ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 15, 1997 TAG: 9701150046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANASSAS, VA.
SOURCE: Associated Press
Bubba's Cycle Shack, Exposed Temptations Tattoo Shop and Blessed Victory Church share a building. And it's not working out.
The reason? The other tenants say the church makes too much noise.
The Pentecostal church began renting the space in an industrial area of Manassas in November. That's when landlord Howard Kim said he got a complaint from tattoo artist Greg Piper.
Piper owns the tattoo parlor across the hall from Blessed Victory, a 20-member congregation that meets three times a week. ``They have a drum set and an amplified PA system - just the noise was the only problem. The people were nice,'' he said.
Piper went before the Manassas City Council last month to protest the church's request for a special-use permit. The church needed the permit to continue holding services in the building, which is zoned for business uses.
Piper told council members that the gospel music was distracting him from his work.
``It's like any kind of art,'' he said of tattooing. ``You want to focus on the concentration and the client.''
It was even worse downstairs at Bubba's, Piper said, where the activity from the church above caused some tiles to fall from the ceiling and merchandise to drop from the shelves.
``The building isn't zoned for a church, and there shouldn't be a church there,'' said Tom Davison, who owns Bubba's, as well as a Harley-Davidson dealership across the street. ``You wouldn't go amongst six churches and put a tattoo parlor and a cycle shop.''
Church representatives said Piper probably was upset because they had asked him to remove a picture they considered offensive from his shop window. Piper described the image in question as ``kind of like an angel with wings and one of the breasts exposed.''
Assistant Pastor Alice Basnight said it was ``naked women with their busts hanging out with wings on their backs. It just looked demonic.''
For his part, Piper said, the churchgoers ``didn't like my clientele. Obviously, moving into a building with a tattoo shop, you have to figure it's different people. We do body piercing.''
Manassas officials, trying to be supportive of both God and commerce, searched for a way make peace.
They learned Monday that Blessed Victory had withdrawn its request for the permit and announced plans to move.
``It was causing so much disturbance,'' Basnight said. ``We're a people of peace. We'll be out by Friday.''
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB