ShareThisTattoos were once a standard way for a guy to thumb his forearm at authority.
But veteran tattoo artist Courtney McIntyre says more authority may be what's needed to better protect customers of the expanding body-art industry.
He's in favor of a bill approved last week by the California legislature that imposes stricter training, registration and safety rules on artists that tattoo or brand skin with a hot iron, pierce anything other than an earlobe, or apply permanent cosmetics.
"Laws are not terrible things," said McIntyre, owner of Tattoo the Body Embellished in Sacramento.
He said he wishes more customers would express concern about safety, and ask to see how he and his artists sterilize equipment and dispose of every needle -- used only once -- in a safe fashion.
Introduced by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, the Safe Body Art Act is on the governor's desk waiting his attention.
The act also applies to body artists operating out of vehicles or temporary booths at conventions or street fairs.
If signed, the bill requires all body artists -- except for standard ear piercers -- to register annually with counties, and undergo sanitation and certified blood-borne pathogen training.
Artists must also be at least 18 years old, prove they are vaccinated against hepatitis B, and show that they completed an accredited four-hour first aid and CPR course.
The act also requires some training of employees of businesses that pierce earlobes, though it is not as extensive as those who pierce other body parts.
"You don't just give someone an ear-piercing gun and say, 'Have a go at it,' " said Justin Malan, executive director of the California Conference of Directors of Environmental Health.
Malan's organization supports the new rules, which were crafted with the help of parlor owners.
The act would replace existing 10-year-old sanitation regulations and a requirement that parlor owners register with counties by paying a one-time $25 fee.
The new act requires that parlor owners renew a county health permit every year.
Public health officials say that California needs greater scrutiny of these businesses because of their extraordinary growth. In 10 years, there's been a 400 percent increase in the number of piercing and tattooing establishments.
About 36 percent of Americans between 18 and 29 are tattooed now, according to estimates by the American Academy of Dermatology.
Health officials are concerned that customers could suffer from infections and disease at the hands of untrained and unscrupulous artists, Malan said.
Santa Clara County, he said, received a report two years ago of a possible hepatitis B infection that might have been transmitted at a tattoo show.
"You just need a few dozen of these folks who aren't practicing safe body art to put the public at risk," Malan said.
E-mail reporter Susan Ferriss at sferriss(at)sacbee.com.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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