February 26, 1997
by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer
New Yorkers may soon be able to get openly what they’ve been getting illegally for 35 years — tattoos.
The City Council yesterday passed a law that would lift the official though little-enforced 1962 ban on tattooing.
Councilwoman Kathryn Freed (D-Manhattan), who sponsored the law, said it was absurd for the city to continue pretending that the increasingly popular trend of body art did not exist.
“This way we actually put in regulations so that the artists are protected, and the public at large is protected,” Freed said. “People are going to do it, so you might as well regulate it to safeguard the public.”
The city enacted the ban amid fear that the needles used in tattooing could trigger a hepatitis epidemic. Despite the law, tattoo parlors have continued to operate and city health officials have looked the other way.
The City Council measure, which requires mayoral approval, would replace the ban with a new licensing system.
Before setting up shop, tattoo artists would be required to take a city Health Department course on infectious disease prevention. They would also have to pass a Health Department exam before they would qualify for a license. The license, good for two years, would cost $100.
Tattoo artists found guilty of operating illegally would face fines ranging from $300 to $1,000.
Tattoo artists at the Council meeting, where the proposed licensing system passed by a 38-to-7 vote, said they were happy to gain municipal legitimacy. But some contended that the licensing system would not safeguard the tattoo-craving public.
East Village tattoo artist Tom Murphy complained that the law will not require inspections of tattooing parlors to make sure that they use sanitary and safe body-decorating procedures.
The city Health Department, while endorsing the move to lift the ban, opposed mandatory inspections. Health officials said inspections would be too expensive and time consuming at a time when the city faces more serious health threats.
Health Department spokesman Fred Winters said agency officials would also prefer regulating the tattoo industry through the health code instead of through an amendment of city administrative laws.
Mayor Giuliani said he would consider all sides in the debate before deciding whether to sign the law.
Original Story Date: 022697
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