This is the first post of a long-term photo project on the signs of the COVID–19 pandemic, filtered through the narrow constraints of my own firsthand experience. You can read more about the project here.

For a first post, I feel obliged to feature instances of those signs in businesses that say, unequivocably, that you must wear a mask. Usually this comes in the form of the words “Masks Required.”

When I started the project, I thought I’d be able to lump all signs with direction on masking into a single post, but as the pandemic and the project have grown longer and bigger (perhaps in both cases more than anyone would truly desire), I’ve found that I can subdivide these into fairly narrow categories. As an English PhD candidate, I can’t help but read sings like this very closely. “Masks Required” is different from “Masks Encouraged” is different from (one of my personal favorites thus far) “Governor Tom Wolf has ordered that all customers must wear a mask when entering our business.”

At this time of writing, these signs have actually become something of the past—our local municipalities have rescinded their mask mandates due to a drop in cases. That in itself is an example of how this project has shifted over time—when I first started drafting this post in January, masks were still required and the Omicron variant was tearing through the country.

Anyway, here’s Masks Required.

Laminated sign styled like a Magic: The Gathering card. It reads“ EQUIP MASK. Mask Required. [Magic tap symbol] when tapped, mask is optional.” — Mask Required | December 28, 2021 | Master Goblin Games, State College, PA

Master Goblin Games is a new gaming store in downtown State College, and their graphics game is on point. Here, they’ve riffed on the format and language of a Magic: The Gathering equipment type card.

“Equip” is an ability on a card that’s meant to represent (you guessed it) a piece of equipment. It means that you put the equipment on a creature, and it usually improves its bearer’s characteristics in some way. Equip Mask is an action that will enhance you, its bearer.

The circle with an arrow is it is the “tap symbol.” In Magic, you “tap” a card by turning it sideways, and this usually indicates that either the card has attacked this turn, or that whatever action comes after the symbol cannot be taken again until the card is no longer tapped.

Unlike “Equip Mask,” the tap symbol and doesn’t have quite as much meaning in spoken English, so the uninitiated reader has to intuit what the arrow-in-circle symbol and the term “tapped” means.

Here’s what an actual Magic: The Gathering equipment card looks like.

Magic: The Gathering card featuring a silver half-mask. Cardname is "Mask of Avacyn." Body text reads: Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and hex proof. Equip {3}. "It hides the face and protects the soul."

Note, the Mask of Avacyn might hide the face and protect the soul, but there’s no way that that thing is stopping 95 percent of airborne particles.

Laminated yellow sign, worn and aged, reading "Following CDC guidance, customers *must* mask inside, regardless of vaccination status. Thank you for your cooperation." — Must Mask | December 7, 2021 | Tait Farm Foods, Centre Hall, PA

I have a separate album full of shots of signs that show their wear and tear, and this one may need to pull double-duty. I like here the images at top and bottom that feel to me on-brand for Tait Farm Foods. The language of direction includes both the appeal to authority (“Following CDC guidance”) as well as some very assertive ownership over the direction that they’re posting. They’re not just saying this because they have to—the underlined must makes clear to me that they’re serious. Outside of the sign’s text content, I do like the story that the weathering on this sign tells. It’s laminated, so its makers intended to protect it from the elements, but perhaps on account of the fold or some other gap in the top edge, and time, elements have made it in anyway. It’s been a long pandemic. The only other thing I’d love to see in this sign is, instead of a white plastic thumb tack, a rusty nail to match the two above.

Attention | June 18, 2021 | Kondu, State College, PA

This one doubles in the “sign that’s been around longer than anticipated” bucket, but then, most COVID–19 signs do nowadays.

I noticed the name “displays2go” in the lower-right corner, and it turns out that a version of this poster is available for download online as well. Displays2go, a sign company, has made available a whole page of free COVID–19 poster images that you can download and print, from vaccinations and masks required to now hiring signs.

Here’s the current version of the sign I had photographed:

Sign reading "Please Wear Face Coverings Inside If Not Fully Vaccinated Against Covid-19 You are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the final vaccine dose

Assuming that the version I photographed is a predecessor to this one, it’s interesting to see how the language has changed. “Attention: Face Mask or Covering is Required Upon Entry” is absolute, whereas the current version adds the vaccination qualifier (irrelevant in my own municipality) and the information bit about what is considered “fully vaccinated.”

Black and white sign posted on a door. Includes a mask icon and the text: “NOTICE FACE MASK REQUIRED.” — NOTICE: FACE MASK REQUIRED | December 3, 2021 | Comic Swap, State College, PA

This sign doesn’t just say that face masks are required, but the bold typeface and the white-on-black NOTICE headliner let you know that they mean it.

Like the above sign, this one also has a URL that points to its origins. This one was provided by the Brevard County government in Florida. Perhaps befitting Florida local politics, that site also provides a FACE MASK NOT REQUIRED sign.

Large printed sign reading: “Visitors are required to wear face coverings or masks at all times. Disposable masks are available at the front desk. Maintain a 6-foot distance between yourself and other visitors at all times.” Blue background. Icons re — Visitors are required to wear face coverings or masks at all times. | September 19, 2021 | Palmer Museum of Art, State College, PA