Bioinformatics is a new integrated field of science that connect all science to each other from biotechnology, biophysics, biochemistry, biology, computer science, programming, statistics and mathematics. They should be always connect through laboratory for getting information and optimizing data for new discoveries.
But as a bioinformatist You will have a computer job. Bioinformatics is about analyzing data. A lab person could know how to do bioinformatics, but it is not strictly necessary for a bioinformatics person to be within a thousand miles of a lab.