The return of ink

The other day someone mentioned to me that there was a new sign on the door of 216 W Washington, so this morning I stopped by Hometown Bargains to ask about it.

It is a new tattoo parlor, Oddities Ink. The folks downstairs at Hometown Bargains did not know it if was open yet or not, but said that the owner had been in the tattoo business for many years. The lower rent of an upstairs office should make his business more financially viable. It is in the space that used to be Erickson's Photo Studio.

Speaking of Hometown Bargains, it has a lot more stuff in it than the last time I stopped by. The extra stuff has come from vendors renting space to display the things that they are selling. I noticed a copy of the high school yearbook from 1924, and though it looked intriguing, the $45 price tag was a bit too much for me. The last three or four pages had ads from local businesses, and few included their street address but almost all included their phone numbers. I guess they expected everyone to know where they were located. There was also a display in the back for a business that carves names and logos into rocks. I have seen some of these around town but did not realize that there was someone locally producing them.

One of the things that Hometown Bargains is trying to sell is the building itself. Signs on the window say "Guardian Commercial Real Estate Services / Business Open / Building for Sale.