It is a good time to be a tattoo artist in the Hamden area. This Tuesday, Sept. 8 the Hamden town council passed a vote so tattoo parlors are no longer considered adult businesses. Prior to this, it had been really difficult to get a tattoo shop in the area because the town grouped it with sex stores and strip clubs. Now, with the coronavirus pandemic going on, it will be a bit easier for tattoo artists who want to work in the area. The pandemic has been hard enough, so now those people don’t have another annoying hoop to jump through.
Tattoo parlors have had to make up for lost time from March-May when they were completely shut down, and then during the summer with limited capacity. This has been one of the businesses that is just starting to really return to full swing, because just like many others they had to wait their turn in the line of importance.
However, some positive news for those involved in the Connecticut tattoo industry recently surfaced. Prior to this Tuesday, local tattoo places were dealing with the logistical nightmare of zoning up against those adult business rules. Now that they don’t have as strict of laws, it will be a lot easier to put a tattoo shop wherever they wish. Prior to the voting, the board even discussed how tattoo parlors are not as “taboo” as they have have been 20 years ago, and are normalized now.
The Hamden town council voted 12-1, to remove tattoo parlors from the adult businesses list, making a lot of people’s lives easier. This is great considering it’s been a logistical nightmare for a lot of residents in the area that want to eliminate their commute and have a more convenient work schedule.
“My husband loses a ton of time on his daily commute to Waterbury,” said Victoria Fortier, a Hamden resident, whose husband works at a tattoo parlor in Waterbury, Connecticut. “It would be great if he could make it for a baseball game or an afternoon concert at our kids’ school.”
Fortier was asking for understandable requests on behalf of her husband in Tuesday’s meeting, and had viable reasons for why it made more sense than what the zoning law stated.
“I had to open my tattoo studio in Waterbury five years ago,” said Wes Fortier. “This was due to the zoning regulations in Hamden, and I want these changes to be closer to my family for all of the obvious reasons stated. As You said, the industry has changed for the better a lot as well.”
The Fortier family had their request heard, and now have more liberal zoning laws that are in their favor. Only one voter opposed the change and expressed significant concern, but it was a quick yes-vote from the remaining members of the board. It seems as if they and many others will have more convenient lives thanks to these more liberal zoning laws.
“It’s really cool to see,” said Charlotte Epright, a Connecticut tattoo artist at Lovecraft in Hamden. “It seems overdue, and a lot has changed since they made the prior law. It would be cool to see it become more normal here.”
Now that COVID-19 is no longer shutting down these tattoo art businesses, and now that the zoning laws are less strict, the heavy lifting seems to be over for this local industry as normalcy seems right around the corner with all of this in the rear-view mirror.