The city of Folly Beach and every other local jurisdiction in South Carolina should have the authority to restrict tattoo parlors, and a bill that would legalize tattooing in the state properly has an amendment for local control.
Folly Beach council recently voted to ban tattoo parlors within its boundaries, following House and Senate passage of a bill, proposed by Sen. Bill Mescher, R-Berkeley, to legalize their operation. The Senate bill was amended in the House by Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston, to allow local government to impose greater restrictions than the state on their operation.
That provision, if included in the conference committee's version of the bill, would allow local governments to ban tattoo parlors, a spokesman for the S.C. Municipal Association tells us. Even if it were not included, however, local governments would retain authority to limit where they can operate through zoning, the association spokesman said.
Local government already exercises authority over other controversial uses by requiring them to operate in narrow zoning categories. Strip clubs and adult bookstores, for example, have been limited by some jurisdictions to certain industrial zones.
The zoning authority of local government should ensure that tattoo parlors won't be popping up all over even if the local option amendment isn't included in the final version of the bill. But absent that amendment, tattoo parlors couldn't be totally excluded by a municipality.
There is a public health rationale for allowing tattoo parlors to operate legally, so they can be monitored and tattoo artists can be regulated. But the law shouldn't effectively force their presence on local communities.
If Folly Beach doesn't want to allow tattoo parlors within the city limits, its elected council should be able to make that call. The same should be true for every other local jurisdiction in the state.
Click here to return to story:
http://www.charleston.net/stories/042804/edi_28edit2.shtml