TERRE HAUTE, IA – Vigo County is currently looking to rewrite the entire ordinance that covers tattoos, body piercings and other procedures.

One particular procedure happening at a few area tattoo parlors has health officials upset.

Devin Feller likes to express himself with tattoos and piercing. He also has something that many people have never seen before: His tongue is split in two.

“Once it cuts in it just feels cold because you don’t have that much feeling on the inside of your tongue,” Feller said. “Afterwords, I didn’t have that much problem with it. You can take ibuprofen to reduce swelling and everything like that. I didn’t have problems with swelling all that much.”

Currently, tongue splitting is legal at Vigo County tattoo and piercing shops, but that could soon change.

“We view that as a surgical procedure. We don’t really feel that it is safe to be done in a tattoo shop,” Megan Bland with the Vigo County Health Department said. “It’s just one of those things that we don’t feel comfortable allowing those to do it when they are not licensed medical doctors.”

“I can’t exactly write this off to my health insurance and have them pay for this. Its not really a medical procedure.”

Source : WTHITV

CATHEDRAL CITY, CA – Cathedral City officials will revisit the topic of restricting tattoo parlors and body-piercing establishments in the city, perhaps as soon as this month.
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The planning commission voted 4-0 on Sept. 24 to recommend to the City Council a ban on new parlors along East Palm Canyon Drive or 300 feet from it. Commissioner John Holt was absent.

If approved, Cathedral City would follow its neighbors, Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, in limiting tattoo parlors and body-piercing shops.

These businesses are prohibited in the Palm Springs central business zone, which includes parts of East Palm Canyon Drive, according to its municipal code. Rancho Mirage’s municipal code does not allow the parlors anywhere in the city, city spokeswoman Beth Williams said.

Cathedral City Senior Planner Rich Malacoff told planning commissioners last week: “East Palm Canyon Drive is an economic generator, and it’s important for the city to be selective in the types of businesses that we allow, in order to protect the integrity of East Palm Canyon Drive.”

The ban would go into effect by amending the municipal code, once it’s approved. The council could consider it as early as its next meeting on Oct. 14.

The commission’s recommendation follows another move by the city this month to amend the municipal code in relation to tattoo parlors. The City Council approved on Sept. 9 a ban on branding and scarification practices at tattoo parlors and other establishments anywhere in the city.

An existing parlor, Cactus Tattoo at 68-477 E. Palm Canyon Drive, would not be affected by the ban, Malacoff said.

Cactus Tattoo owner Ruben Guzman said he was unaware of a potential change to the municipal code and that he was not worried after learning about it.

Guzman almost didn’t get to open his parlor earlier this year when the City Council decided to review the planning commission’s approval of his operating permit. However, the council failed to get a majority vote to overturn approval of the permit.

Councilman Greg Pettis said on Sept. 25 that the subject of tattoo parlors on East Palm Canyon Drive came up at a council study session after two parlors applied for permits. Pettis was concerned tattoo parlors in that area were not consistent with the city’s efforts to revamp its downtown district, he said.

“The city is spending millions of dollars in a new City Hall, and we got a new hotel coming in and are widening a bridge with all this money in an area where we are trying to stimulate higher-end business,” he said. “It’s not that we don’t want these businesses in the city; it’s just a question of where we put them.”

Source : My Desert

Tattoos were once a standard way for a guy to thumb his forearm at authority.

But veteran tattoo artist Courtney McIntyre says more authority may be what’s needed to better protect customers of the expanding body-art industry.

He’s in favor of a bill approved last week by the California Legislature that imposes stricter training, registration and safety rules on artists that tattoo or brand skin with a hot iron, pierce anything other than an earlobe, or apply permanent cosmetics.

“Laws are not terrible things,” said McIntyre, owner of Tattoo the Body Embellished in Sacramento.

He said he wishes more customers would express concern about safety, and ask to see how he and his artists sterilize equipment and dispose of every needle – used only once – in a safe fashion.

Introduced by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, the Safe Body Art Act is on the governor’s desk waiting his attention.

The act also applies to body artists operating out of vehicles or temporary booths at conventions or street fairs.

If signed, the bill requires all body artists – except for standard ear piercers – to register annually with counties, and undergo sanitation and certified blood-borne pathogen training.

Artists must also be at least 18 years old, prove they are vaccinated against hepatitis B and show that they completed an accredited four-hour first aid and CPR course.

The act also requires some training of employees of businesses that pierce earlobes, though it is not as extensive as those who pierce other body parts.

“You don’t just give someone an ear-piercing gun and say, ‘Have a go at it,’ ” said Justin Malan, executive director of the California Conference of Directors of Environmental Health.

Malan’s organization supports the new rules, which were crafted with the help of parlor owners.

The act would replace existing 10-year-old sanitation regulations and a requirement that parlor owners register with counties by paying a one-time $25 fee.

The new act requires that parlor owners renew a county health permit every year.

Public health officials say that California needs greater scrutiny of these businesses because of their extraordinary growth. In 10 years, there’s been a 400 percent increase in the number of piercing and tattooing establishments.

About 36 percent of Americans between 18 and 29 are tattooed now, according to estimates by the American Academy of Dermatology.

Health officials are concerned that customers could suffer from infections and disease at the hands of untrained and unscrupulous artists, Malan said.

Santa Clara County, he said, received a report two years ago of a possible hepatitis B infection that might have been transmitted at a tattoo show.

“You just need a few dozen of these folks who aren’t practicing safe body art to put the public at risk,” Malan said.

Source : The Sacramento Bee

COCOA BEACH, FL – The City Commission on Thursday voted to prohibit tattoo studios and body-piercing salons from locating close to existing ones.

In a 4-1 vote, the commission decided to prohibit these businesses from being within 2,000 feet of similar businesses. It also prohibits tattoo studios and body-piercing salons in multi-family professional, oceanfront residential and transient building zones.

Commissioner Don John voted against the ordinance.

Former mayor Janice Scott said the city should have placed more restrictions on where the business could locate.

“I just don’t think this is a very classy business,” she said. “I’m sorry that my town has spent so much time discussing this.”

Mark Longenecker, who runs Endless Summer Tattoo Studio, said families come into his business. “There’s nothing shady going on,” he said.

He said he is worried about being able to reopen his business if he was forced to move.

The new ordinance allows existing studios to apply to relocate within the 2,000 feet if they lose their lease or the use of their building through no fault of their own. But the business would have to have been established as of Thursday, and the property they want to move to would have to be compatible with adjacent property uses.

Some Cocoa Beach tattoo business owners said they were not against the measure because it restricts the number of salons that can cluster in one area. That benefits existing businesses.

There are six tattoo studios that have applied to open in the city. Three of the existing studios are in the downtown area and three others are in the area of State Road 520 and State Road A1A.

Former City Commissioner Tony Sasso told the commission they should be doing more comprehensive planning for what business they want in the city, not just looking at one kind.

“We’re focusing on one thing rather than looking at the big picture,” he said.

Source : Florida Today

ROCKLAND, NY – A West Nyack tattoo parlor became the first Rockland establishment fined by the county Board of Health for violating a new law governing body art.

Richard M. Knab, owner and operator of Body Inkorporated at 291 Route 59 was fined $3,325 at yesterday’s regular meeting because a worker tattooed customers without a permit, inspectors said. No sanitary violations were noted, inspector Catherine Johnson said.

Dina DiGiacomo, a manager at the store, told the board that she and the owner were sorry for the incident, which she said was caused by a misunderstanding. All body art professionals at the store are now licensed by the county.

“This won’t happen again,” she said.

Rockland late last year became one of a growing number of municipalities nationwide to regulate body art. Under the new Rockland proposal, both shops and the professionals who create body art have to be licensed and must undergo training in infection control.

The regulation, which is part of the county’s sanitary code, defines body art to include popular procedures such as body piercing; branding, in which a pattern of scar tissue is made by applying heated metal on the skin; and scarification, in which skin texture is altered by cutting tissue to produce wounds.

Several members of the board did not attend yesterday’s meeting, so the board did not have enough members to be able to vote on other fines at the meeting.

Instead, it discussed the fines and Commissioner of Health Joan Facelle said that the recommendations made by the board would be considered again when the full board meets at 10 a.m. Sept. 16 in Room 118, Building A, Dr. Robert Yeager Health Center, Ramapo.

Source : LoHud

ILLINOIS – Tougher rules on how often tattoo and body-piercing businesses in Illinois are checked for safety problems have been shelved after problems with state funding. Madison County already has strict guidelines on the operations.

Lawmakers in July 2006 approved legislation requiring yearly inspections by the Illinois Department of Public Health or another agency. The state previously had no statewide standard for making sure the businesses are sanitary. The rule also forced employees to receive training.

The regulation was set to take effect Saturday, giving owners enough time to prepare.

But state spokeswoman Kelly Jakubek said funding to train local health department workers was delayed because of the state budget crises in Springfield. She said the inspections have now been pushed back to later in the month, although an exact date hasn’t been set.

“It’s been longer than we like,” she said. “But there have been some barriers.”

Whenever the rule takes effect, it will likely have a limited impact on Madison and St. Clair county businesses, where regulations have been in place for years.

“They will have to follow the state rules and our rules,” said Madison County Health Department Environmental Health Manager Mary Cooper.

The county requires annual inspections and enforces various rules on cleanliness. An annual permit costs $50.

New requirements for tattoo and piercing businesses

– Renew registration with state every year

– Mandatory inspections

– Allows state to charge up $1,000 a day for fines

Source: State Department of Public Health

Source : Suburban Journals

BOSTON, MA – A Massachusetts lawmaker wants the human body piercing industry to be better regulated statewide.

State Rep. Bruce Ayers, a Democrat who covers Quincy and Randolph, is proposing legislation that would, among other things, have the State Department of Public Health make the rules relative to the licensure and monitoring of the human body piercing, rather than individual cities and town.

His legislation would also make it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to get anything other than an earlobe pierced without a parent present.

“Different cities and town across the Commonwealth have different variations of certain standards,” Ayers says.

He testified at the Statehouse Tuesday about his proposed legislation.

Scott Matalon considers his Stingray Body Art and More store one of the premier parlors in the city, so he’s open to Boston Public Health Commission inspections.

“We have over eight inspectors right here in Boston that provide oversight that test our people. We have to have years of training,” Matalon says.

He says he keeps the studio clean and makes every customer show identification. “I’m all for regulation that makes sense.”

But Matalon says Ayers should focus on the people breaking the rules, rather than regulating an industry that is already regulated.

“The areas that I think need to be better regulated are the mall piercing, the corner store piercings and the piercing parties — the people that are doing it illegally,” Matalon says.

He plans to do whatever he can to weigh in on the bill before its law.

Source : WBZ 38

COCOA BEACH, FL – City commissioners took a step Thursday to approve a measure that would regulate the locations of tattoo studios and body-piercing salons and prohibit them in clusters.

After being “introduced” to the ordinance, commissioners said they would approve it. There will be two public hearings before a vote.

“The idea here is, really, ‘What is the vision for downtown?’ ” Vice Mayor Kevin Pruett said. “This is not intended to damage the current tattoo shops, and I know we have a lot of good ones, a lot of famous ones.”

Commissioners Don John and Ken Griffin requested to see a map showing the cities’ tattoo shops.

John and Commissioner Skip Williams also asked that city attorney Skip Fowler add language to the ordinance that would protect shop owners forced to move for no fault of their own.

Five residents spoke at the meeting.

“What I really see going on here is simply a preference to exile a business you people don’t like, and I think that’s totally improper,” said Burt Green, a Cocoa Beach resident for 42 years. “Look at what you are really trying to do and reconsider it.”

Mark Longenecker, who owns Endless Summer Tattoo, spoke in favor of the ordinance.

He said he moved here to open a tattoo shop in a surf town and escape the parlors that multiplied in South Florida.

“I do want to see diversity, so I am pretty much for this ordinance,” Longenecker said.

Source : Florida Today

TEMPE, AZ – A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday in favor of a Gilbert couple’s right to open a tattoo studio in Tempe.

Judge Robert Oberbillig said that the Tempe City Council’s decision in 2007 to revoke Tom and Elizabeth Preston’s business-use permit was “arbitrary and capricious.”

The council “lacked credible evidence” to revoke the permit, he wrote in a five-page opinion.

Oberbillig reinstated the Prestons’ permit and denied Tempe’s claim that the city is immune to being sued for damages.

The ruling is a win for small-business owners and “absolute jubilation” for the Prestons, who invested nearly $30,000 to open the business in 2007, said Clint Bolick, an attorney with the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank that represented the Prestons.

The Prestons plan to sue to recoup their financial investment, he said.

“Right now everybody’s all super-excited,” Tom Preston said. “We’re still kind of scared because of the appeals process. (But) we’ll wait the 30 days and hopefully they won’t appeal and we’ll open our business.”

The council issued a statement Thursday stating that it is reviewing the judge’s ruling with attorneys to decide whether to appeal.

The Prestons filed a lawsuit in fall 2007 when the council revoked their permit after neighbors complained that the tattoo parlor would lower their property values.

Tom said he thinks the Tempe council was swayed by prejudices about people with tattoos.

On Thursday, the council issued a statement reiterating that “any notion that the Tempe City Council is biased against tattoo shops is false.”

There are at least 12 tattoo studios in Tempe.

Oberbillig’s ruling Thursday comes after Tempe asked him to reconsider his May decision to reinstate the permit based on his opinion that the council had improperly revoked a permit for a business the Prestons had a vested interest in.

Source : The Arizona Republic

SPRINGFIELD, IL – More than three years after the law was put on the books, Illinois is poised to begin formally regulating tattoo parlors.

Beginning in August, the Illinois Department of Public Health and local health departments will have the framework in place to start conducting inspections of tattoo parlors and body piercing establishments that have registered with the state.

The law, approved by the General Assembly in 2006, states that tattoo and piercing shops must have yearly health inspections to test the sanitary conditions of their facilities and equipment for the business to keep operating.

The law is aimed at requiring tattoo and piercing shops to be more hygienic and safer. Until now, they have not been regulated by the state.

Alysha Gallop, co-owner of Graphic Flesh, a tattoo parlor in Normal, supports the new law because it requires establishments to have properly trained artists as well as clean and safe facilities.

“I absolutely think it’s a great idea,” Gallop said. “It gives me an advantage to be licensed.”

Some supporters of the law also say the licensing program could increase the number of potential blood donors by allowing people to donate blood within a year of getting tattoos or piercings. Now, blood banks may turn away prospective donors with tattoos or piercings from unregulated facilities.

Initially, officials believed there would be about 300 establishments registered with the state. The most recent records show 212 establishments have signed up, with more coming in every day, noted state health department spokeswomen Kelly Jakubek.

Source : Pantagraph.com