MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Chelsea

Bill, again

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You know, I–I love this, and I thank you, but we have important work to do tonight. I am here first to support Barack Obama. And second — and second, I’m here to warm up the crowd for Joe Biden, though as you will soon see, he doesn’t need any help from me. I love Joe Biden, and America will too.

What a year we Democrats have had. The primary began with an all-star line up and it came down to two remarkable Americans locked in a hard fought contest right to the very end. The campaign generated so much heat it increased global warming.

Now, in the end, my candidate didn’t win. But I’m really proud of the campaign she ran: I am proud that she never quit on the people she stood up for, on the changes she pushed for, on the future she wants for all our children. And I’m grateful for the chance Chelsea and I had to go all over America to tell people about the person we know and love.

Now, I am not so grateful for the chance to speak in the wake of Hillary’s magnificent address last night. But I’ll do my best.

Last night, Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she is going to do everything she can to elect Barack Obama.

That makes two of us.

Actually that makes 18 million of us – because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November.

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August 28, 2008
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City Gets Needled Over Tattoos

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

December 4, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

Hiding cobras, birds, flowers and mythical creatures under their clothes, dozens of people went to City Hall yesterday to urge that a decades-old ban on tattoo parlors be lifted.

Andrea Tasha, 31, a tattoo-artist apprentice at the Rising Dragon tattoo shop in Chelsea, told the city Council’s Health Committee that the ban, enacted during a 1961 hepatitis scare, is no longer necessary.

“If we are talking about health, the professional tattooing industry has been self-regulating,” she said. “The proof of that is there hasn’t been an outbreak of disease in the city.” Tasha added that the city is a mecca for tattoo artists.

Councilwoman Kathryn Freed (D-Manhattan), sponsor of a bill to regulate the industry, said, “It’s a very popular form of body decorating, and a lot of kids do it.”

“That’s one of the things that this bill would do, make it so that minors cannot get it without their parents’ or guardians’ consent,” Freed said.

The bill would create an advisory board of health professionals and tattoo artists to oversee the industry. Artists would have to get permits expected to cost about $200, and fill out forms for each client they tattoo.
The hundreds of parlors operating in the city do so illegally, in defiance of the ban.

The city Health Department, which would inspect the establishments and generally oversee enforcement, favors lifting the ban while offering mandatory courses on infectious disease prevention, said department spokesman Fred Winters.

“We agree that there is not a sufficient public health threat to keep tattoo parlors illegal,” Winters said.

Carlo, who asked to be identified only by his first name, said he already sterilizes equipment used in his three city parlors.

Needles are used once and thrown away, he said. Dyes are poured into single-service caps that are discarded after each use.

Once the province of sailors, bikers and convicts, tattooing has moved into the mainstream in a big way.Carlo said half his customers are women and nine out of 10 customers are professionals such as lawyers, doctors and stockbrokers. “What else can you buy that lasts you a lifetime,” he said.

December 4, 1996
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