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Needles and Ink


 

Dear Universe,

I am sorry. I know that people send me perfectly good press releases from established local institutions and yet I continually get sidetracked by some odd little thing I saw on Twitter.

- - Village Green/Town² 

Today’s odd little thing from Twitter is this request:

If you’re someone who’s looking to open a tattoo shop please open one in harper’s choice village center in columbia, MD. There’s an empty spot that has been vacant before the pandemic. It used to be a bar then a soul food/Jamaican spot.

Does Columbia need a tattoo parlour? I don’t think we have any in Columbia, proper, although there are places one can get a tattoo in the non-Columbia part of HoCo. The reason I ask is that tattoos and the places one gets them appear to stir up attitudes and feelings in some circles. Rather like laundromats. 

These days all kinds of people get tattoos but when I was growing up they were almost a rigid class/economic divider. My mother would have said, “Nice girls don’t get tattoos.” I have lived long enough to see that’s not true, though I don’t particularly understand what motivates people to get them.

Here’s my theory: a tattoo shop in an affluent part of Columbia like River Hill would be more accepted than one in Harper’s Choice. People tend to dump on Harper’s Choice and I honestly think that a tattoo shop would be simply one more thing for them to roll their eyes over. 

Harper’s Choice blah blah blah tattoo parlor blah blah blah those people blah blah blah…

Some people won’t be happy unless there’s “that other side of town” and they can assure everyone that they don’t live there. Even in Columbia, Maryland.

The well-to-do can afford to get their tattoos anywhere. And they do. They have both the money and personal transportation. The less affluent have to save up but they don’t necessarily have transportation. Perhaps that’s what motivates a request for a place in Harper’s Choice. I don’t know.

What do you think? Do you see the presence of a tattoo parlor as something that would affect public perception of a village center? Are those old attitudes still in play? Or have we moved beyond them to a less judgmental view?

I’m always hoping for that. I’m just not convinced.

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