SEYMOUR — After watching George Floyd die as a Minneapolis cop knelt on the back of his neck, Steve Murzin, himself a victim of police brutality, was determined to do something to battle systemic racism.
So he is offering to cover racist tattoos for free at Sacred Art Tattoo, his shop at 39 New Haven Road.
Murzin said he was also inspired by the “erasing the hate” campaign tattoo artists are joining across the U.S. He remembered reading a story about a man who joined a skinhead gang and got a tattoo. As the man grew older, he realized that hatred wasn’t the way yet was stuck with his old hatred permanently tattooed on his skin.
“I guess you become a recluse, when you want to change as a person and you can’t because you have these marks. And I think there are people out there like that everywhere,” Murzin said.
Over the years, Murzin said he has been asked to create racist tattoos by would-be customers. He’s refused.
“When it happened to me, it’s like feeling anger and pain at the exact same time,” he said. When he tells them he won’t do it, he said the customers have rudely objected and left.
Steve Murzin
Murzin said he’s willing to cover over any white supremacist symbols, anti-religion symbols, or anything that is hateful towards something that someone can’t change. Although Murzin said he hasn’t seen any racist tattoos in his four years in Seymour, he said he expects the biggest tattoo symbol to come through the doors at Sacred Art Tattoo are going to be confederate flags.
“I think it’s one of those tattoos that is very popular and people are seeing it has roots to slavery and saying “oh maybe it’s time to have that covered up’,” he said.
Murzin has been tattooing since he was eight. From a young age, he admired his father’s tattoo commemorating his days in the military. Murzin started out with markers and ended up creating a lunchtime tattoo club with other kids at his elementary school in Hartford.
Kids started coming home with elaborate cobras and skulls.
“Then my parents got the call, you know, saying ‘Steve needs to stop.’”
After high school, Murzin left home to join the Marines.
He also has a connection to police brutality, an issue that has come to the forefront in the U.S.
In 1994, Murzin said he was detained and beaten by Colchester police officers under the supervision of state police. Murzin, on leave from the Marines but still in his teens, said the beating was payback for previously reporting a police brutality incident he had witnessed. Murzin’s father was a narcotics detective with the Hartford Police Department when the incident happened.
It was widely reported by local media in Connecticut at the time.
“It was so bad because it sent the message: ‘if you tell on us, we’ll come for you, too.’ And I’m white and that happened — I can’t imagine being any other color,” Murzin said. “They beat the crap out of me, but it didn’t change who I was. Even after that I said, whenever someone’s in need, I’ll help out.”
To that end, even though Sacred Art Tattoo is extremely busy (there’s a backlog of appointments since the business was allowed to open June 17,) Murzin said he’s willing to make the time by coming in on his days off or staying late to cover hate-filled tattoos.
“If me covering that tattoo for you for free helps you become a better person in society, I’ll do it,” he said.
Reach Sacred Art Tattoo by calling (203) 828‑6326.
The website is https://www.sacredarttattooconnecticut.com/.
The email address is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
