If Dartmouth area councillors have their way, tattoo artists will no longer be able to set up shop in their own homes, but must instead open their businesses in a properly zoned commercial district.
The Harbour East Community Council, which consists of the four councillors from Dartmouth and one each from Cole Harbour and Eastern Passage, is proposing to enact the new rule in coming months.
The ban on new home-based tattoo parlours would apply only on the east side of the harbour, and would not affect existing tattoo businesses, which would be allowed to continue to operate as they have been.
Interestingly, the proposal has nothing to do with stereotypical distrust of unsavoury tattooists, but rather comes because of frustration with a lack of provincial regulations for tattooists—absolutely no health or safety rules apply to tattooists in Nova Scotia.
“Tattoo parlours have come a long way since the day when your grandfather got an anchor on his arm,” explains councillor Darren Fisher. “I’m not against tattoos—I want one someday, when the Bruins win the cup—but now they do certain things at tattoo parlours.
“You’ve probably seen the person cut a dime-sized hole out of their ear—that piece of ear that comes out is now a piece of biowaste, and that piece of biowaste, does that end up in the green bin? Does it end up in the refuse on the corner?”
A public hearing on the proposed ban will be scheduled next month.
This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2010.
YES!!! About time!! The amount of cross contamination happening and complete LACK of infection control is UNREAL with these home “tattooists”. Its so incredibly easy to contract Hepititas, Staph infections, and so many more infectous diseases, and these people that are tattooing out of their houses have NO proper training, they are just spreading infections, as well as their terrible quaility of work (which is a-whole-nother story!) I cant belive its taken THIS long to finally see something happen!! The rest of the country has regulations, but we dont. What does that say about us?! We dont care about the health of our people? Thats what it says to me!
I hope this paves the way for much more regulation and HOPEFULLY health inspections!
Now, when is Halifax jumping on board?!
A good, safe tattoo is expensive for a reason. Too many people jump at the idea of a free, or low cost tattoo. Especially when it comes from a friend.
Well said, nmb and mutant!
No, I haven’t seen anyone cut a piece out of their ear. They put increasingly larger piercings in to stretch the earlobe. And yes, it looks disgusting.
Oh, and dream on Bruins boy. They aren’t winning the cup anytime soon. Go back to beantown, this is Habs turf!
My question is: if they want to ban “home based” parlours, does this mean that the parlours that are based out of residential zoned properties that have been converted into businesses would be out of the question? I can think of at least one or two parlours on the Darkside that fit this bill. I think they should just come out with strict guidelines in conjunction with the Province and do it properly. We shouldn’t be fencing the issue especially considering how many blood-borne diseases that you can get from a tainted needle.
Unless there is hefty fines and someone actually policing we will always have people tattooing out of their homes. Unless there is a uniform set of rules anyone can still set up a studio and work they are just paying more rent. So in reality they will just be spreading the same disease and infections but disguised as a “professional” and these home tattoo artists will have more access to the public. So let’s be done with this and just implement laws that will keep the public safe as well as the people working in these environments.
Its actually not that hard to implement and I believe the following should be done
yearly inspections (train one or two people that already work for the health board) that would include the studios to prove:
mandatory monthly biological testing of autoclaves (doctors and dentists should also have to do this)
proper surfaces that can be disinfected with a hospital level disinfectant
seperate sterilization area (from work area)
proper biohazard removal
proper flooring that can also be disenfected
full barrier control
seperate handwashing sinks from scrub sinks.
obviously single use needles
I am a local owner of a studio in the city that would love to see this passed and I am sure there are quite a few other professional studios that would also like to see this and would be happy to help out with what needs to happen. At my studio we are already doing all of the above.
All of these rules have been passed in Ontario (which has bi-weekly biological testing), Alberta, Manitoba, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Quebec so these laws have already been written. We would really only need one or two people that already work for the health board to learn about the safe procedures of tattooing and body piercing. This could be someone that is already inspecting tanning salons, nail salons, and or restaurants.
All is all I am glad to see a start to regulations!
hey sacredartist, I’m a journalism student at King’s College. I would love to talk to you for an article I’m doing on tattoo regulations. You can send an email over to ht234037@dal.ca
Thanks!
Heather
Stereotyping the home tattoo artists is pure ignorance-at-large……right up there with the ear bio-hazard waste comment! (thanks sodeypop for setting the record straight on the process, but ‘disgusting’ is in the eye of the beholder)
There is no equation to the health problems stated above and the home tattoo artist….just as there is no equation to the artistic talent of the tattooist and the home tattoo artist or the relationship of the home tattoo artist with the ‘client’.
If you’d all please step off that bandwagon you’re all on for a minute and use your heads to speak truths instead of rhetoric…..we could have a sensible thread.
Maybe it’s not that disgusting to stretch your ears. Still really bizarre how extreme people take it. There’s going to be 60 year olds with ear lobes that go down to their shoulders getting caught on tree branches LOL.
what they need to do is make the informations about these harms and hazards more available to people who might be interested in becoming a tattoo artist.
and lets face it the number of apprenticeships out there compared to the number of aspiring artists out there are nowhere close to being on the same level and i dont mean just every tom did and harry i mean people with actual talent that will never get a chance to do what they could be great at all because they didnt have a buddy who would apprentice them. i think there should be at least one school for body art and body modification in every province or an easier way of getting all youre courses and regulations and licensing because you can never stop hack job artists from making it into the industry but you can make sure they at least learn how to be safe and aware