Chad Wells is the owner of the shop and has been tattooing professionally since 1992. He is joined in the shop by his daughter Presley, also a tattoo artist. Looks That Kill Salon is owned by Aarika Voegele. The three are also musicians in a band called the Creepy Crawlers.
And beyond the businesses, friendships and family connections, they all share something else: multiple paranormal experiences at the shop that have created questions, scared customers and given everyone an eerie feeling.
These experiences range from things flying off the walls, lights randomly turning off and on, doors and drawers mysteriously opening on their own, hearing voices and the appearance of some possible ghostly apparitions.
“I have a picture of a girl with a crystal ball over there on my shelf,” Presley said. “It was in the other room, and it’s sitting on the shelf, and it was sturdy, and it just flew off the wall. Not like it fell, it shot, and dad watched it happen.”
Chad Wells confirmed that he did see this happen, and that things flying off the walls and shelves seems to be a pretty common occurrence. He also confirmed that there are cameras in the building, but they haven’t been able to capture any footage.
“It locked me out,” Chad Wells said. “It used a chair and locked me out. The other day I went to take out the trash … I come back and the chair was wedged in a way at the base of the door … I have cameras freaking everywhere and nothing. We’ll come in and there’s stuff messed up, nothing on the cameras.”
Voegele and her clients have also witnessed things flying off the walls such as an antique kalimba. The drawers in her salon will be open and hampers will be dumped over. Her clients have also been startled by loud knocking.
“We started hearing ghostly knocking up front,” Voegele said. “BANG. BANG. BANG. Someone’s hitting the door hard. There are no cars parked here. About 40 minutes later, another BANG, BANG, BANG. Nothing. It was creepy.”
The upstairs part of the building has three bedrooms and there is an unfinished basement. Both areas of the building are particularly eerie-feeling, Voegele said she doesn’t like to go upstairs as she has felt unable to breathe at times. Chad Wells also had a scary experience with the upstairs as well.
“My very first personal encounter here was the very first night I was here by myself,” Chad Wells said. “I had these long poles that had been part of a thing at the other shop, and I just couldn’t find where they were going to fit in here … I was going to put them upstairs because we were going to use the attic as storage.”
Everything was locked up. Nobody was here. No windows open. I open the door to the upstairs, and it’s just the creepiest most horror-movie stairs, just black and cold. Instead of taking them upstairs, I’ll just put them on the stairs. I put the first pole down and heard an old lady, like I woke someone up.”
The sound was like a haunting moan. Chad Wells thought there might be someone in the building, but continued to put the poles in the stairwell. As he was doing that, waiting for another moan from the top of the stairs, the chimes at the front door began to ring. Chad Wells said he went straight home.
“That was pre-pubescent left alone late-at-night fear,” he said.
Voegele said one of her clients who claimed to be a sensitive described seeing two women, an older judgmental one and a younger, playful one, and an unpleasant male presence in the building. But one experience with a client stands out the most for Voegele.
While putting highlights in a client’s hair, both were looking down when they heard someone or something walking, coming toward them. Both looked up to see what they both could only describe as just a pair of legs. A pair of legs with boots, and no actual body, walking into the office.
“I don’t even know what I just saw,” Voegele said. “’Was it legs?’ [the client asked]. Then I’m realizing, we both just saw that. Some ghost legs. My brain didn’t know how to compute it at first, other than stuff like that happens here all the time.”
These experiences tell the story of what has been happening present day at the shop, but the history of the land tells a whole other story.
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