Patch Gets To Know Chase Chovan

MARIETTA, OH — This pandemic has hit a lot of businesses hard, however one business seems to be booming bigger than ever. That's the tattoo industry. Chase Chovan is the owner of Monkey's Uncle Tattoo on Putnam Street in Marietta. He says COVID-19 hurt them initially. "We were closed for a couple months, but it was kinda nice. I got a lot of housework done."

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He said when they opened back up they didn't need to make many adjustments because of how sanitary they are in the first place. "The hand sanitizing the washing, that's all normal." He says the masks are an issue, especially for tattoo artists with glasses.

Chovan says a new and unforeseen issue they've been running into almost constantly is rudeness. "We're swamped and dealing with people not willing to wait." They had a backlog of two months where no one could get a tattoo. "I had to reschedule two months of appointments."

They were pretty much an appointment-only shop before the pandemic. He says now, people will get nasty when told they might have to wait to get some ink. "People wanna come in and get a tattoo that day. When they hear they have to wait a month or two they get rude and mean, hang up on you." He says they threaten to go somewhere else. "Just people being disrespectful, that's my biggest problem lately."

It was a double whammy too. They got closed down during what would usually be their busiest time of the year, tax season. Chovan says that a lot of people wind up deciding to get a tattoo when they get that tax refund. "They get their returns and they want their tattoos. But this year's been the exception, it's been busy all year." To get into see most tattoo artists folks might have to wait a couple of months. Chovan personally has a four-month waitlist.

He's extremely frustrated by the public's lack of understanding on what the situation actually is. "It doesn't help when people are rude and disrespectful because we can't get them right there that day. Them and 10,000 other people want a tattoo that day."

He has a message for all those folks right now trying to get inked up. "Plan ahead. All the shops are busy. Even the bad shops are busy, unfortunately." He asks folks to be patient with them. "It might be August before I can get to you. We're not being rude to you, please don't be rude to us." He recited a phrase that summed up his feelings. "Lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency on our part."

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