As we all know the Governor of California has imposed yet another shut down order for personal services, gyms, restaurants hair, Nail, massage and of course tattooing. Now they have made exceptions to allow outdoor dining and some outdoor services, all except for bossiness that have to maintain hygienic environment.
Now lets think about that for a second..let us examine what hygienic means , it is defined by The Oxford English dictionary as “Conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease, especially by being clean; sanitary.”
So they chose to close hygienic business, but not all, because you can see your dentist, get laser treatment and Botox if you choose. Why are tattoo shops forced to close , you may ask? Well, it is because we are considered non- essential. Ok so would getting a mani/ pedi be essential? No it is not. Actually many of the businesses forced to closed have been categorized as non essential and many remain open that are deemed essential yet are the places that the most Covid infections have been linked to, like warehouses for garment manufacturing, food processing, restaurants, and even churches. Many of those businesses merely closed for a few days, or paid a fine and re opened. nearly 50% of all restaurants were not complying with any new safety protocols as documented by the LA County Health Dept.
I know many times I have observed going into Home Depot, Target, and places to eat where the employees are wearing filthy, blackened exam gloves cross contamination everything they touch, or masks worn by staff under their nose or chin. I have even seen the door greeters that are supposed to enforce the mask policy with a dirty mask worn with their nose hanging out, and once many customers enter stores they often pull their masks down, take them off to talk, smell, or eat things while shopping. Customers are touching everything in site and no one is monitoring them, unlike how it would be in a tattoo shop.
The difference between tattoo shops and most everywhere else is the environment is easily controlled by staff. A staff that is trained and re certified annually in disease prevention, cross contamination and blood borne pathogens. You will see artists properly wearing appropriate masks, wearing them correctly, and focusing with one on one attention to their client, ensuring that temperatures are taken, hands are washed or sanitized, masks worn correctly, and no guests, not just when they walk in, but all the way through the tattoo till they walk out the door.
You might be thinking, “So what? you’re non essential to survive this pandemic.” Well, that is where I believe that thought is wrong. Along with the Virus, we are also now dealing with social isolation, anxiety, fear of contagion, uncertainty, chronic stress, depression and economic difficulties . In the 25 + years of tattooing, I can’t count how many people use tattooing as therapy, some have jokingly called it their ” therapy” session when booking.
Many people use tattooing as a stress release, a way of emotional healing with a loss or a means to cope with grieving the death of a loved one, marking of a significant change or turning point their life ( eg. a birth, marriage, love, sobriety, and personal accomplishments). All which change a person’s state of mind during and after a tattoo, without the use of any controlled substances. With all this stress and depression, tattooing offers a safe and rewarding means of escape. Not only has tattooing been proven to help psychologically it has also been proven by a study from The America Journal of Biology, and reported on by Scientific American that getting multiple tattoos can actually strengthen your immunological responses, making it easier for your body to ward off illness. … They also looked at the levels of cortisol, a stress hormone known to suppress the immune response. As mentioned before it is a stress reliever.
Lastly, if you still don’t think tattooing is essential, well I can definitely tell you that it is essential to the people that do tattoos. For many tattooing is their only source of income and has been their only job for years. The people that rely on these artists to support them think tattooing is essential. Its not like a tattoo artist with no other job experience is going to easily get hired at McDonald, many have dedicated their whole life to art and tattooing that they have wrecked their bodies from the years of contorting just to achieve perfection. Like they can have the stamina to stand for 8 hours vs. some young kid right out of high school.
I can tell you that I feel much safer coming in contact with 1-2 clients per day in a environment that I can control, that I do going anywhere else. Over 10,000 people go through a single Target store on any given day. How safe does that make you feel?
Until The LA County Health Dept or ANY department in California keeping records of Covid infections can show me a single piece of evidence that tattoo shops contribute to the spread of Covid19, I may have a different opinion, but when the CDC puts out on their own website recent documentation of 2 hair stylists who were Positive for Covid19 with symptoms, saw 130 clients, and all the clients were quarantined and tested, that not a single of of the clients contracted it because of proper mask wearing, I’m going to continue to believe the Governor is basing his decisions on biased, not science or facts.
As of this date there are no known transmissions of Covid19 stemming from any body art facilities in the entire US, although there have been body art practitioners who have contracted Covid19, none contracted it from the work environment, nor gave it to any co workers as the incidents were isolated to exposures by secondary persons in the household.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6928e2.htm