Toronto tattoo and coffee shop run by twin sisters closing permanently after 10 years

A Toronto tattoo and coffee shop operated by a pair of twin sisters for over nine years will soon be permanently closing.

Opened in May 2012, Jinks Art Factory encompasses fashion, coffee and tattoos all under one roof. Sarah Wetmore heads up the coffee shop side of things, while her identical twin sister Jen Gibson is the shop's resident tattoo artist.

The tattoo aspect of their shop has been closed for 10 months due to lockdowns, but Gibson will still continue to tattoo once mandated closures lift and will be letting clients know where she will be tattooing beyond Jinks, which should still be somewhere in the Parkdale area.

Wetmore is going to take the summer to spend time with family and work on her next entrepreneurial project which will be announced later.

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"We've grown and learned so much over the past decade and made it through many ups and downs over the years," the sisters wrote in a closing announcement post on social media.

"But now it's time to close this chapter and start the next journey of our lives. We want to thank everyone for their support, especially over the past year which has been so difficult for us and many other small businesses."

The last day for Jinks will be June 30, and they're planning on having lots of sales over the course of the month.

"After nine years we feel it's time to close up our Tattoo and Coffee shop to focus on our individual projects," Gibson tells blogTO.

"We are thankful we were able to keep the cafe operating during the past 15 months of the pandemic and we are so grateful to have such amazing clientele over the past nine years."

Gibson and Wetmore have been working the coffee bar since the first lockdown in March 2020, and with only two staff since June 2020.

"Without the business operating as both a tattoo and coffee shop it's just not the same," says Gibson.

"It seems like Toronto is about to open back up slowly, but there is still risk of future lockdowns. It's just time to make changes and we feel it's a positive move for our business and personally."