As Wicked Goddess readied for its March 1 opening in the Shops at Avenir Place, founder Rachel Mantha admits she was nervous about how the community would react.

To her relief, residents and other businesses have been fully supportive of the tattoo and body piercing shop since it opened at 2672 Avenir Place, where it sits between a Tropical Smoothie Cafe and MyEyeDr just steps from the Dunn Loring Metro station.

“The local neighborhoods have been super welcoming of us, actually,” Mantha told FFXnow last week. “I was a little concerned whether or not we’d be accepted. You know, tattoo shops…kind of get a bit of a bad rap, but the locals have like been super, super great [about] our presence and stuff there.”

An 11-year veteran of the body art industry who specializes in piercings, Mantha hopes to foster a similarly accepting environment at Wicked Goddess for customers and her all-female team of artists.

As an independent contractor, she was already working under the company name while employed by a different tattoo shop in Fairfax County, but about four years ago, she started contemplating launching her own brick-and-mortar location.

At the time, the body art world was grappling with allegations of abuse, racism and sexual misconduct, as the #MeToo movement spurred customers and artists to share their experiences in an industry that prides itself on being self-regulating and “edgy.”

While she didn’t detail specific experiences, Mantha says many of the artists now at Wicked Goddess came from shops “where not-so-great practices have been established.”

“There’s been a lot of unfortunate events, I guess, is the best way to put it,” she said. “…Unfortunately, a lot of our clients have kind of been in that same boat too, where they came out of a tattoo or a body modification situation feeling like they weren’t heard or like they weren’t actually represented appropriately in their service.”

Wicked Goddess aspires to provide an alternative, inclusive space for female and LGBTQ individuals, as well as people from different cultures. Many of Mantha’s Muslim clients, for instance, will only work with female artists, she says.

Mantha started planning the shop and researching potential locations in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when businesses were required to close. The lack of existing tattoo or piercing shops in the Dunn Loring area and its proximity to Metro made Avenir Place a good fit.

“We wanted to be in a place that was underserved more or less,” Mantha said, noting that many clients and even some staff members “don’t necessarily drive…So, we do get a lot of clients that just having Metro access is super important to them.”

Open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week, Wicked Goddess has six service bays and currently employs three tattoo artists, along with Mantha as the piercing specialist and a shop manager who’s also Mantha’s apprentice.

The shop is open to walk-in customers, but Mantha recommends that anyone interested in a specific artist make an appointment, since they can get booked up quickly.

While there are no plans at the moment for additional locations, the shop could expand as it adds more artists and potentially outgrows the approximately 1,500-square-foot space.

“Our base has grown in the last few weeks, it seems, and our presence is much better known, which is just really exciting,” Mantha said. “I think everybody is just excited to kind of take on this new project and be a part of something that’s not common in the industry.”

Haley Vananh is ready to lay down her scissors.

The owner of Charles’ Barber Shop will permanently shut down the small hair-cutting outlet tucked in the back of Vienna’s Cedar Park Shopping Center at the end of August, she confirmed to FFXnow.

Vananh took over the barbershop about seven years ago, but the store has been at 272 Cedar Lane since at least the 1980s under three previous owners, including the late founder Charles Wright.

A business profile for the store indicates that it was founded in 1984. Vananh says Wright opened it after serving in the Navy.

“I don’t know much about the history here. I just know stories from customers, older customers,” Vananh said. “They tell me…this barber shop been here since this shopping center opened.”

While she has loved running the store, Vananh says it has become unsustainable since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, upending customers’ habits even as rent keeps going up.

With more people working from home, customers have been inclined to go three to four months between haircuts, rather than getting one every few weeks, according to Vananh. She says kids have also been letting their hair grow longer.

At the same time, rent for the 525-square-foot space has been increasing every year. With the current lease concluding on Aug. 31, Vananh says she unsuccessfully asked the landlord for a reduced price, noting that the business’ location inside the shopping center makes it tricky for customers to find.

First Washington Realty, which owns Cedar Park, didn’t return FFXnow’s requests for comment.

Vananh told FFXnow she has enjoyed the freedom of running her own business, and many regular customers have become more like friends, but considering the challenges facing the shop, she believes the time has come to retire.

“[It’s a] little bit sad, but…after I pay for the rent and utilities, there’s not much left. So, why do it?” Vananh said. “I keep telling my customers: try to understand, if I work for somebody else three days a week, I make more money than I do today, and now, I work six to seven days a week.”

The nation’s largest beauty retailer now has a location in Tysons.

Ulta Beauty will open its doors in Pike 7 Plaza (8387A Leesburg Pike) at 10 a.m. today (Friday) for a soft launch. A grand opening has been scheduled for April 11.

“We’re excited to join the area and start servicing both customers and clients,” Shanyce Chambers, the Tysons store’s service manager, said.

Adjacent to Staples, the new store is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

In addition to selling beauty products, including cosmetics, fragrances, and skin care items, the 9,749-square-foot store features an eight-chair hair salon and a “brow bar,” according to an Ulta Beauty spokesperson.

Pike 7 Plaza property owner Federal Realty Investment Trust announced in August that Ulta Beauty would open a store at the shopping center this spring. This is Ulta Beauty’s fifth store in the Fairfax County area, joining locations in Fairfax’s Fair City Mall, Springfield, Fair Lakes Shopping Center and Bailey’s Crossroads.

According to the property website, Pike 7 Plaza has leased a 3,605-square-foot space to the upcoming restaurant Ingle Korean Steakhouse, and the chain Grill Kabob obtained a commercial gas permit from Fairfax County on March 14 for its new location in the center.

Federal Realty got the county’s approval on March 8 to build a drive-thru restaurant facility in the Pike 7 Plaza parking lot. Representatives for the property owner previously stated that the new building will be occupied by Shake Shack.