Don't color this Chameleon crazy

By Linda Scott GalokPrint Story | Email Story
Christine Burke (Photo By Linda Scott Galok)
“Part of being sane is being a little bit crazy.” — Janet Long PITTSFIELD — “Most people expect me to be weird. I am actually very normal,” said Christine Burke, owner of Crazy Chameleon, a professional piercing and tattooing business at 56 Elm St. “I go to parent teacher conferences. I do laundry. I even stand in line at the deli, just like everybody else. This business is what I do; it isn’t who I am.” Burke, a master body piercer, has tongue, eyebrow, lip, nose and ear piercings, as well as multiple tattoos, including one of a chameleon on her hand, which is only visible under black light. She also has red hair, green eyes, a few freckles, Irish charm, “infinite patience” and a phone phobia. “I won’t even call the pizza guy,” she said during a recent interview. “I do much better face to face or with answering machines.” Conducting her day-to-day business, however, requires a lot of phone time. She has overcome her phobia as well as her inherent shyness, to deal with people as far away as Portugal and Japan. “The language barrier makes me wish I had taken more foreign language classes, but somehow we manage to communicate,” she said. Burke, withan associate’s degree in accounting, bought Crazy Chameleon almost six years ago and last fall expanded into a sideline business, as a distributor of UV ink, which produces tattoos that glow under black light. “This is a relatively new development within the industry. It’s been very successful and a lot more work for us than we realized it was going to be,” she said. “I read somewhere that if you think owning your own business means three-hour lunches and copious amounts of time off, you’re crazy. I have never worked harder for anyone than I have for myself. I try to average six hours of sleep a night. Once in awhile, I even get that much.” On a typical day, she said, “I get up between 7:30 and 9 a.m. for two hours of computer work at home. When I go into the shop, I’m piercing customers, answering questions, taking phone calls, ordering inventory, packaging orders, running errands, fixing my broken shoe, cleaning the purple ink off my chair after a customer faints on me and my purple pen goes flying — you know, your typical day-to-day chaos.” She added, “I don’t sit down again until 9 or 10 at night to do another two hours of computer work. Sometimes I can even squeeze in time to escape into a book before I fall asleep. One of the advantages of working for yourself is that you can do some of your work while you drink your coffee in your fuzzy purple bathrobe. But there are disadvantages. too. When you work at home, you can’t ever really get away from the job, especially when your husband and kids work for you, too.” Burke’s husband, Bob, is a former tattoo artist and the Web master for Crazy Chameleon’s Web site, www.piercings.net. He gave Burke her first tattoo, which runs from the top of her thigh to her knee, isn’t completely finished yet and may not ever be “done,” she said. “Most of the time, he works at home and I work at the shop, so we don’t spend any more time together than the average couple. That’s why it works so well and probably why he’s my best friend. People would look at him and think he would never be one of those supportive guys, but he absolutely is that guy,” she said. “When I wanted to buy this business six years ago, I went home and said, ‘Bob, I’m taking a home equity loan on the house. I’m buying the business and a car.’ He said, ‘OK.’ A year later, he got hurt at work. When he was ready to go back, the company wanted to put him in a different position. He said, ‘Honey, I don’t think I can do that. I think I could work for you.’ I said OK.” Burke said her mother set the couple up on a blind date when she was 14. “I didn’t like him right away. and I didn’t marry him until after the kids were born. We have our ups and downs, just like any couple, but we are always supportive of each other.” Burke makes it clear, however, that she and her husband don’t own Crazy Chameleon together. “He works for me,” she said. “It was awkward at first, but now he and my boys line up to greet me at the front door every Friday night with their hands out — that’s payday,” she said. “I’m what people think of as the typical ‘dad.’ I get home, flop down on the couch, play with the kids, make a mess and hand out money.” The couple has two children, Andrew, 15, and Brendan, 11, and, according to her, “the luck of the Irish.” “We’ve been fortunate that we never had to put our kids in day care, in spite of the fact that we both worked full-time and sometimes more than one job at a time over the years. I haven’t spent as much time as I would have liked with my kids, but they’re growing up fine, and I still like my 15-year-old — how many parents of teenagers can say that?” she asked. “I never thought this is what I would be doing at almost 35. I always pictured myself as a bookkeeper. I was the only child of a federal auditor and a teacher. My dad died suddenly when I was 17, my mom died after a long illness when I was 24. I have my family, including the people who work here, but I wish my father had been able to meet my children. I think that would have really rocked.” She said tattooing and body piercing are no longer considered rebellious but “a new family bonding experience.” “Mothers and daughters come in for matching navel piercings, or fathers and sons to get their first tattoos. My customers range in age from 10 to 75, but at least once a week I get the 40-50-year-old customer whose spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other ‘doesn’t know I’m here and I want a fill-in-the-blank tattoo or piercing.’ It’s now an acceptable way to mark life’s important milestones.” At 6 Friday night, a carload of customers called for directions. Vincent English gave Burke an update on the day’s events and handed over the cordless phone before leaving for the day. Jim Cichowski was tattooing flowering ivy on the top of a customer’s foot, while her friends, given permission, watched him work. Eryn Kelly had Friday off, but a list, decorated in pink hearts, hung on Burke’s bulletin board, a constant reminder that Kelly appreciated her as a boss and friend. Brittany Daly, 17, was Burke’s next customer. “It’s not a special occasion,” she said. “I had my belly button pierced, and I’ve wanted to get my nose pierced for a long time, so I’m finally doing it.” Daly picked out the nose stud, and Burke led Daly to a curtained room with a chair similar to those found in doctors’ examining rooms. Cleaning and sterilization commenced — soap and water for Burke’s hands, a Q-tip and antiseptic for Daly’s nose, inside and out. “Ever had your nose professionally picked before?” Burke asked her. “You have now. …You’re going to feel me tap the needle, and then it will all be over.” She inserted the 2-inch needle to open the hole for the stud, and Daly’s eyes immediately began watering. “That hurt really bad,” she said. Burke agreed. “I thought the nose was probably the most painful of all the piercings I’ve had,” she said. “But the hardest part is going to be figuring out where to put your thumb to blow your nose.” For perhaps the hundredth time that week, she continued with a series of directions and handed Daly a list of instructions, with a stern admonition: “Read these because I mean them.” “I am a very patient person, except when it comes to people who pierce thinking they know how but don’t and I have to clean up their mess,” she explained. “But I almost always see the good in people and give everyone the benefit of the doubt, along with fifth, sixth and seventh chances. “I’ve been burned but I’ve also been extremely lucky,” she said. “Good help is hard to find, and you can’t teach good customer service. Everything else is teachable, but you can’t teach people how to be nice. I am exceptionally fortunate with an amazing crew right now. Luckily, I’ve never made a mistake that couldn’t be easily corrected.” Unlike chameleons that have the ability to change the color of their skin with the temperature, light and their emotional level, Burke, being fair skinned, doesn’t have the ability to hide how she really feels most of the time. “It takes a lot to make me blush, but I always turn red when I’ve been crying,” she said. “When you’re in business for yourself, some days are easier than others. The best part of this job is that it’s way more responsibility and I’m much more in control of what happens. …The worst part of this job is that it’s way more responsibility and I’m much more in control of what happens.” Color it happy or label it crazy, but patience, optimism, hard work and being nice are clearly working at the Crazy Chameleon.
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Friends of Great Barrington Libraries Holiday Book Sale

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Friends of Great Barrington Libraries invite the community to shop their annual Holiday Good-as-New Book Sale, happening now through the end of the year at the Mason Library, 231 Main Street. 
 
With hundreds of curated gently used books to choose from—fiction, nonfiction, children's favorites, gift-quality selections, cookbooks, and more—it's the perfect local stop for holiday gifting.
 
This year's sale is an addition to the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce's Holiday Stroll on this Saturday, Dec. 13, 3–8 PM. Visitors can swing by the Mason Library for early parking, browse the sale until 3:00 PM, then meet Pete the Cat on the front lawn before heading downtown for the Stroll's shopping, music, and festive eats.
 
Can't make the Holiday Stroll? The book sale is open during regular Mason Library hours throughout December.
 
Proceeds support free library programming and events for all ages.
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