TattooTroubles
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ
My partner and I are 2/3 owners, with our 3rd partner (we'll call him John) owning the other 3rd. Our business is a small Tattoo Studio, which is an LLC. We are both female working artists with 20 years experience and considered by the County Health Dept. to be operators because of our experience in the industry. John has been tattooing for 6 months and is considered to be an apprentice. I think he expected to be considered a working artist immediately because he is an owner, but the Health Dept. bases it on experience. His resistance to the situation has resulted in tension and misplaced aggression toward us. He is now threatening to sabotage our business. For the past few months, he has refused to lift a finger as far as running the business, and is chasing customers away out of spite. Yesterday, he verbally attacked us both, and acted like he was going to cause us physical harm, with other artists and customers present. He goes on and off his medication for anger issues, and when we started the business he made a verbal agreement that he will remain on his medication at all times. In our partnership agreement, it says that no one shall engage in any behavior that will effect the business in a negative way, and frankly we are scared he is going to hurt someone and/or ruin our reputation. We have tried to work things out with him repeatedly in the past, but we are met with anger and bullying behavior. He says that since he is a part owner, he can do whatever he wants to whomever he wants. At this point, we don't see any hope of keeping this partnership intact. We are not sure of our rights, and what actions we should take to protect ourselves and our business. Thank you for your time.
My partner and I are 2/3 owners, with our 3rd partner (we'll call him John) owning the other 3rd. Our business is a small Tattoo Studio, which is an LLC. We are both female working artists with 20 years experience and considered by the County Health Dept. to be operators because of our experience in the industry. John has been tattooing for 6 months and is considered to be an apprentice. I think he expected to be considered a working artist immediately because he is an owner, but the Health Dept. bases it on experience. His resistance to the situation has resulted in tension and misplaced aggression toward us. He is now threatening to sabotage our business. For the past few months, he has refused to lift a finger as far as running the business, and is chasing customers away out of spite. Yesterday, he verbally attacked us both, and acted like he was going to cause us physical harm, with other artists and customers present. He goes on and off his medication for anger issues, and when we started the business he made a verbal agreement that he will remain on his medication at all times. In our partnership agreement, it says that no one shall engage in any behavior that will effect the business in a negative way, and frankly we are scared he is going to hurt someone and/or ruin our reputation. We have tried to work things out with him repeatedly in the past, but we are met with anger and bullying behavior. He says that since he is a part owner, he can do whatever he wants to whomever he wants. At this point, we don't see any hope of keeping this partnership intact. We are not sure of our rights, and what actions we should take to protect ourselves and our business. Thank you for your time.