Ok, so it’s also a tale of two tattoo studios. One which has already opened, and one that has hit a stone wall. The interesting thing is that both of them are in the same state, Ohio, and just goes to show that even if you are an artist, what you want to do may just boil down to the old business saw of; “Location, location, location.”
Chris Sims, owner of Pure Skin Tattoos, recently had his dreams of opening a studio denied by the Grandview Heights planning commission when he applied for a permit to operate inside the city.
The decision to deny what would have been the first tattoo studio in Grandview Heights in a split vote of 3-2 came after a local dentist expressed concerns about the kind of clientele a tattoo studio would attract to the area.
Now, we all know that we of the tattoo community are just a bunch of drugged up, uneducated, rapists, thieves and sociopaths who would like nothing more than to plunder the entire city after we get our new ink. Don’t we?
Still, I’m betting that Dr. Seuss there wouldn’t turn down a potential patient if they were sleeved out, or as Chris was wont to say, “I have clients that go to him for their dental work. He wants their money, but he doesn’t want a shop in town that caters to them.”
Go figure.
Then there is Matty “McTatty” Matlock, owner of Peptide Tattoo in Carlisle, OH. Not only did the city of Carlisle welcome Matty with open arms, but apparently the shop is located beside regular upscale commercial businesses. And area where children and seniors are constantly walking by.
Matty’s studio is deliberately low key, and from all accounts looks more like an office space than what John Q. Public would consider a “tattoo parlor.” But, I don’t think that is the only reason that Matty was able to put his business up where Chris got stonewalled.
I think that just like Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” what you have here is one city that is reasonable, and knows that any commerce means another blow against an ailing economy. While you have another city that is populated by a bunch of short sighted reactive assholes.
Oh, yeah. Hey, Dr. Seuss! I’ll bet you can tell what uneducated, sociopath I am. I actually read Dickens for God’s sake!!