Ready to redraw city’s tattoo law
“Most of our facilities are very good at self-regulating, and the vast majority of people we have are licensed with the state. But we have had complaints about allergic reactions, infections and people not being licensed.”
Lisa Morrissey, Danbury’s health director.
DANBURY — Take a chance on an unlicensed tattoo operation, and you may risk more than ending up on a “What were they thinking?” internet gallery.
Infections, allergic reactions and blood-borne diseases such as Hepatitis B and HIV can result from unsafe body piercing practices.
So the city is cracking down on amateur tattoo and body piercing shops with a plan to regulate everything from keeping meticulous medical records to requiring hospital-grade washing solution.
“Most of our facilities are very good at self-regulating, and the vast majority of people we have are licensed with the state,” said Lisa Morrissey, Danbury’s health director. “But we have had complaints about allergic reactions, infections and people not being licensed.”
The main change that Danbury’s tattoo and body piercing artists can expect if the ordinance is passed by the City Council is to pay an as-yet undetermined fee for a city license each year, and to submit to annual health inspections.
That would be on top of the license fee that tattoo and body piercing artists already pay the state health department to practice legally in Connecticut.
Most of the other provisions in the city’s proposed ordinance concerning safety protocol and health care training are already established procedures in Danbury’s leading tattoo studios, several owners said this past week.
“I don’t like the idea of a license to tattoo in Danbury when I already have a license to tattoo in Connecticut,” said Eric Tymula, a co-owner of Danbury Tattoo and Piercing on the city’s west side. “They are not going to regulate us any further than we are already regulated, and to be honest with you, I haven’t seen their inspectors in the 12 years I’ve been working in Danbury.”
The city is following Connecticut’s lead, which became one of the last states in the country to regulate tattoo and body piercing when it passed its registration law in 2015. The law required tattoo and body piercing artists to pass regular blood-borne disease training, among other requirements.
“The state does the licensing, but the state requires local health departments to do the inspections,” Morrissey said.
Inspection rights
The proposed ordinance, in addition to giving Danbury health technicians the right to inspect a tattoo studio’s procedures and records, also establishes detailed protocols for how to safely administer tattoos and piercing.
“I’m up on all that, so I’m not sweating it,” said Richie Nigro, owner of Luv Ink, a 3-year-old licensed tattoo and piercing studio on the east end of Danbury. “There are shops around here operating that aren’t legal or licensed or up to practice, and I haven’t seen anybody from the health department in 10 years that I’ve been tattooing.”
While Nigro and several other tattoo studio owners said they’ll have no problems complying with the protocols and passing inspections, they object to being the last ones to find out about the ordinance when they are the first ones affected by it.
He also doesn’t like the idea of paying a new fee.
“I pay the state $200 annually for the tattoo license, so to pay another license fee is, for lack of a better word, annoying,” Nigro said. “It just seems like another thing the city is trying to get money for, and I am already giving the city good money, and I’m helping the economy.”
Morrissey responded that Nigro and other leaders in Danbury’s tattoo business will have a chance to offer input when the ordinance comes up for a public hearing. The first step is for the ordinance to pass the review of a group of department heads and City Council members.
The ordinance is being proposed at the same time as crackdowns on two other under-regulated industries — massage parlors, and “body care facilities” — the city’s umbrella term for barbers, nail salons, and skin-care services.
The city’s massage parlor ordinance made headlines in March, as part of the larger national story about combating sex trafficking.
Morrisey said she did not have an estimate about how many amateur tattoo and piercing shops were operating in Danbury. She added there have been no recent formal complaints that have led to suspects being charged.
City health inspectors are already being trained to conduct tattoo shop inspections, and the department is putting together a public information campaign of posters and digital notices to inform the industry about the changes, should the ordinance pass.
Tymula said he looked forward to giving his input.
“Between myself and the other two owners here, we have well over 30 years of experience in the industry — which is way more than anybody in the health department has,” Tymula said, looking up from an old rose tattoo that he was refreshing for a client on Friday.
“Connecticut was one of the last states in the country to require licensing, and Danbury is kind of catching up,” Tymula said. “We would like to catch up with them.”