Columbia County OKs tattoo, piercing rules
by Donnie Fetter
Published : March 15, 2011

GEORGIA – Columbia County Commission gave final approval Tuesday to an ordinance imposing greater restriction on tattoo parlors.

The ordinance requires parlor owners, tattoo artists and body-piercers to seek licenses renewed annually by the county Health Department.

To obtain a license, artists must undergo training in CPR, first aid, universal blood-borne precautions and tattoo-infection controls.

Also, parlors and artists must submit to health inspections twice each year. Before the ordinance, parlors had not been subject to inspections.

State law requires only that artists refrain from tattooing clients within an inch of the eyes or tattooing anyone younger than 18. The law also forbids body-piercing anyone younger than 18 without parental consent.

The ordinance went into effect on approval.

County environmental health specialist Andrea Frazier and other inspectors will guide each parlor through a mock inspection and provide each artist with a copy of the ordinance before true inspections begin.

Emergency and Operations Director Pam Tucker said this month that officials have worked on the ordinance for about a year and that it was written with the cooperation of tattoo artists and parlor owners.

Also at the meeting, the commission named Tuesday “Bill Beazley Homes Day” for the construction company’s recent help on a project for an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition .

In December, Bill Beazley Homes built a house for Augusta resident Earnie Graham and her two children, in addition to a handicapped-accessible log cabin for the Girl Scouts’ Camp Tanglewood in Evans.

Bill and son Stephen Beazley were honored with a plaque and proclamation from the commission.

Source : The Augusta Chronicle