The annual quest to decriminalize tattooing in South Carolina got under way last week, with even longer odds against success. In years past, passage of a bill to legalize tattooing and subject it to state-health and local-zoning regulation would have required a House majority willing to face down former Rep. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia. That didn't happen because it takes guts to thwart a legislator who "reasons" that people don't have the right to mark up the bodies God gave them.

This year, Knotts is a senator and can block any bill. Only a two-thirds Senate vote to force debate can override Knotts' anti-tattooing demagoguing now.

Still, senators should muster the will power to do that - if only to get this issue off their plates. Senators have passed bills approving tattooing three times, most recently in 2001.

In a state that supposedly respects personal freedom, the S.C. tattoo ban is wildly out of place. The world won't end if Knotts stymies legalization - again. But our state's reputation as a crackpot nanny with an unhealthy interest in people's bodies will remain intact.