By Kelly Davis
Independent-Mail
June 12, 2004

A bill likely to be signed into law by Gov. Mark Sanford has as its core a collection of health and safety regulations designed to make newly legal tattoo studios practical surgery suites.

It is so comprehensive, it unnecessarily raises expenses for tattooists, tattoo medical expert and tattoo enthusiast Dr. Kris Sperry said.

The bill requires the Department of Health and Environmental Control to regulate the business, and sets up the basic parameters of those regulations. Many requirements echo rules in other states, as well as South Carolina’s existing body piercing standards.

The bill itself spells out many standards, requiring among other things that tattoo artists:
• use single-use, disposable needles
• autoclave (sterilize with heat) reusable instruments
• create a "sterile field" with sterile instruments on a sterile drape before contact with a client
• use single-use gauze, alum, styptic pencils or other supplies to control bleeding
• use single-use stencils to transfer designs to skin
• perform tattoos in a separate room with a sanitizable floor.

Tattoo artists must pass courses on bloodborne pathogens and tattoo infection control, and obtain an American Red Cross First Aid Certificate and CPR certification.

Artists must not tattoo anyone under the influence of drugs or alcohol, nor tattoo on skin that is unhealthy or on the head, face or neck.

Twenty years ago when Dr. Sperry, now Georgia’s chief medical examiner, became a tattoo enthusiast, "none of the artists knew anything about health and safety and basic disease prevention," he said.

That has changed. Screening clients, autoclaving, basic sanitation, disposable needles and ink cartridges are standard and promoted by artists and industry groups.

But some health requirements in South Carolina’s new law and in other states, such as requiring operating-room-like sterility, are overzealous, Dr. Sperry said.

"All of that is fine, but excessive," he said. "This is not surgery. There is some bleeding from the skin surface, but that can be wiped off with a paper towel and thrown in a biohazard container."

There is no known case of HIV being transmitted by tattoo needles, he said.

"Hepatitis B and C are the diseases of real risk, although I personally have never seen a case come out of a street-level tattoo shop where people use rubber gloves and sterile needles."

Kelly Davis can be reached at (864) 260-1277 or by e-mail at davisk@IndependentMail.com.

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