"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
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