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Charlotte tattoo shop reopens defying state order

“I can’t just sit idly by and watch my business fall apart, I put a LOT into this,” said Marc Wade, owner of Marc Wade’s Tattoo and Supply Company.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With small business loans hard to come by, one tattoo shop owner in Charlotte has decided to take matters into his own hands and reopen his parlor on a limited basis.

“I can’t just sit idly by and watch my business fall apart, I put a LOT into this,” said Marc Wade, owner of Marc Wade’s Tattoo and Supply Company.

Wade says he still plans to keep the foot traffic sparse.

“[It’s not a full opening, we’re not going to be open to the public,” Wade said, “we’re going to be open to people who have appointments.”

Wade says at this point, he doesn’t feel he has another choice.

“It’s been two months,” Wade said. “I did everything I was supposed to do, I closed down like I was supposed to do, I filled out the applications through the SBA, and I’ve heard absolutely nothing.”

Wade says he repeatedly checks in on his application.

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“There’s some poor soul on the other end of the phone,” Wade said, “they can’t tell you where your application is, they can’t tell you your process, they don’t even ask for your name when you call in because they just don’t have any information. Your application’s just on hold somewhere in the void.”

In the meantime, he’s falling behind on bills.

“A couple months,” Wade said, “You know, there are times when I wasn’t behind and it was still tight around here. Small businesses don’t have some pot of capital sitting somewhere. We don’t have it.”

Wade says he has considered the potential risk of reopening but plans to keep less than 10 people in the building and bought PPE for customers.

“There’s no help,” Wade said, “there’s no helping coming. We can’t just sit around and wait for some magical solution to pop up. You have to save yourself.”

Law enforcement can enforce the Stay at Home order to anyone in violation, and Wade says he knows. He says he is not doing this to rebel or make a statement, but to save his business and employees.

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“It’s not so I can start a revolution or buck the system,” Wade said. “I don’t want to go to jail! I don’t want to get fined, I don’t want to go to jail for working. That’s crazy, ‘what are you in jail for? Oh, I went to work.’ This is about trying to survive.”

The penalty of violating the Stay at Home order is a Class 2 Misdemeanor.

As business owners across the state are desperate to get back to work, Wade says he doesn’t know if his decision will cause people to follow suit. He says he only knows he’s in danger of losing a business that took twenty-two years to build in a matter of months.

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