Underground Tattooing Taboo Nationwide

In other parts of the country, like Utah, there are fewer laws and guidelines for tattoo shop owners regarding sterile procedures and what is considered underground tattooing. The health risks of tattooing in less than sterile situations and by unlicensed or underground tattoo artists are considerable, in addition to the fact that many will tattoo minors.

The following article concerns the recent changes proposed in Provo, Utah, and are an indication of the tide turning on a national level in this area of the tattoo industry.



Board of Health considers 'underground' body artists
November 23, 2010
Heidi Toth - Daily Herald

PROVO -- An underground movement of unlicensed body artists throughout the county has tattoo and piercing shop owners worried for their businesses and their customers' health.

"People think it's OK to tattoo out of the home," said Body & Soul Tattoo owner Melissa Shaw at Monday's Board of Health meeting. "It's absolutely not."

Body artists are required to have a license from the Utah County Health Department, which regulates the sanitary conditions of the shop and requires personnel to undergo training in topics like blood-borne pathogens and how to keep customers safe from risk through proper equipment cleaning and other tasks.

However, those 50 or so unlicensed business owners -- who may be operating out of garages, back rooms or other spaces not set up for the job -- not only do not pay for the required licensure, but also don't generally have sanitary conditions, Shaw said. They draw customers, often minors, with cheap prices and a lack of parental notification. First, she said, minors should not be getting tattoos or body piercings. She knows of 14-year-olds who have gotten their genitals pierced at these illicit businesses.

"I think they should be prosecuted for possible child abuse," Shaw said.

But second, and the main point of concern for the Board of Health, is that, because sanitary conditions aren't guaranteed, people's tattoos and piercings got infected more frequently, and those customers opened themselves up to other infections from dirty equipment, including MRSA, a highly drug-resistant bacteria, and even hepatitis or HIV.

Jason Garrett, the program manager for infectious diseases, said his department took these complaints frequently and were working with a deputy in the sheriff's department as well as a prosecutor in the county attorney's office to both verify that illegal activity was happening and work toward prosecuting it. The second step, however, was proving to be the difficult aspect since they would need to gather evidence to actually take shop owners to court.

The Board of Health considered a number of options for crackdowns, including continuing to work with the sheriff's department to gather evidence on illicit body artists and also notifying cities of these shops, which probably do not have business licenses to operate.

Dr. Joseph Miner, the executive director of the health department, also said they were going to work on creating awareness within the community so that people who wanted tattoos, piercings or permanent cosmetics would know they needed to find a shop with the proper permits to protect themselves.



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