.

Their shop, now named “Your Mom’s Favorite Tattoo Shop,” has visually changed from its “Radiant Ink” days. Bold art pieces and full murals speckled the walls, and a long glass case displayed gemstones and crystals that Weezy and Villalobos have collected.

“The guy that used to own it was never here, so everybody always thought we owned it anyway,” said Weezy. “When things went south with the previous owner, luckily we were right there and ready to take it on. Our baby is back here (in the shop), and my son is in the back playing Fortnite.”

Weezy has been tattooing for most of his life, some of his most extensive pieces being a full chest tattoo in one sitting, or alternatively, a 50-hour tattoo that spanned over a client’s whole top torso, side of the head and neck in dot-work. But according to Weezy, his history with tattoo work is more than a career.

Growing up in a rough neighborhood, tattooing was Weezy’s escape and way to avoid getting himself into trouble in his youth. Being involved in the tattoo artist community in his area exposed him to like-minded people and fellow artists.

“My area was Latino and I got to see people of my ethnicity making it in businesses and living in houses provided by those businesses,” said Weezy. “Seeing people from the same place I came from doing this, gave me hope that I could do the same.”

Outside of being involved in the local tattoo shop community, Weezy and Villalobos also are known for tattooing at music festivals. Their last venue was at a festival called Dry Diggins, where the couple was hosted as the first people to ever officially tattoo at a Reggae music festival.

Weezy also doubles as a DJ, and each show he plays gets bigger with each venue. Recently, he has DJed at rapper Riff Raff’s concert in Chico and is playing at another rapper’s, Bubba Sparxxx, show next week. And now because of the couple’s connections with music, they have been invited to another music festival in Belden, California.

“I got the OK by the guys who run it (the music festival) to open it up as also a tattoo festival,” said Weezy. “The tattoo and music world for us is colliding right now. We’re inviting all the shops here in town to come with us because we’re going to have a line up of tattoo artists.”

“Your Mom’s Favorite Tattoo Shop” will be participating in Friday the 13th festivities by offering a 30 dollar tattoo all-day sale. Any design is welcome to be brought in starting at 10 a.m., but tattoos must be line-style and around the size of a lime-slice.

More information about the shop or artists can be found on their Facebook page.