BREWER – Those who drive on Main Street may have noticed that the tattoo shop near the Joshua Chamberlain bridge was emptied recently and now is filled with new equipment and some new people.

“We just opened the shop yesterday,” Dave Eaton, head body piercer for the new tattoo shop, said Tuesday.

Riverview Tattoo & Body Piercing, at 25 North Main St., replaced Maine Tattoo & Body Piercing on Monday after the former owner and operator, Kenneth Silvestri, chose to close his doors.

“He has some medical issues that he has to deal with,” Police Chief Steven Barker, who monitored the situation, said Tuesday. “My understanding is until those are resolved, he’s closed up shop.”

The police chief said he wasn’t able to discuss what issues led to the tattoo parlor closing, but added that an employee of Silvestri has taken the reins and now is running the new shop.

“It’s a totally different place now,” Eaton said. “It looks like a doctor’s office. We got rid of some problems and everything’s going good.”

State health inspector Dean Jackson, from the Department of Health and Human Services, inspected the new business Monday and issued its license.

Mike Denis, new manager, said the shop is now a family-run business.

“My youngest son was working [at Maine Tattoo] and my oldest boy approached [the former owner] and decided to buy it,” he said. “My son bought the business, and I’m going to be managing it for him. Everybody is licensed.”

Jamie Denis is the tattoo parlor’s new owner. Both Denis and Silvestri leased the downtown Brewer location.