Azbell sells electronics to customers worldwide, including the U.S. military. Colbert has cultivated a cult following in the world of taste, even inking celebrities who like his style.

Colbert, owner of Infamous Ink, took a road trip to Vancouver, Canada, where rapper and pitchman Snoop Dogg needed personal attention.

Azbell and Colbert may not have crossed paths, but they did share a space problem. Neither was enough. Azbell, whose father founded Azbell Electronics in 1945, solved his problem by moving from his longtime home in South Waco on Speight Avenue and Interstate 35 to South Loop 340 in Robinson.

Colbert liked what he saw in Azbell’s old house and made a deal to buy it. He’ll spend “probably more than I can recoup” to turn it into Infamous Ink’s new digs. But Colbert said the venue will become a “hangout place,” much more than a tattoo and piercing shop, but without the baggage that term sometimes carries. Leveraging its relationships with entertainers in the music world, it plans to host live events, offer family-friendly games on the patio or lawn, and serve food and non-alcoholic beverages. State law says tattoo parlors and adult beverages shouldn’t mix.

Colbert said it will have enough parking to accommodate tour buses and other large vehicles that may enter the facility.

Once the newly minted Infamous Ink is up and running, likely in late January or early February, Colbert will close its Lake Air Drive location.

Colbert said he likes the new location’s proximity to the Baylor University campus, Interstate 35 and the popular George’s Restaurant. He said this should not only broaden Infamous Ink’s appeal to the general public, but also give companion customers something to do while they wait.

“This doesn’t take 15 minutes,” Colbert said of the tattoo process. “The average duration is a few hours, with larger ones taking up to 10 hours.”

Colbert said a simple tattoo can cost as little as $60, but some clients opt for an ongoing tattoo process that takes years and costs $50,000 or more.

Accordingly Worldmetrics.orgThe tattoo industry has become a $1.6 billion business, and 36% of U.S. adults ages 18 to 29 have at least one tattoo. Forty percent of Millennials have a tattoo, while 36 percent of Gen Xers and 13 percent of Baby Boomers have tattoos, the website reports. The most common reason to get a tattoo is to honor a loved one. Women are more likely than men to regret their tattoos (48% to 38% respectively).

Although Azbell Electronics dates back to 1945, Billy Azbell Sr. founded the store in 1950 to sell and repair radios, television sets and other consumer electronics. This was a time when Azbell and other TV repairmen would make house calls and deal with simpler problems around the home.

By the 1960s, Azbell Sr. moved into commercial electronics such as audio and video systems, and within a decade he added the store, building a metal building next to it. The company demolished the original building after a fire in 2013 and renovated the metal building as its main store.

Azbell Jr. Azbell Electronics worked with Waco-based L.L. Sams & Sons Church Furniture until the early 2000s to undertake renovation projects in more than 30 states, with Azbell installing audio systems and later video systems, a fact sheet said.

Azbell Sr. He died in 1996 and Azbell Jr. He became CEO. The company soon added the US military to its customer list, installing command and control systems at bases around the world. That work took the company to bases in the United States, South Korea, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and NATO headquarters in Belgium, Azbell said.

The largest contract Azbell Electronics has ever awarded involves designing, building, delivering and fielding new mobile command posts at the division level and to U.S. Army units around the world, he said.

“We designed and manufactured almost 1,900 electronic command and control systems for this contract, our largest overall contract,” Azbell said.

At Baylor University’s Paul L. Foster Business and Innovation Campus, the company installed and programmed entire classroom audio-video systems, auditorium audio and video systems, and video teleconferencing systems.

“This is the biggest project we’ve ever done,” Azbell said.

With a customer base dominated by business, houses of worship, education and the military, the company needed a larger facility. He chose a building twice the size at 5002 S. Loop 340 and completed the move.

Azbell said he thinks President Donald Trump’s second administration will create an increase in military spending, and Azbell Electronics is poised to benefit from that.

Between locations in Waco and Belton, Azbell Electronics employs up to 80 people, depending on contract size and number.