Vanessa Garabedian and Lorenzo Martinez are the owners of an independent bookstore, Bookish, located in the Tower District. Yet, its shelves hold more than high fantasy, techno-thriller and historical fiction; the space collides unexpectedly, as the storefront is also a tattoo studio.
The Beginning
Garabedian and Martinez initially met at Roosevelt High School where they graduated in 2004. Their only interaction came from an art class they shared, and they did not reconnect until Garabedian sought Martinez for a tattoo years later.
“I finally got the courage to ask about a tattoo back in 2014 and didn’t go through with it. He had made a drawing and everything,” Garabedian said.
This came from the stigma of having a tattoo in professional workplace environments. After further contemplation, she returned a year later in 2015.
“I was in a position to, like, you know, what I’m gonna do what I want,” Garabedian said. “I’m not having anyone telling me like, oh, you can’t get a tattoo.”
After some conversations, she invited Martinez to a mini-high school reunion. This led to their relationship starting in 2016. Even then, it was not until 2017 that Garabedian received her first tattoo by Martinez.
In 2021, Martinez searched for a space to set up his tattoo studio. Inspired by Garabedian’s growing book collection, he encouraged her to start a bookstore. Martinez expanded on their work relationship as they juggled two distinct businesses.
“She’s like the queen bee,” Martinez said. “That’s kind of like she has a vision going on too, as well. And so I try to follow that for her, because it is, even though I helped her out with her business. This is, you know, she’s CEO.”
What came to fruition was Bookish, but it didn’t come without its challenges. Garabedian and Martinez did many pop-up shops to encourage the storefront.
“It was really a hard struggle in the beginning to get people to follow your page and come to your shop,” Garabedian said. “Here’s a new little random bookstore with random Instagram that, you know, no one knows about.”
However, Garabedian and Martinez can now stand on the fruits of their labor.
The Now
Now, Bookish shines through its slogan. It is devoted to “spreading love one page at a time.” This is seen in their Trade-In program, handmade bookmarks, page holders and other reading amenities.
During holidays, the shop transforms. On Halloween, a reader can find a collection of Garabedian’s coveted collection of Goosebumps by R.L. Stine in English and other languages like Spanish. To both Garabedian and Martinez, a physical book unplugs the mind.
Garabedian explained that many people consider North Palm Avenue to be the end of the Tower District. Being located on West Olive Avenue and North Fruit Avenue she hopes with the bookstore and varied clients she can demonstrate more of what the Tower District offers.
“This way, people change their frame of mind that, oh, that’s not the end of Tower,” Garabedian said. “There’s still stuff on this side that you know you’re missing out on.”
At the same time, Martinez described how Bookish influences his job as a tattoo artist.
“When they’re done, they kind of have this, like, afterglow feeling, because, one, they’ve just finished getting tattooed,” Martinez said. “So they’re like, on this mountain, you know? And if I just, like, subconsciously put reading in their head, it kind of picks up, yeah, sometimes it doesn’t, but sometimes they’ll look around and then they’ll snag something.”
The Future
In the coming months, they hope to expand the genres into specific selections, which will divide them into multiple subgenres. For example, “fantasy” is categorized as low fantasy, high fantasy, dark fantasy, romance fantasy, etc.
Garabedian and Martinez said that this system helps readers find books that suit their particular tastes.
These tastes amplify the atmosphere they hope to create, one that has coffee.
Martinez explains their current venture into selling drinks.
“I’ve actually been reading books on coffee and just trying to, like, read the history about it, and just so that way, like, when it comes to that, we know what we’re selling, what we’re doing,” Martinez said.
What they want most is for Bookish to become a space where one can show up, browse for a novel, possibly schedule a tattoo session, then stop, sip a cup of coffee and enjoy the calm ambiance.
Hopefully, the customer won’t have to wait a couple of years to get the coffee, like Garabedian with her tattoo appointment.
Bringing these two passions together, Garabedian and Martinez embody a love for spreading knowledge, one tattoo and one book at a time.
