LUBBOCK, Texas — Tattoo shops were just one of many businesses that were deemed non-essential and had to close their doors due to the Coronavirus.
Owner of Sunken City Ink, Mike Diaz, said for many of his clients, getting a tattoo is therapeutic.
“It’s a release for some people it’s like therapy,” Diaz said. “Just like how some people are perscribed a massage to release toxins from the body, tattoos do the exact same thing.”
Diaz said when Governor Gregg Abbott gave the green light for hair salons and barbershops to open, it was frustrating that tattoo shops had to hold off.
“We have to sanitize after every client,” Diaz said. “We’ve been doing the procedures that are Coronavirus precautions before it even happened but all of a sudden we’re not up to par when it comes to opening up and being with everyone else, so that was really frustrating.”
Once tattoo shops were allowed to reopen, Chris Paine, said he made an appointment to get a tattoo with Diaz to honor his daughter and late mother.
Paine said in addition to getting a new tattoo, it was nice to do something that felt normal, for once.
Human interaction is a huge part of it,” Paine said. “That effects your emotional and physical health, you need human interaction, and I think this is just one more aspect of that.”
