Published: July 09, 2008 10:33 pm      

Tattoo shop owner to take time changing sign

ETON — To Lunatics Tattoos owner Jason Vineyard, it’s a non-issue.

“I’ve been here for eight months now,” he said of his U.S. Highway 411 location in the heart of Eton, “and I’ve had the sign up for six-and-a-half or seven months. But it’s good publicity, I guess.”

Vineyard said he was surprised to see his tiny “tat shop” featured on the front page of the newspaper, and the fuss his approximate 2 foot by 3 foot sign has made — at least to one person.

Eton resident Tracy Ballew said on Tuesday the sign was “indecent and immoral” and offended her.

“As a citizen I have a right to drive up and down the road and not see a naked lady on the side,” said Ballew. “If she had clothes on I wouldn’t have any problems with it.”

Ballew said she also drove a school bus full of kids by the sign every day and didn’t think they should have to see the signage.

The sign features a woman whose back is bare all the way down to her buttocks area, except for what appeared to be a yellow G-string.

“I guess one day she just finally snapped,” Vineyard said Wednesday night when only a motorcycle and one car claimed the gravel parking lot. “Not a single person has complained before this.”

But he said Ballew had visited his establishment before, although not coming inside.

“She came here about a month ago,” he recalled. “She was outside taking a picture of the sign and yelling at a girl who was coming in to learn how to tattoo. The girl said, ‘That woman’s saying she’s going to shut you down because of your sign.’

“A little while later (Eton police officer) Lorreine (Floyd) came by and suggested that I cover it up.”

Vineyard said he later “painted a thong on her, like a Budweiser commercial or something.”

Ballew acknowledged that after she filed a written complaint with the city, someone went back to the sign and added what she calls a “G-string” to the area of the woman’s back side, which Ballew said was previously fully exposed, “but it didn’t go far enough.”

“I’m going to paint the sign in a week or two when I get up some money,” Vineyard said, then chuckled. “I’m going to put a full dress on that girl from her shoulders on down.”

He said he appreciated the city “standing up for his constitutional rights,” but added, “I’m not going so far as to let somebody sue me. It’s not worth it.”

Vineyard also said Ballew’s actions on the day she came by the shop belied one of her statements in the newspaper.

“I’m a God-fearing man,” he said, “and she said in the newspaper she was a Christian. But the day she was down here she sure didn’t act like one.”

“I thank him for taking such quick action about the sign,” Ballew said Wednesday. “I appreciate it. But I didn’t yell at that girl. She asked me if I needed anything, and I said I needed to get that sign down and was taking the picture to City Hall.”