Join the Discussion "Business competition has been discussed here before - it has been said here that 'all artists have attitudes'. Some have been the brunt of pranks by competitors - having their websites hacked, having rumors spread about them, etc....At what point does someone step back and say, 'This is going over the edge'? How does a community so filled with brotherhood and camaraderie also get tainted with animosity and hatred?" AB_TATTOO

Elsewhere on the Web • *Original article from the Houston Chronicle no longer exists

We all know that businesses in direct competition with one another are going to have a certain amount of rivalry - sometimes friendly, sometimes not so affable. But what happened Monday in Houston, Texas, is competition at its worst.

Billy Earl Jones, age 52, was cleaning up the aftermath of the floods that swept through Houston last week. His studio, Southern Boys Tattoos, was not badly damaged. But Bruce Reichert, owner of B&B Fineline Tattoos, apparently wasn't so lucky. Rumor has it he lost both his home and his studio in the torrential rains. What happened after that has got people shaking their heads in wonderment.

Reichert, 44, drove by Southern Boys Tattoos earlier on Monday, June 11th. No one thought anything peculiar about this, as everyone was curious about how their competitors had weathered the storms. But later that night, around 10 p.m., Reichert returned, gun in hand, and fatally shot Mr. Jones and wounded another shop worker.

To twist this story into an even greater mystery, Reichert was found later in his truck - dead by a self-inflicted blow. There has been no indication of a suicide note as of yet.

I spoke with one of the artists at one of the two Southern Boys locations (who wished to remain anonymous) about the incident. He said that this all came as a great surprise, as there was no former animosity between the two shop owners apart from typical business dealings.

Jones leaves behind a wife and four children. He was preparing to open up a third studio in Baytown, Texas, but the floods had put a hold on the endeavor. His family and co-workers plan to continue that effort, with an estimated opening date of July 25th. The recent events may again delay those plans.