NY tattoo law has issues, but a petition for change is working

As Gothamist points out, a new tattoo-related law goes into effect in NY on December 12, and many are not happy about it. Over 33,000 people have already signed a petition to get some wording changed.

The standard procedure by any properly trained tattoo artist involves purchasing large bottles of inks, and pouring them into small plastic, single use, disposable “ink caps”, just enough for the procedure, which are thrown away during clean up. The original large bottle is to be stored away from the client and the work station, and therefore away from any possibility of contamination.

The way the law reads now, would not work with these proven safe, common-practice procedures.

You can read more and sign the petition at Change.org, but congrats to all who already signed it because this positive update was just posted:

Aug 28, 2015 — Huge progress today!! Huge! I spoke to Evan Sullivan who is the legislative director and committee director for Senator Carlucci. They are currently working with the NYS department of health to reword the new regulations as a temporary fix. They’re also going to try to hold the implementation of the new law until it can be amended in January. Myself, Kyle Machattie, and a few other tattoo artists will be in Carlucci’s office Monday morning proposing ideas for rewriting the new law. They will be trying their best to either amend the wording or even change most of the law, as the entire section 2 of the law is vague and misleading, as are major corrections needed in the definition of single use inks. I will update everyone after our appointment on Monday, as this is still very much in the works.

They realize this is a problem, and they are working on fixing it. They appreciate us bringing this too their attention, and want to make it right.

Thank you everyone for the overwhelming support, I will continue to post updates as they come in!

The law also requires single use needles for tattooing and piercing

It also recently become illegal to tattoo or pierce your pets.