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'Express yourself': Husband and wife get ready to open Cochran's first body art shop

The opening of Ratley Ink, LLC. has been four months in the making.

COCHRAN, Ga. — A new business opening in Cochran is leaving its mark on the city -- it's the first body art shop to open downtown!

Shawn Ratley and his wife Melissa are getting ready to open Ratley Ink LLC., a move that's been months in the making.

Shawn says there were many talks before the city of Cochran gave him the green light to open, and progress came after community members voiced their support of the shop.

“We’re very excited to get to bring it to Cochran with it being a newer business and the first of its kind to be here. We’re very glad to be a service to the community and we’re very hopeful that we’ll be supported back,” he said.

He and Melissa have always been passionate about art. They wanted to not only pursue their interests, but bring something unique to downtown Cochran that they could do together.

Shawn says that people get tattoos for the ability to say something about themselves through art.

“It’s a chance to allow you to express yourself and express other things. You know you can look at a tattoo and you might like the way it looks, but a lot of the time it's amazing to hear the story behind the meaning of it, of why they have it and what it can mean for people,” he said.

He thinks that a tattoo shop can bring new people to Cochran who have never gotten to experience it before.

“I think we’re going to bring a lot of people in. I think we’re going to bring, naturally, not only the community here, but I think we’re going to bring from other towns. Whenever they come in, they’re going to spend their money in Cochran. It's going to be good, it's going to be tax revenue, and we’ll probably pick up some residents,” Shawn said.

He plans on working with people of all budgets to get them a tattoo that will work for them. The shop will also offer cover-up services for people with racist or otherwise regrettable tattoos.

“Because people make mistakes, people grow up, people change, people do dumb things when they’re young and they don’t think about it. What a person does 20 years ago -- that does not mean that’s who they are today,” Shawn said.

Shawn says the couple won't forget the support they have received from people in Cochran.

“I've told them many times and I'll tell them again; thank you for the support. Because if it wasn't for the community support, naturally this would have never got passed if was wasn’t for them supporting and voicing that they wanted it,” he said.

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