This is Leah, the owner of Arcadia Tattoo Huntsville, here to update y’all on tattooing during a pandemic and to answer any questions you might have.

Hi everybody! I’ve posted before and you might remember me from such Reddit classics like, “all tattoo shops are booked to high heaven right now”, and “no, we won’t tattoo your 13-year-old”. (True story)

I’m here to give you guys some info on tattooing regs during This Really Bad No Good Year.

Here are the main new rules according to current state mandate:

• No walk-ins. All shops are supposed to be appointment only right now.

• Only the client is allowed in the shop. No friends etc.

• Masks all around.

I’ve taken further precautions as well, by purchasing an air filter that we run while we are there, having masks available to clients just in case, obviously even more cleaning than before.

You may have noticed that shops are super booked right now. We are no exception. We are all booked until next year right now. I’m booked until April. Corin and Anna are into January.

When the shutdown happened, we were all booked a couple of months out, so rescheduling everyone, combined with having two months worth of inquiries during the shutdown, has caused us and most other shops to be pretty backlogged, hence longer wait times.

We do want to tattoo you though! In fact, I’ve been looking for more tattooers to join our little team, and help with the demand. (If you know of any, send em my way)

Tattooing during a pandemic is interesting. We all want to work - aside from the obvious need to pay our bills, we really love tattooing! But it’s also anxiety-producing at times. We don’t wanna get sick. We are really trying to juggle the risks with the getting everyone in and having happy clients.

If you have any questions about tattooing in Huntsville, the booking process, or general questions, feel free to ask me!