A ‘forgotten’ industry: Hope springs eternal for UK tattoo artists following ‘disheartening’ lockdowns

It’s been a difficult year for tattoo artists across the country, but a surge in demand shows there’s reasons to be cheerful, reports Kate Ng

Tattoo artist Tam Hadfield, from Heaven n Hell tattoo studios in Falkirk, pictured in July (PA)

With the coronavirus pandemic came a sudden slew of restrictions that forced businesses big and small to come to a grinding, shuddering halt. But for the tattoo industry, that sudden halt would turn into a a slow plodding march through extended and repeated lockdowns.

Tattoo parlours were among a list of close-contact businesses that were among the last to reopen after the first lockdown in the UK. While restaurants, pubs, hairdressers and other non-essential retail shops reopened in early July, tattoo parlours, nail bars, beauty salons, and gyms had to wait a short while longer before they could welcome customers in again.

Tattoo parlours were told they must follow strict social distancing guidelines, wear PPE, and introduce rigorous cleaning regimes for surfaces and tools to make the venue Covid-secure. However, reputable tattoo parlours already follow similar hygiene rules – which made it all the more baffling as to why they had to remain closed for longer than the pubs.

Richard Mullaney, co-owner of The Mirfin & Mullaney Tattoo Collective in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, told The Independent his studio only had to move a few things around to make it Covid-secure.

“My partner and I tend to do larger pieces, full back or chest pieces or sleeves (full arm), so most of our clients will book in for a full day at the studio,” he said. “This is the issue I had with lockdown, when other things were opening, common sense would tell me we’d be low risk – we have three artists working in separate rooms on one person per day, plus PPE – but Wetherspoons could open and we had to stay closed.”

According to the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, tattoo artists should receive training in standard principles for infection prevention and control, such as good hand hygiene, the use of PPE, management of exposure to bloods and bodily fluids, and disinfection of the environment.

“We run a clean, professional studio where everything is sterilised and disinfected constantly,” said Mr Mullaney. “We just had to tweak a few things to cover the airborne nature of Covid-19, so we got rid of the waiting room, staggered appointment times, separated each session into different rooms, run temperature checks on customers before they enter the studio.

“I know tattoos are a non-essential service, but I’ve still got a family to feed. I’ve still got to pay for nursery for my three-year-old, that’s £55 a day, bills are still coming in, there’s been no rent break, no break in paying insurance. It’s all been quite disheartening.”

We have three artists working in separate rooms on one person per day, plus PPE – but Wetherspoons could open and we had to stay closed

Richard Mullaney, co-owner of The Mirfin & Mullaney Tattoo Collective

Frank Carter, who opened the Rose of Mercy in East London just days before lockdown hit, agreed, adding that good and responsible tattoo artists are reasonably well-versed in disease control, considering they deal with blood-borne pathogens all the time.

He said: “In order to get a license as a tattoo artist, you have to understand cross-contamination, you have to understand malpractices. We’ve been trained in PPE for most of our professional lives.

“I understand the complications with travel, households mixing – but in our shops, we’ve got four stations that are all two metres apart and we’ve even been taking it down to three recently to get the extra space – it’s hard to know how much more you can do.”

Tattoo artists, and others working in creative industries, were also angered by suggestions from ministers that they could retrain as something else if jobs were scarce.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak faced outrage in October after an interview with ITV News, in which he was asked what help was available for people working in the arts sectors, which have been brought to their knees by the pandemic.

He replied that the government had allocated £1.5bn in funding to help independent cinemas and independent music venues, but added that there were extra resources being put into “trying to create new opportunities for people”.

“As in all walks of life, everyone is having to adapt,” said Mr Sunak. “Everyone is having to find new ways to adapt and adjust to the new reality and that is what we have to do. And that’s why we’re allowing that to happen but also providing new opportunity for people if that is the right vehicle for them.”

Mr Mullaney said the suggestion was a “kick in the teeth” and “insulting” - especially coupled with the re-emergence of a government advert that suggested a ballet dancer could retrain as an IT worker.

“My personal feeling is that your average Tory MP hasn’t been in a tattoo studio, so they think it’s frivolous but it’s not like that,” he said. “It’s a big multimillion pound industry and we feel forgotten about.”

But there is reason for the industry to be optimistic. Following the first lockdown, people rushed to tattoo parlours to get inked and tattoo artists reported waiting lists growing from two months long to eight.

Even novice tattoo artists such as Georgina Leung, who joined the industry just under a year ago as a stick-and-poke artist, are experiencing a surge in demand for tattoos.

Ms Leung told The Independent she received requests for tattoo sessions throughout both lockdowns, which she found “bizarre”.

“A lot of my customers are quite young and perhaps less likely to know people who are at risk of contracting the virus, but it’s like, where have you been?” she said.

“My observation has been that lockdown encouraged people to get tattoos more so than ever, perhaps it’s because they’ve had time to think about self-improvement and self-help practices.

“I saw a bit of a peak post-lockdown, it was quite a busy period. I’ve got 80 people on my waiting list, which gives me anxiety because I don’t operate full time, that’s only ticking off a couple of people a week because my method is a lot slower.”

Mr Carter described the flurry of tattoo bookings in his studio as “a return to normal life on steroids”.

“People were desperate to get tattooed. It’s not really been a long time, only three months, but it was as if they had been told they could get tattooed for the first time. That was really promising and it felt really, really good, like a really healthy, flourishing return for the industry and for us, it was beautiful because we were seeing our shop full and busy.

“I think we’ll see that across most industries, especially arts and creative ones where people have really felt their freedom being questioned. In my other job as a musician, I know in that first summer when we get a festival, it’s going to be like no summer we’ve ever seen. Historically, the tail end of the Spanish flu, what came right after that was the roaring twenties so we’re in for a really good time – if we can all hang on, we’ve got a really bright future.”