ARTIST ACHIEVES HIS DOWNTOWN DREAM.
In the early 1990s, Casper Geist served in the Air Force at MacDill fueling F-16 fighter jets. At the time, the base was the home of five squadrons. “I got out of the military, and didn’t know what I was going to do, so I started playing with computers,” Geist said. “And self-taught myself through all of my Microsoft and Novell certifications, then became a network engineer.” He worked in the field for eight years. However, he found the work to be too structured and he became bored with it.
“I’ve been an artist all my life,” he said. “Skip, my best friend, was a tattoo artist.” Tattooing drew Geist because he saw the art in it.
“I worked in Ybor City, but I wanted to be somewhere that was more like home in Georgia. Plant City was the first place I found that I got that feeling from,” he said. “It was a great decision too, by the way. I love Plant City. I love the people. I love the places. I love everything about Plant City.” So much so that he has lived in Plant City for 25 years.
Geist bought the building at 111 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in 2012 with the intent to live upstairs and run a tattoo shop downstairs. “I probably wouldn’t have bought a historic building with an upstairs and a downstairs if I wasn’t going to do it,” he said.
So, in 2012, Geist pursued opening his tattoo shop at the location. However, a city ordinance prohibited tattoo establishments in downtown. “We tried to convince them to allow us to open, and we sent them packages showing them the other tattoo shops we opened and what they looked like, and the quality of them.” Geist couldn’t persuade the city government to permit him to open. “So, we sued them and entered a legal battle. We ended up just dropping the battle. I didn’t want to make permanent enemies out of anybody. The expenses for the attorneys were getting so high, it wasn’t worth it at that time. It’s how people feel about it. It’s how people see it, and how people see it portrayed in movies—tattoo shops scare them.”
In 2016, Geist defaulted to opening his business, Dixie Station, in rented space near, but not in, downtown, but he didn’t give up. “In 2020, we had been talking to Bill McDaniel,” Geist said. “He did an Artist’s Spotlight on us with Fryed Egg Productions. Bill had been trying to do everything he could for better optics, and for the rest of the city to see what we see. Right before we were supposed to meet to go over things, Covid hit, and nothing happened for four years after that. The last two years, we have been positioning to revisit the city. That got cut short after storms Helene and Milton. We got hit pretty hard by Milton. The building got damaged. The landlord decided he didn’t want to extend our lease, and gave us 30 days to vacate. The day I got that letter, I went to talk to Bill. I told him my back was against the wall, and this was my only option, or I would have to leave town. Bill’s answer was, ‘Let’s get it done.’” The city ordinance had to be changed to open the tattoo shop. At the January 27 city commission meeting, more than 25 people came to the hearing to support Geist. Among those who advocated for the ordinance change were two pastors at the Crossing Church. Geist and his wife, Jessica, are youth leaders at the church. “We’ve been there a little over a year,” he said. “We try to do good by everybody, and that rubs off on people, I am really humbled, and we are very fortunate to have that. I am a 52-year-old man, and I have never had so many men say so many good things about me in one place. One of our friends convinced us to come to the Plant City campus, and we did. And they changed our lives. I have never been happier or more at peace in my life.”
“It truly did, Jessica added. “It’s the best decision we’ve made. They are wholesome—accepting—they love you for who you are.”
The commission passed the ordinance change on February 10 with a 5-0 vote. “The times have changed,” Casper commented. “The political climate is different. What is acceptable, and what is not, has changed. I would say that tattoos have become more accepted. More normalized. They are actually seen as art, and not a seedy business that operates in the back of a head shop somewhere.”
“We are really, really grateful that our city commissioners represented us the way they did, and feel the way they do about us as a family, and as a business,” Jessica said. She has an associate’s degree in business and has been tattooing for three years.
The new location started with four employees, including Casper and Jessica. Since its opening in March, the business has added five more tattoo artists. Dixie Station sees an average of 20 people in it’s chairs a day.
“I draw every day,” Casper said. “I draw whether I want to or not. I have to draw—all of our tattoos are one-offs. You don’t see any designs on the wall or anything like that. So every tattoo we do in here is a one-off tattoo. We don’t rely on pre-made designs or flash. It has been that way since I started tattooing.”
Casper’s plans for the future are, “….doing amazing tattoos and helping the community as much as possible.” Casper, Jessica, and the other seven artists, lend aid with different things in Plant City, like supporting families identified by Code Enforcement that need to repair their houses, and partnering with a barbershop to sponsor children’s back–to-school haircuts, free backpacks, and school supplies.
