Maryland Phase Two: Tattoo parlors, tanning salons among those reopening

SALISBURY, Md. – Maryland tattoo parlors as well as nail salons and tanning salons are just some of the places allowed to reopen at 50 percent capacity at 5 p.m. on Friday.

“We thought we were gonna be closed two weeks. I think today we are on day 80 something,” says Nicholas Parks, the owner of Rx Design & Tattoo. “We filed for PPP which we really didn’t get because all of our artists are independent contractors so there is no set payroll.”

Parks says his employees are already trained in health and sanitization protocols but they’ll be restricting some of their normal services. “We’re not gonna do any face piercings right now, there’s no face tattoos right now, we’re not doing hand tattoos right now, we’re not doing anyone over 60 years old right now.”

Meanwhile Brandon Ziska also takes pride in the cleanliness of his tanning salon: All About Tan Boutique. But he says he’s going to go above and beyond their regular procedures. “Everything we do is with bleach and extra cleaning and scrubbing and making sure the beds are like new every time someone comes in on a normal situation,” says Ziska.

He tells 47 ABC, his business has taken a major hit given the timing of all of this. “Usually we see the biggest rush of business from Salisbury University students, prom season and people getting ready for events and that’s this time of year. We haven’t been able to see any of those.”

He also says he usually hires college students so finding employees will be a challenge as he reopens. “Moving forward we’re going to have to adjust our hours because again we are down to just a couple employees versus what we had before.”

But both business owners say they’ve had an outpouring of support from the community and they’re looking forward to serving customers again. “We have probably 300 voicemails of clients that are anxious to get back in the door,” says Ziska.

“I think we booked something like 300 almost 320 appointments and there’s probably 100 messages that haven’t been answered as of now,” says Parks. “It was a big loss but there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

One change that didn’t come with Maryland’s phase two was indoor seating at restaurants. Maryland restaurants are still limited to outdoor dining or curbside pickup.