Single-Use Ink Tattoo Law Resolved

A few months back, we featured a story on-air and on the website about a law that was being passed to restrict tattoo artists in New York state to use only one-time-use ink shots. Ostensibly, the goal was to prevent risks to customers receiving tattoos, but many artists said that the measures--good intent or not--would do very little to help the problem and would, instead, be cost-prohibitive and ineffective.

This resulted in widespread discussion about the topic and petitions like this one that sought to resolve the problem through means that made more practical sense.

In what is being declared as a major victory, a new law--which does not require the expensive measures of the original law--has been signed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, which you can read here. 

From the Change.org petition linked above, if you'd like to get involved or read about more laws pertaining to tattooing:

There is a new proposed bill in the works regarding restricting the sale of tattoo supplies to unlicensed persons.https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2015/a6674a

Another proposed bill regarding licensing and penalties for unlicensed tattooing
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2015/a4895

These are the sort of issues that were brought up to lawmakers by many artists in response to the ink issue. Contact your local lawmakers and show your support, they are listening!

In the future, check out www.nysenate.gov and type in “tattoo” into the search to find bills that are being proposed.

Oh, and of course, since you're here reading about tattooing, why not head over and vote in the first round of WRRV's Tattoo Redo, sponsored by Graceland Tattoo?