FAQ's about the licenses

This is a blog post taken from the treasurer of WABA, Christy Brooker's blog www.christybrooker.blogspot.com
Christy Brooker was on the advisory board at the DOL in a volunteer position for rule righting after the law was passed.   

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

FAQ's for the new licenses

I've been hearing allot of frustration about the new licenses and fees so I'm going to cover some frequently asked questions here. I first want to let everyone know that all of the meetings have been open to the public and continue to be. If you want to be involved in this process you are very welcome to be. Please know that the following is from my perspective and does not represent the DOL, WABA or anyone but myself.
First off, a little bit for the Seattle area people and then we'll move on to all of Washington.
Our King county shop license is no longer going to be required now that the state is taking over so we will only have to have the state shop license for each owner or independent contractor. I worked with Ben Rodgers, the director of the body art department for the state to get rid of any licenses in King County and the shop license this year was pro-rated to $250 instead of the $500 that it cost before since it would no longer be needed after July 1st.
There are two applications on the DOL website. One is for your artist license and one is for your shop license. Each independent contractor has to have an artist license for each art that they provide, tattoo, permanent cosmetics or body art (body art was used to describe branding and scarification.) They will also have to get a location license. An independent contractor is technically operating his or her own business and therefore has to have all the licenses that a shop owner has. I had to get a tattoo license, a perm. cos. license and a location license which totaled up to $800.
When regulation is new it is always going to go through a maturity period. The law was written intentionally vague so that we could get the advisory board together to clarify and make rules that would regulate without the department trying to do it with no knowledge of our industry. We did that and have continued to do that for the last ten months. The problem is that we got a sponsor for the bill and then he dropped us at the last minute so we couldn't get the new language through. That means we where left with this unclear and very vague law this year. We are working very hard to get the new language to the house floor next year so that there will be training requirements and actual regulation. That is what will legitimize us. We have been meeting with Senators and Representatives for the last few months to get the new law through. So now for the big questions.
Why are Clair's and other piercing places not included under this law? They are. Unless they are only doing earlobe piercing. Earlobe piercings are not covered under this law. If they are doing anything other than earlobes they will have to get licensed. We can not regulate earlobe piercings because we can't fight their lawyers. These are huge corporations that will completely destroy this whole process if we try to stop them from piercing ears. It's just not worth risking the whole process that has been going on for six years now. (Read the history post in this blog for the full story.)
Why are the fees so high?
When a program first starts they have to meet their budget. They based their numbers off of Oregon. Our program is a closed program and it is illegal for any of the money that we spend on our licenses to go into the general fund. It stays in our program to pay for our program. If there is a surplus then the fees will have to go down. There are several cosmetology programs that started out at several hundred dollars for the license and have now gone down to less than a hundred dollars. It has happened in the past and I've met people who said that their fees went down. If we can point out to the department all the little permanent cosmetics places and back alley tattoo shops then they will contact them and it will improve our chances of fees dropping. No one is targeting us because they have no reason to as this money does not go into the general fund.
Back to that location license. We are working on the language in the new bill that may clarify that it is for the physical location and not for each business in the location. That was the original intent but once it was interpreted the independent contractor issue made it complicated. Changing it is not a sure thing. We are just trying to work on it. These things take allot of time and have to go through allot of hands so we're doing what we can. If artists are employees then they don't have to have the location license.
I know it's expensive but I think Shawn from the Hive said it best when he said "that's $42 a month. I smoke more than that." We are working very hard to make these laws and licenses more clear, understandable and monetarily affordable. Please trust that we did everything we could including yelling, negotiating and talking in the advisory board meetings to get the fees lower and to get piercing gun shops regulated. These where the two things we couldn't do. There was a huge amount of other things that we did change and we are working to change even more. Please let me know if you have more questions and I'll do my best to answer them.
email: christy@damasktattoo.com

How do I know what's going on with WA State?

Want to know how you can be informed when Washington State is doing something that affects our industry? 
Please sign up for the DOL listserve if you have not already at
http://listserv.wa.gov/cgi-bin/wa?A0=TATTOOBODYARTPIERCERS
This will keep you updated on future progress with any state happenings that affect body artists. They send out updates whenever there is new information regarding meetings or legislative hearings that affect us.

The DOL Artist Advisory Board

The Department of Licensing established a committee to advise the Department on the practice of Tattoo, Body Art, Body Piercing and Permanent Make-up in 2009. The committee assisted with the development of the Washington Administrative Codes (WAC’s) that clarify the new Revised Code of Washington (RCW) that was adopted in legislature in 2009.  The advisory board had regular meetings that where open to the public.  The members where volunteers and received no compensation.  If you would like to read all the meeting minutes they are on Christy Brooker's blog at www.christybrooker.blogspot.com. 
The board members where chosen after an announcement was made to the people on the DOL listserve.  Artists where chosen from the people who sent in resumes to apply for the volunteer positions.  
Please sign up for the DOL listserve if you have not already at
http://listserv.wa.gov/cgi-bin/wa?A0=TATTOOBODYARTPIERCERS
This will keep you updated on future progress with any state happenings that affect body artists. 

Listed below are the ten committee members as well as information relating to their profession and the area of the state they are from:

Leslie Johnston, Tattoo, Body Piercing, Shop Owner - Everett, Washington

Kenneth (Doc) Elsea, Tattoo, Body Piercing, Shop/School Owner - Leavenworth, Washington

Mark Collins, Body Piercing, Shop Owner - Anacortes/Burlington, Washington

Christy Brook, Tattoo, Body Piercing, Shop Owner - Seattle, Washington

Scott Falbo, Tattoo, Shop Owner - Olympia

Mary Tanneberg, Tattoo, Shop Owner - East Wenatchee, Washington

Penny Rudy, Tattoo, Shop Owner - Marysville, Washington

Debra Glugla, Tattoo, Shop Owner - Redmond, Washington

Helen Piatt, Tattoo - Tacoma, Washington


(Note:  Kenneth (Doc) Elsea closed his school in 2010.)

History of the Washington Body Art Legislation

This was sent to Christy Brooker, treasurer of WABA by Troy Amundson who has been doing his best to give our industry a face in Olympia for years.  It is a history of the bills that affect us so we can all see where this regulation came from and started.

"Hopefully, this may help alleviate some of the concerns raised by artists
regarding the passage of new state regulations. Please circulate this
email.

Beginning in 2003, Senator Jim Kastama has pursued regulations against the
tattoo and body piercing industries. His effort in this was motivated by a
constituent from his district, Kitty Candelaria. Kitty is the Director of
the National Hepatitis C Institute.

Jim Kastama
National Hepatitis C Institute

Their argument against the industry was that tattooing is one of the biggest
sources of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) transmission.

In December 2004, I received a call from a contact at Public Health Seattle
& King County. They had received a complaint about a minor that had been
pierced without a parent present. When the health official informed the
parent that there were no laws on body piercing, the parent commented that
they had worked in Olympia and could get laws passed.

Seattle PI Article

I met with the parent and began working in support of body piercing and
scarification laws. I had two goals.
1) to secure representation as stakeholder industries,
2) to make every effort to see that only reasonable regulations could pass.

When I became aware of Senator Kastama's 2005 bill to regulate tattooing and
body piercing, I testified against it. I tried to notify as many artists as
possible of the impending legislation. This cycle has continued over the
last five years.

2005
Testified against
SB 5913 - 2009-10
SENATE BILL REPORT
SB 5913

Testified for
Seattle PI Article
HB 2090 - 2005-06
HOUSE BILL REPORT
HB 2090

Seattle PI Article

2006
Seattle Times Article

2007
Tesitified against
SB 5180 - 2009-10
SENATE BILL REPORT
SB 5180

Testified for
EHB 1383 - 2007-08
HOUSE BILL REPORT
EHB 1383

Lobbying for the body art industry

In 2008, I also testifed before the Cosmetology, Barbering, Esthetics and
Manicuring Advisory Board against the adoption of our professions under
their licensing program. I argued that tattooing, piercing, and permanent
cosmetics needed our own licensing program and should not be regulated by
the CBEM program.


2009
In January, I was notified that Senator Kastama had requested that the
Medical Quality Assurance Commission to make interpretive rulings on all
body art procedures - including traditional tattooing, permanent cosmetic
tattooing, body piercing, scarification, branding, suspension, implants, and
"tongue-splitting". It was also the same argument Kitty Candelaria had made
against my bill in a committee hearing the previous year.

I testified before the Medical Quality Assurance Commission that these
procedures should not be classified as medical. My biggest concerns are the
rulings against traditional tattooing, permanent cosmetic tattooing, and
body piercing.

Those who tattoo may face new rules

It became obvious that a number of legislators were determined to see our
professions licensed and inspected. One way or the other, it was coming
down. After almost five years of fighting Senator Kastama, I seized upon an
opportunity to force him to negotiate. We had the leverage to defuse his
biased, punitive language.

Wash. state senators push for official piercing regulations

After circulating the negotiated language to artists who have worked on
legislation in other states, it was determined this was legislation was
workable. It was not until then, that I pushed for the passage of this
bill. Over the years, I had sent out hundreds of emails to all of the
artists I could, with little to no response.

In that time, only about 20-25 artists ever showed up at committee hearings
to support these industries. The legislative session moves very quickly,
which is why most industries hire professional lobbyists to keep tabs on the
politicians. Often we only had 2-3 days notice before a committee hearing.
On several occasions, there was less than 24 hours notice of actions.

SSB 5391 is an enabling directive giving the Washington State Department of
Health and the Washington State Department of Licensing the authority to
write rules that become law under the Washington Administrative Code (WAC).
The bill itself, as written into the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) is
intentionally loose. This allows for more flexibility under the WAC. Also,
if the RCW is bad, it is much harder to change than the WAC.

It is common practice for these agencies to work with the stakeholder
industries. All of my contact with the agencies has been very positive and
encouraging.

The passage of this bill establishes our own licensing programs. It will be
modeled after the cosmetology program, which includes an advisory board of
practitioners that works with WSDOL to help make policy decisions and
changes. I believe the advisory board also represents the industries in
future legislative matters. We would be guaranteed a voice in all future
decisions relating to these industries.

It is extremely important that as many artists as possible participate in
forming the rules as they will be written. We will have until July 1, 2010
to write our program, it must be complete by then.

There are many, many unanswered questions at this point.

We will be looking at fair laws in other parts of the country. It is not
necessary to reinvent the wheel, we will choose a model code and improve it
to address the needs of the industry in this state.

For example, provisions for tattoo conventions and guest artists are totally
reasonable. We will look at what works well in other states and make
certain that nothing impedes our ability to continue these aspects of our
industries.

The best thing to do now, is to begin looking at what other parts of the
country have in place and what works. It is okay to be skeptical or express
concerns. In fact, there is no way to get the rules written in such a way
that everyone agrees on every detail. Professional discourse and
constructive input will be required to develop the future of our industries.

Ideally, we want the regulations to be supported by as many artists as
possible.

Dissemination of information is also important. I have frequently been
asked whether or not our indutries had a state association. I believe WABA
is an excellent way to circulate ideas and keep artists informed on any new
developments in our state.

I would personally like to apologize for not doing more this session to keep
the industry informed. Please understand that this has taken a tremendous
amount of effort and I have shouldered the majority of the burden with
little active support. Kastama's legislation would have screwed every
artist in this state years ago. I have done everything I could to stop him.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Troy Amundson
piercertroy@yahoo.com

What is W.A.B.A.?

W.A.B.A. is a non-profit collective of Washington State body artists, meaning tattooists, body piercers, permanent cosmetics professionals and enthusiasts of all of the above trades. We come together for education, political involvement and camaraderie. W.A.B.A. pays close attention to Washington State laws that affect our industries.  We communicate with state representatives about our concerns and support of such laws as citizens of Washington state and constituents in individual districts. We represent a higher standard for professionalism and safety. We work to raise the bar for the good of the public and body art community. 
We have no affiliation with the state agencies nor are any of our board members payed in any way by any state agency.  We do not support tattoo and piercing schools or any regulation that would put a large number of studios out of business.  We are the industry and the business and we come from both large and small studios across the state and a wide range of backgrounds and experience.