Quincy Rep. Pushes State Regulations For Tattooing & Body Piercing
QUINCY (CBS) - A Quincy lawmaker is once again pushing a bill to establish statewide regulations for tattooing and body piercing.
Currently, local city and town health departments create their own rules for regulating body art.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe reports
Quincy Rep. Pushes State Regulations For Tattooing & Body Piercing
But State Rep. Bruce Ayers is asking the legislature to change that with a bill that would require tattoo artists and body piercers to get a license through the state Department of Public Health. Shops would have to adhere to sanitation standards and artists would be required to complete a minimum level of training.
Rep. Ayers says many communities have ambiguous policies that can lead to unsafe practices, which raise the risk of customers contracting blood borne diseases like Hepatitis, HIV and tuberculosis.
"Right now there's an extremely high risk of infections by body piercers that don't have this type of training," he told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe.
Ayer's bill also requires shops to get parental consent before giving someone under 18 a piercing.
He sponsored similar bills in 2009 and 2011, but they stalled in legislature.
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