The Local Government Association has called for tougher punishment for tattooists working without a license.
So-called “scratchers” can already be prosecuted and receive a £20,000 fine or jail time under health and safety legislation – but local councils are campaigning because they fear the number of those getting tatted at their kitchen table is increasing.
This, they claim, is because tattoo equipment is becoming more widely available on the internet and social media can be used to tout for business.
If this is England, I want out. Man gets @jeremycorbyn tattoo. This woman has @Nigel_Farage https://t.co/zxQQWIuwjE pic.twitter.com/PcBZB9MOuB
— Joseph Willits (@josephwillits) November 10, 2015
Considering contemporary tattoo culture was spawned under-the-radar of authorities by those on the margins of society – prostitutes and prisoners working with sewing needles and charcoal – attempting to clamp down on this subversive art is pretty ironic.
Sure, children should be educated about the health risks associated with scratching (last year a man was prosecuted for selling tattoos at “pocket money prices”), but is tougher sentencing and tighter legislation surrounding the tattoo industry really going to stop DIY inking, or just drive it underground?
Looks good mate pic.twitter.com/XpnYTtm496
— shit tattoos (@TattoosShit) February 18, 2016
Body ink has long been a counter-culture craft and I, for one, am glad to see it return to its roots as a homespun, even controversial practise.
Morris Bright, an LGA board member, says tattooists operating out of sheds and sitting rooms are “a real danger” to people’s health – but it sounds to me like the standard scaremongering of the terminally vanilla.
And, of course, personal expression through DIY body modification is nothing new.
Tattooists Reveal Worst Tattoos They’ve Ever Given To Clients #badtattoos https://t.co/7gO8DiD6Zd pic.twitter.com/ra2XoYJi0L
— Tattoo Designs (@TattooDesigns6) July 20, 2016
I vividly remember hammering my best friend’s belly button with a large unsterilised safety pin on the floor of my parent’s bathroom at 14.
People (especially young people) have always, and will always, be idiots in the privacy of their own home. No internet necessary.
Whilst tattooing kids is undeniably stupid, at-home tattooing isn’t necessarily.
Just because something happens under the radar of local government, that doesn’t mean it’s deviant and dangerous.
Often it’s the only chance tattoo artists have to get their start and practise their art.
Give up pic.twitter.com/zm2XAi24yy
— shit tattoos (@TattoosShit) February 16, 2016
The values tattooing typically exalted (rebellion, self-expression, reclaiming a body society deems low-value) are sentiments we must preserve, not legislate out of existence.
I love the internet for all it has democratised – including tattooing.
There’s a stuffy elitism in the body art industry these days that doesn’t sit well with me.
Ink doesn’t have to be a painstaking, intricate art form, or a serious personal statement.
Sometimes tats are simply a vehicle to claim our bodies as our own, to do with as we please. Sometimes they’re a youthful rebellion, a right of passage.
What people do with their bodies in the privacy of their own home is up to them.
Local councils need to politely warn us about Hepatitis, then let us get on with doing whatever the heck we want with our own skin.
