A man had a five-hour £300 arm tattoo before bolting from the shop without paying, say the owners.
Amin Daryaei and his wife, Elmira Karami own the Puzzle tattoo studio in Hyson Green, Nottingham.
After Elmira spent hours working on a cover-up of his arm tattoo, they were shocked when he stepped outside for a cigarette before running away.
The business has been left hundreds of pounds out of pocket just days after reopening following lockdown.
Elmira says the incident has left her feeling scared, reports Nottinghamshire Live.
She said: "He said he was just going out for five minutes.
"He had been asking me about the machines we have too, about the price. I noticed later that one of these has gone missing too.
"The tattoo was around £350 worth, the machine is worth £80.
"It has left me really scared about being in the shop alone."
Mr Daryaei said he and his wife moved to the Nottingham area four years ago.
He added: "We started our business but feel this has been the wrong area, but we didn't have many choices.
"When I told people what happened, and put the post on our Facebook, they said 'welcome to Radford Road'.
"Since lockdown happened, we have only been open since July 14 so this is very frustrating to happen less than a week later."
CCTV footage was released by the tattoo shop on social media which appears to show a man running away from the shop. The footage has since been taken down.
Police are now investigating the theft and are asking for information from anyone who was in the area at the time.
A spokesman for Nottinghamshire Police said: "We have been informed of a theft at a business premises in Radford Road on Sunday and are investigating what happened.
"If anyone has any information in this case please call us on 101 quoting incident 769 of 19 July."
