Gym rats, skin art fiends clang, bang and buzz as gyms, tattoo parlors finally reopen
For Miami-Dade’s legion of gym rats, Monday’s official reopening of fitness centers, studios and workout facilities brought one thought to everyone’s mind: finally.
For Miami Beach resident Mykel Tulloch, walking into his local Crunch Fitness gym on South Beach just before noon Monday allowed him to feel more energized than he had at any point in weeks. During the worst part of the spring pandemic, Tulloch, 57, had been trapped in the Cayman Islands as flights home were canceled. To stay fit, he had to sneak into his hotel’s less-than-adequate gym facility, or do nothing.
“I haven’t worked out seriously in probably four months,” he said. “It’s part of my daily routine: Get up, [drink a] cafecito, then hit the gym before work or whatever else I’m doing during the day,” he said. “It felt so nice to be back — confidence-wise, it makes a big difference.”
While there is no official study of the economic impact of the fitness community to Miami-Dade’s economy, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a useful indicator. As of last May, fitness instructors made up a larger share of the county’s workforce than roofers, travel agents or public relations specialists. And at $18.07 an hour, just above the county median of $17.76, these workers earn one of the steadiest, not to mention most rewarding, livings in the area.
Not like others
Keith Worts, CEO of Crunch Signature, which oversees Crunch’s corporate-owned gyms, said its Miami Beach members “are very unique” compared to members in other parts of the U.S.
“It’s busy all day,” he said. The reason: Because so many workers maintain jobs in the service industry, there is no typical “9 to 5” period.
Since the county shut down gyms in mid-March, exercise buffs have taken to a variety of measures to stay lean — including, according to some reports, “speakeasy” gyms that flew below the radar.
Other residents like Tulloch took simpler measures: When he finally returned home from the Caymans, he purchased a bike to keep his heart rate up, and tried to stay strong with a push-up and chin-up routine at home
“But without heavy weights, the benefit is pretty limited,” he said. He admits this took a toll on his self-image.
“I just began to feel more drained,” he said.
With the reopening, he felt “reinvigorated.”
“It just feels like I’m getting out of a funk,” he said.
New rules
Like much else in the coronavirus era, the reopenings came with changes for the facilities. Among them: Socially distanced workouts in Miami-Dade mean staying 10 feet apart, not the usual 6 feet for restaurants, supermarkets, retailers, etc.
Gyms are also required to have industrial-strength air circulation systems to keep the facilities free of germs.
And hand-sanitizing stations are now everywhere.
In other words: If you never wiped down your machine before, you’re in for a sea change.
Marc Megna, co-owner and chief body architect at Anatomy gym, took the changes in stride.
“We took it as a great opportunity to be on point with safety measures,” he said. The three Anatomy gyms in the county now have have CDC-approved, hospital-grade cleaning supplies, more wipe stations, more spray bottles and hand sanitizing all around. They also added more cleaning staff, and rearranged the equipment to be properly socially distanced.
“We just wanted to welcome everyone back to a place where they’d feel safe,” he said. Monday’s crowd was substantial — and relieved to be back.
Legendary boxing gym barely survives shutdown
Yet the toll on many gym owners during the shutdown was substantial.
Miami Beach’s 5th Street Gym, where Cassius Clay (before he changed his name to Muhammad Ali) trained to defeat Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight title in 1964, almost didn’t make it, says co-owner and coach Dino Spencer. With the only revenues coming from private lessons here and there, the facility could barely pay rent. Spencer said it provided free online classes “just to keep morale up.”
“We had zero income at all, so we were just going to people’s houses,” Spencer said.
He said some residents “called the cops” when they spotted sparring sessions occurring outside.
“They treated us like we were selling drugs or something,” he said of the callers.
Tom Tsatas, 5th Street co-owner, said the shuttering of the gyms to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19, while largely understandable, created its own kind of health risk.
“All the doctors we spoke with said the best way to fight the virus is to keep your immune system strong,” he said. “That means sleep and being in shape — not gaining weight.”
Hand-to-hand sparring is still banned in commercial Miami-Dade gyms, which Spencer said is hamstringing some fighters.
Nicole Tallman, county policy director, said that is in keeping with the current recommendations from medical professionals.
“The mayor looks at the number on the [case load] dashboard every day and continues to monitor the situation,” she said. “If the numbers look good, we can think about loosening some of these restrictions.”
Still, on Monday, business was full, Spencer said.
“We had a good, successful morning,” he said. “The fighters are coming back.”
Tattoo parlors abuzz
Tattoo parlors reopened Monday as well.
Everything is now appointment-only with customers required to wear a mask and undergo a temperature check before being allowed into the shops.
Anyone who is more than five minutes late to their appointment will have to reschedule. Only the person who is planning to get the piercing or tattoo will be allowed inside. Minors can still have one parent or legal guardian with them.
Among those seeing a rush of skin art enthusiasts was Briga Lapiner, one of the tattoo artists at Grove Ink Tattoos. She said getting a tattoo solo could make it “more of a personal experience.”
“I feel like not having that pressure on you, you know with your peers and your friends and your family all there, I think it might actually make the experience more peaceful, a little better for the person,” said Lapiner.
Lapiner says their wait list has enough appointments to last for a couple of months.
Noel Garcia, the owner of Grove Ink Tattoos and New Age Body Piercing at 3066 and 3070 Grand Ave. in Coconut Grove, is busy prepping shops for Tuesday after being closed for three months during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Neither have the emails or social media messages requesting appointments for the past six or seven weeks, Garcia said.
Their workers already wore masks during procedures and frequently sanitized and cleaned the equipment and work area, Garcia said.
But the experience of getting a tattoo or piercing has changed.
“We’ve remodeled the whole store, we’ve made it cleaner, prettier, less clutter, easier to clean. We’ve changed everything around just to make the experience faster, cleaner for the customer,” said Garcia.
Both shops are prioritizing customers who had an appointment scheduled prior to the closing. Right now, Garcia says the shops have a backlog of more than 100 people waiting.
“On top of that we have so many people that got pierced illegally in the middle of the pandemic in illegal places … and now they are coming here to see if we can help,” Garcia said. “We have one really, really horrible case, extremely horrible case, we believe that guy is probably going to lose the top of his ear.”
This story was originally published June 8, 2020 at 7:13 PM.
