About 6 weeks ago, my partner and I went to South Street to get ourselves a tattoo. We took our 16 year old son along, thinking he might be able to get the design he'd been begging for for about a year. Well, he went home disappointed. Seems the presence of a parent and proper I.D. means absolutely nothing unless you are at least 18 years of age, with proper identification. That's a good thing.
I was also happy to see that each of the three places we visited was running a pretty neat operation. Licensed, clean, and using all the proper hygienic precautions - disposable needles, clean equipment, work stations properly disinfected, all the right forms to fill out and sign - the works. When I asked at each location why so much seemed to have changed since the parlors of the 60's and 70's, each reply was the same. Apparently, the Department of Public Health (DPH) forces these operations to run a tight ship. Inspections are frequent, and the least little infraction can get then fined or shut down. It may also have something to do with the high prevalence of hepatitis B and C, which we know are communicable bood-borne pathogens... Actually, I don't see why the presence of a parlor should be a problem. I mean, you could look at it this way - compare a new parlor to one of the old bars or deli's we got in the neighborhood. Bars tend to have plenty of intoxicated, sometimes noisy, sometimes obnoxious folks hanging around. They are smelly (you can ususally smell the cigarettes and beer 50 ft away..) and are way less tightly controlled by the DPH than parlors. Parlors aren't smelly (sparklin clean...) And at least parlors require you to be visibly sober before you can get a tattoo. And most people come in by appointment, so there is no noisy, intoxicated crowd hanging around. And a hot-to-trot group of teens can't send in a 21 year old to buy a tattoo for them - but they can send that 21 year old in to purchase a six pack or two. In a vote between which I'd prefer in a neighborhood like ours, I'd take the parlor hands down over another bar. (Smile) My 2 cents... M. M. Harvey ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
