Covid in 2021…

So - Its July 2021 and Covid 19 is still hanging around. The Government have announced that from July the 19th they will stop enforcing Mask use and social distancing, leaving it up to businesses and the public to make up their own rules, if they wish to have them. I read that Kings College London said that at present 47% of covid infections are in people that have had one dose of vaccine.

We are very lucky so far to have not had any covid scares, or covid infections within the studio (correct at time of writing) - Part of this I believe is because of the safety measures we take at work, and the other part is the vigilance of our staff and clients to be sensible, to alert us of any issues and to make sure everyone is safe. We have had a few times when clients alert us to reschedule appointments when they have been affected by covid, pinged by track and trace, or even feel they have symptoms so have stayed home just in case. For this we are very grateful, it means that our business has not (yet, fingers crossed) been affected by Covid other than through closures.

We have an array of people working with us at True Love Tattoos, All at different states of vaccination. None of us have had two doses as I write this, some are about to get the second, some have only just had the first. This is part of the reason that we have made the decision that until at least all of us have had two doses of vaccine, we will be continuing with the following things-

• Mask use required by all staff and clients

• Continued use of screens to aid distancing

• Solo attendance to appointments

• Hand sanitising on entry

Simply put, we will be continuing to stick to the Covid-safe rules we implemented last year. This will be alongside our usual high standard of cleaning which existed pre-pandemic.

Something else I thought was interesting was from an article I read recently, entitled “Hygiene theatre: how excessive cleaning gives us a false sense of security” - It talks about the fact that the focus on mainly surface cleaning isn’t enough for protection against covid, and that as of 2021 The scientists and experts doing the big research on covid spread have realised ventilation and mask use are the safest ways to protect against infection. Obviously cleaning is essential, lets not forget that at all, its something that has always been impeccable in tattoo studio’s pre-pandemic and will be post-pandemic too, but it reminded me that Im really glad that one of the things that we invested in at True Love is an air purifier unit with HEPA filtration. This unit is incredible and automatically adapts to its environment, changing the power based on the air quality, and runs all day making sure that impurities, bacteria and virus particles are “scrubbed’ through it. Its so good we can’t use incense or air fresheners whilst its on because it takes all the smell straight out of the air! We also keep our front door open to aid ventilation and have recently installed ceiling fans in the shop to aid circulation.

We are always trying to find new ways to make sure we keep our space a safe space for all and we hope everyone that visits us understands why we won’t be losing masks quite as quickly as some other places, and also why we are so proud of our attention to both our client’s and our own safety.

Thanks!