A little too close to home...

[SterileSteve]

I've spent 24 years trying to change minds about Tattooing. Some minds can't be changed.


It's pretty hard to find good locations to rent for tattoo shops because we still have a long way to go before we are accepted. I lost four good locations this year as soon as I told them my art business was actually tattooing. I had no problem convincing them that I was a good person. It was the "idea" of a "tattoo" shop that they didn't want. This was in Marietta area where we already have over a dozen shops.

Over the years I have been active with legislators and helped stop the state laws that would have made tattooing illegal in Georgia. Laws similar to the ones that Peachtree City just passed.

Peachtree City is a community designed for upper middle class, conservative, families to live in a utopia setting. They don't like their kids growing up around skateboarders, punks, emos, bikers, tattooed people or any one else that doesn't fit their mold.

AON is located in Smyrna where tattooing was legal until 1983 and then became illegal. Brandon was able to open a shop only because two decades had passed and the Mayor's office and commissioners had all changed and the Officer in charge of checking licenses gave the go ahead to allow it with conditions. The officer was cool with tattooing because he rode Harleys and many of his friends have tattoos. He is a personal friend and knows that I have contested Smyrna's laws since they were enacted.

Brandon has became friends with many Law Officers and the shop is clean and never has any problems associated with shops of the past. AON has shown that they can fit in the community without causing problems....but it took twenty years and the right mix of people to make it happen.

Peachtree City doesn't have the right mix to make it happen, and the law to have a doctor on premise could have devastating effects on the other cities and counties that decide to follow suit. It was just in the last year that the cosmetic Tattooists were able to convince lawmakers to remove the state law requiring a doctor present to tattoo within one inch of the eyesocket. That came after the intense lobbying efforts of the cosmetic industry which has a cosmetic board to regulate themselves.

I speak from experience. Georgia legislators as a whole are against tattooing and would outlaw it completely if they could. The reason they set it up for the individual counties to regulate was so they could legally make it too expensive and regulated to make it feasible to open a shop.

I hope the best for the shop in Peachtree City and I hope that they succeed in getting the law revoked...for all of our sakes!

[Maetoch]

I know how he feels, sorta. I work and live in a town of about 7000 people, maybe if that. We only have 3 redlights throughout the whole town and the stop signs read"whoa". anyway, the city passed an ordinance stating that tattoo shops, massage parlors, and some other kind of business, cannot open within 1000 feet of a church or school. We were grandfathered in due to having been open for 10+ years prior to the ordinance being passed, but now a church moved in right next door to us. I don't mean, walk across a parking lot and some grass to get to their building next door, I mean right on the other side of the wall. Every wednesday night sucks because they fill the parking lot up and everyone that drives by thinks we are busy while we are really sitting inside staring at the walls. i asked a council member how that was deemed fair and I was told a church has the right to open wherever they like. Now, I'm not knocking religion, to each his own, but it just seems that ordinance is a little one sided. There are 36 churches in the area, not counting the university that runs this town, they blocked Wal-Mart from moving here if that tells you anything about them. We have even been told that the university tells its student body during orientation to not be seen inside our shop for risk of expulsion, which just sends them running one county over. Anyway, I know its nothing compared to what the fellow in the article is going through but it still sucks the big one.

[parabellum]

Steve.

Wow, thanks for sharing all that great info....keep fighting the good fight!