Melbourne is well known for being Australia’s home of the arts, with many of the Nations finest visual artists and performers calling her streets home. The Tattoo industry is no exception with an array of the globes finest artists living in Melbourne’s sprawling metropolis. The question rite now on most tattooists minds is will they still be here once the restrictions end.
Due to the structure of the Victorian Government’s small business support fund most tattoo studio owners have not been eligible to receive any of the grants which have been made available to small businesses within the State.
The majority of tattooists operate as sole traders with no employees and as such do not meet the eligibility criteria. Vice President of the Australian Tattooists Guild Ms Tashi Edwards stated that “the culture of the profession is that we work as contractors, some studios may employ a manger or a person to take care of administration but the majority do not. In the Melbourne metro area alone there are several hundred studios where people are being forced to live off their personal savings or sell personal items just to stay afloat. Not all commercial landlords are prepared to negotiate reasonable rent breaks and the jobkeeper payment falls short of covering people’s ongoing business and personal expenses”.
Tattoo studios in the Melbourne metropolitan area have now been closed for four months under Government restrictions, with many of these established businesses now teetering on the verge of collapse and several well known studios having already folded.
Mr Matthew Mooney, an award winning second generation tattooer and owner of Dagger and Lark Tattoo In Bayswater, Melbourne has said that the situation is heartbreaking and the impact of the decisions being made by the Andrews Government in regards to not supporting sole traders will affect his and others lives for years to come.
The Australian Tattooists Guild continue to lobby the Victorian State Government for changes to be made to the application criteria.
