OK is Tattooing, and Tattooing is OK

Oklahoma debates the legality of body art

By CRISTI LAQUER

Click to see full size
Illustration by John Gruen
ok tatoo

OKLAHOMA USED TO BE a state with values. It seems like only yesterday that the head shops were being closed down, Tom Coburn was reelected to the US Senate, gambling was held safely at bay on the reservations, and citizens had to drive to Texas for a tattoo. But a 78 percent increase in Hepatitis C occurrences since 2000 might be enough to bring that tradition crashing down. Since South Carolina passed a bill legalizing tattooing last June, Oklahoma has been the last bastion of purely underground tattooing in the nation; one state, lost among the other 49, dedicated to providing a safe-haven for those who hate tattooing and everything it stands for. But the state legislature is currently considering House Bill 1519, a measure that would legalize and regulate the practice.

Indeed, the matter has come before the state Senate in the past, but traditional values regarding tattoos always held sway over the "Professional athletes [who] display them on the court or on the field," and the "entertainers [who] flaunt them on stage or on the red carpet," as a recent editorial on the Enid News website put it. Last year, when a similar measure failed in the Senate, the Claremore Daily Progress quoted Republican State Senator Mike Fair, who explained that Oklahoma, if tattooed, would bear the brunt of negative perceptions and begin to appeal to a "lesser element." Fair stated, "Go to your penitentiaries and your detention centers over the state and you're going to find a whole lot more tattoos than you will at the honor society at the University of Oklahoma."

Though the values of legislators have long stood strongly against tattooing, the people of the state have always had a taste for ink. Residents often travel beyond state lines or even break state laws to obtain tattoos. According to the Sapulpa Daily Herald, while tattooing is still illegal, parlors continue to spring up throughout Oklahoma. In most of these cases, authorities turn a blind eye-few arrests have been made and few prosecutions filed. Tattoo artists cling to thin semantic arguments regarding whether a tattoo is a "permanent mark under the skin," and who is counted under the law as a "practitioner," to keep their wanton disregard for obedience afloat.

It is precisely the actions of those who flout the law that have inspired the current bill. Its author, State Congressman Al Lindley (D-Oklahoma City), proposed it when he learned about the "shocking dangers many Oklahomans face" when they are tattooed in underground facilities with unsafe equipment. Though the urge for tattoos is strong enough to drive many Oklahomans to criminality, the House has, until this session, taken a straight-forward view of the problem: "You shouldn't mark up your body that way," admonished State Congressman Bill Graves, (R-Oklahoma City) back in 2003. And just because it's being done doesn't mean legislators have to accept it: "We could say the same thing about prostitution, which still goes on, but does that mean we ought to regulate it?"

Aside from preventing those under 18 from receiving tattoos, Lindley's bill would require state authorities to inspect tattoo parlors semi-annually. If legislators pass Bill 1519, they would place tattoo parlors under the regulatory power of the Oklahoma State Department of Health and require that all tattoo artists be licensed by the state Board of Health. Tattooing would be a minor addition to an existing list of practices including body piercing that are already thus condoned and monitored by the state of Oklahoma.

Some news organizations and proponents of tattooing have noted the legal double standard that sanctions permanent make-up but prosecutes body art. The law finds that a micropigmentologist, under the umbrella of cosmetic surgery, has the right to regulation when she applies permanent lipstick and eyeliner, but so far tattoo artists ply their trade in dimly lit parlors where children only go without supervision. Despite the probable passage of HB 1519, legislators would prefer that citizens keep their tattoos under wraps. In Oklahoma, residents only support displays of excessive skin coloration from Tammy Faye Baker telethons.

______________

Cristi Laquer B'07 is still illegal, but authorities turn a blind eye.

Back to Top

the college hill independent

http://www.theindy.com