Tattoo shop moves after protest

Scott Harrell shows some of the pieces he has done for area residents. His shop OCD Body Art has moved from Lafayette Street to Penn Avenue in Marianna.

By By DEBORAH BUCKHALTER Floridan Staff Writer
Published: November 18, 2009

» 13 Comments | Post a Comment

OCD Body Art has moved from its original location on Lafayette Street to Plaza Del Rio at 2944 Penn Ave., Suite J.
Denise Harrell, owner of the Marianna business, said she re-located in an effort to “appease members of the community who objected” to its presence in the city’s historic district for little more than a month.
A woman who lives in the area where the shop first located approached the Marianna City Commission about a week after the shop opened, saying she didn’t think it was a good fit for that part of town.
The city had already approved the business, however, and commissioners said they’d look into it but doubted that there was anything they could do about it. They did, however, agree to look into some changes to the historic district’s zoning regulations.
Meanwhile, Harrell decided to move of her own accord as a show of good will, she said.
“It was not a forced move, we did it because we didn’t want an uproar or cause a conflict in the community whatsoever,” Harrell said. “We’d only been there a week when all this controversy started, and never wanted anything like that to be a factor.”
Moving, she said, was a sacrifice, but one she was willing to make.
“We were without phone service for three days, so we lost some business days there, and some people think we’ve closed so that’s probably some lost revenue, but I just wanted the community to know it’s not run by shady characters.”
Harrell said nothing could be farther from the truth.
“We’re family-oriented, and I wanted to show our decency, the kind of people we are. My husband is a retired federal officer, and I have 20 years in the medical field, managing doctors offices, and I’m still employed by an outpatient surgery center in Alabama, so we’re not some fly-by-night operation,” she said.
“This gives my husband something he can physically do, because he can no longer do his federal job because of a physical disability. ... We’re a quality operation, we’re quality people who just want to operate our business.”
The shop is open Mondays to Saturdays, and is closed on Sundays, the same hours it had in the Lafayette Street location.