'I can't stop': Kentucky tattoo shop owner in the throes of flood recovery

    FRANKFORT, Kentucky (WLEX) -- As floodwaters recede in Frankfort, business owners are coming face to face with the immense damage to their properties.

“You can see where it’s still wet. All of that is ruined,” said Chris Mays, owner of A’Maysing Ink on the Kentucky River.

Walking room by room, Mays told LEX 18 that he’d salvaged what he could, but most of the equipment in his tattoo parlor and adjacent print shop have been destroyed. Mays works with three other artists at the shop who will now have to relocate their studios.

The Kentucky River ravaged the shop within hours, but it will take months to undo the damage. With bills to pay and a family at home, Mays said he doesn’t have months.

“I still have to figure out how to work,” he said.

In the meantime, Mays hopes to work out of another shop and rely on his other job as a house painter. Yet, it’s not just money he’s lost, but a second chance.

“On November 2, 2015, I walked out of prison with a bag of clothes,” he recalled. “So in ten years, with some help, I've been able to build these companies…and to watch them go away in six hours…it's tough, it's tough, it's real tough.”

Becoming a business owner in his hometown after facing incarceration, Mays said he’s felt like a beacon of hope for others looking to make a change.

Now, that hope is needed more than ever before.

“My hope is that when people see me rebuild, they see that in tragedy, you still have to move forward. You can't stop. Yeah, it's emotional, I have my moments, but I can't stop,” said Mays.

Printed on the shirts still hanging in his shop is the acronym I CAN, which Mays explained stands for “In Christ All or Nothing.” As he works through flood recovery, he’s leaning on his faith.

“Sometimes God will shut down some stuff to show you what He can really do, so that's what I stand on.”