CULLMAN, Ala. – Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey last Friday announced the rollout of the next phase of her Safer at Home Order, “Proceeding with Caution,” effective Monday, May 11, 2020. These changes are in effect until May 22, 2020 at 5 p.m. As part of the loosening of restrictions, close-contact service providers, such as barber shops, hair salons, waxing salons, threading salons, nail salons and spas, body art facilities, tattoo services, and massage therapy establishments and services were allowed to reopen, following the following precautions:
- Social distancing. Employees shall not knowingly allow clients or persons accompanying a client to congregate within 6 feet of a person from another household.
- Facial coverings. Each employee shall wear a mask, or other facial covering that covers his or her nostrils and mouth, at all times while providing services within 6 feet of a client.
- Hand sanitation.
- Employees shall wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately before providing services within 6 feet of a client.
- Employees of all close-contact service providers are encouraged—and employees providing nail services or facial services are required—to wear gloves when providing services within 6 feet of a client. To the extent employees wear gloves when providing services, they should use a new pair of gloves for each client and should put them on immediately after washing their hands.
Following its earlier reports of local salons and barber shops, The Tribune reached out to a couple of tattoo parlors Friday to see how they’re handling business during the time of COVID-19.
X-ternal X-pressions Owner Jon Hamlett shared, “We require anyone entering and all artists to wear a face mask the entire time. We do not provide clients with face masks; they are not allowed in if they do not have one.”
Hamlett does suggest an age limit for his clients.
“I suggest to those 60 and older to consider waiting until the state health board or CDC deems it OK for them at a low risk,” he said. “It’s just a suggestion, but people will do whatever they choose. No one under 18 is allowed on property due to a Vinemont (town) ordinance, so that’s always in order.”
For customers craving some ink, Hamlett said, “Appointments only, and only the client with an appointment is allowed in the building. They must wash their hands immediately and use hands sanitizer when necessary. All clients are urged to use a cashless pay system, i.e. PayPal, Cash App, Venmo, but we still do take cash and credit/debit card if needed.”
He continued, “We follow all cleaning and glove wearing procedures suggested by the state board of health on this as well. If we touch cash or debit cards with gloves, after the transaction we discard those gloves immediately and wash our hands.”
He added, “We were technically doing all of this and then some weeks prior to the shutdown.”
Dodge City Tattoo Company Artist Rene Pretorius echoed Hamlett in terms of what the business is doing, sharing, “We can’t tattoo people that have been sick or are sick are have been around someone that has been sick. That’s something the health department put into place. Stuff that we’re not putting into place is we’re not opening up our lobby. We haven’t been told that we can’t, but we’re trying to keep it down to the minimum of the amount of people that are in the shop at one time, so we’re only allowing appointments in here. We’re taking temperatures before they come in. If they have a higher temperature, we reschedule their appointment completely; we won’t even have them walk into the door. As far as consultations and stuff like that, we’re also meeting those people outside. We’re trying to only keep appointments and our artists in here.”
Pretorius shared what clients need to do when coming in for appointments: “You must come in wearing a mask; wash your hands as soon as you come in. The only place they’re allowed to hang out once they’ve come in if we’re changing or tweaking designs is in the station, once it is set up. They’ll come in, they’ll do their paperwork, we’ll have whoever is at the front wipe it down. If they go back to the bathroom, whoever is up at the front has to run back and wipe down the whole bathroom and disinfect everything, after every single person that’s been here. Whoever they had their appointment with has to walk behind them and clean up everything after they’ve left.”
Pretorius said Dodge City Tattoo Company does have some surgical masks on hand, but she urged customers to show up wearing a mask.
She also stressed Dodge City Tattoo Company is only taking appointments at this time; no walk-ins are welcome right now.
“We’re not doing walk-ins at all,” she said. “We’re just doing appointments.”
Find out more at www.facebook.com/xxpressions/ and www.facebook.com/dodgecitytattoocompany/.
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