Meet the Owners: Creative Destruction

Editor's note: Meet the Owner is a regular Patch feature spotlighting South Tampa's small business owners. Want to be featured next or have a business to recommend? Post a comment below or email us at southtampa@patch.com.

500 S. Howard Ave., Suite E

813-443-5585

creativedestructionenterprise.com/

Opened: The store opened July 2011, but Creative Destruction was founded by CEO Daniel Fernandez a year earlier. In the ensuing year, "We were building up product," said co-owner Cameron Barbas, "we were learning how to manufacture shoes, we were building the foundation. It's a lot of planning."

Product line: T-shirts, shoes, hats, and women's underwear decorated with images designed by award-winning tattoo artists. 

Artistic integrity: Barbas said Creative Destruction's philosophy is to "avoid the stereotypes that you might normally get. We don't want just your traditional Gothic, skull-and-crossbone tattoo artwork. We're trying to go after the respect and integrity of the artists' work, so we don't fall into any trend." Toward that end, Barbas said Creative Destruction's five tattoo artists have total artistic freedom. "They can create whatever they want," he said. "When you have a good artist, people don't care if he's trendy, they just care about the artwork." 

Why "Creative Destruction?": "Our slogan is "create, destroy, conquer,"" said Barbas. "We're trying to produce an innovative company that's completely combining the tattoo art community with the business community."

Check them out on Facebook.