The Town of Newburgh welcomed new business Royal Ink to the Target Plaza on Wednesday, December 27. Owner Ralfie Balbuena was joined by his wife Katherine Ferri-Balbuena, their children, immediate and extended family, friends, supporters and other guests as they held a celebratory ribbon cutting.

Royal Ink, owned by Balbuena, is a new tattoo shop in the town, along with a barbershop component in the space. Balbuena also owns the Royal Cutz Barbershop, which operates in the Newburgh Mall.

Reflecting on his journey to the opening, Balbuena first started cutting hair at the age of 11 and he would cut his own hair and his friend’s hair while growing up in the city. Years later, the business itself first made its name while on Liberty Street in the City of Newburgh about nine years ago. In the early days, Balbuena reflected on when he used to advertise haircuts at $10 on specific days and even offered haircuts for free to those who could not afford it.

The business would eventually move from Liberty to Broadway, and then another move by Balbuena led the business to the Newburgh Mall and Royal Cutz has made the mall its home for the past four years. Now, with a new venture, Balbuena is grateful to the town government for its continued support since first arriving and welcomes customers, new and old, to stop by and enjoy a quality experience.

“They’ve [the town] been supporters of us from the beginning. They always come around, they do what needs to be done for the businesses, especially small businesses like us,” he said. “I feel blessed and great to be able to open this business [Royal Ink] and in the Town of Newburgh. I look at this and I’m like, you know, we came a long way.”

Ferri-Balbuena expressed pride and joy for her husband as the new business officially took off Thursday afternoon. For her, she has been on this journey with Balbuena since the beginning at Liberty Street.

“I’m very proud of everything that he’s accomplished over the past few months, just trying to get this place up and running. He ran into a few roadblocks with permits and the wall that we had to put up to divide the two spaces, and he got it done, and just kept persevering,” she said.