Trevor Frey Independent Mail Anderson resident Michelle, 19, (who asked that her last name be withheld) gets her tattoo of a cross touched up by Lavonia, Ga., tattoo artist Don Pulliams on May 28, 2004. "I think it's good that we'll be able to get it done in Anderson," said Michelle. "I think I like Don, so I'd probably come back here."

By Kelly Davis
Independent-Mail
June 5, 2004

It won’t happen overnight, but sometime after Gov. Mark Sanford’s signature dries on a bill ratified last month by the General Assembly, ink from tattoo artists will be injected under South Carolina residents’ skin legally for the first time in decades.

The change is the result of one Lowcountry Republican’s 11-year fight to bring more health and safety to an underground economy of "scratch shops," and while the bill that finally passed has more restrictions than Sen. Bill Mescher would have liked, he’ll take it.

"I thought people would jump on (supporting) it as in, ‘Let’s get into this health hazard,’ but it turned into a morality issue," said Sen. Mescher, R-Pinopolis, who attempted an earlier version of tattoo legalization as his first independent legislative act. "As time went on, people began swinging over to the health issue."

Sen. Mescher’s bill removes the prohibition against permanent body art in the Palmetto State, but tattooing will not spring up immediately. The bill requires artists to have a permit from the Department of Health and Environmental Control, and the regulations setting up the standards for such a document do not yet exist.

But even before the bill was ratified, the health department was on it, spokesman Thom Berry said.

"We’ve already discussed the procedures (for creating regulations) internally," he said. "We already started talking about scheduling a meeting for those interested in getting a license, for input on what goes into the regulations. As soon as the bill gets signed, we will send a notice of the proposed meetings."

‘He has to go to Mommy’
The story on tattooing in South Carolina, as Sen. Mescher tells it, is that it was allowed but unregulated until the 1960s, when an outbreak of hepatitis raised concerns about the conditions in so-called "scratch shops."

"Instead of regulating it and making it sanitary, they just outlawed it," he said.

In 1993, as a new senator, he was approached by a man making his living as an underground tattooist.

"He didn’t want his children looking down on him as a criminal," Sen. Mescher said. "So there was that aspect, but mainly it was a safety issue. I saw young people, especially young girls, in these scratch shops."

But no other senator ever signed on to his various bills as a co-sponsor, even the latest, successful one. An identical bill was sponsored in the House by Democratic Rep. Todd Rutherford, a Columbia attorney, who also labored without co-sponsors.

The final bill has a few provisions Sen. Mescher objects to, but he said he was willing to accept them in the spirit of compromise — and because he thinks they will be removed in time.

Some highlights of the bill:
• Tattooing must be performed by a licensed professional at least 21 years old.
• Artists must not tattoo anyone under 21 without parental permission. Those under 18 may not get tattoos.
• Tattooing may not be performed in a location with body piercing or any other retail business, including such tattoo-shop standards as T-shirts and jewelry.

There also are a slew of safety and sanitary requirements which have become commonplace in most states, but which one medical expert said were overkill.

"Tattooing is not like blood dripping all over the place," said Dr. Kris Sperry, chief medical examiner for Georgia and a tattoo enthusiast who has been adopted by the National Tattoo Association as an informal medical consultant. "There are very few real risks of transmitting infectious diseases. Most opponents know nothing about it. They just think it’s filthy and disgusting and only prostitutes and drug addicts and sailors get tattoos."

Gov. Sanford has said he would sign the bill only if it included plenty of safety precautions in its final form, spokesman Will Folks said.

Violations are misdemeanors punishable by up to $2,500 in fines, a year in jail, or both. The current punishment for illegal tattooing is up to the local magistrate.

A provision that required license applicants to get their municipalities and counties to pass ordinances allowing tattooing was nixed in exchange for language prohibiting shops within 1,000 feet of churches, playgrounds or schools.

Sen. Mescher predicts the rules will lead to fewer tattooing operations in South Carolina than there are now, but they will be legal and safer.

"The only thing I really don’t like is that someone between 18 and 20 must get parental consent," he said. "I can’t see some young man coming back from Iraq with a chest full of medals, maybe wounded, and he has to go to Mommy to get permission for a tattoo. He can go over there and get shot at, but doesn’t have a mature enough mind to get a tattoo."

Jim Hayes, the head of North Carolina’s tattoo regulation program in the Environmental Health office, said 18- to 20-year-old residents simply will continue to travel to one of his state’s 450 tattoo shops, many strung along the border.

Sen. Mescher also said the separation of tattooing and other businesses seemed unnecessary.

Mr. Hayes said North Carolina considers tattoo studios the best place for body piercing.

"The same concerns exist," he said. "You already have the equipment."

Sen. Mescher said the most onerous restrictions were put in by opponents to "load it down with as much baggage as they could" to discourage tattoo artists from seeking permits.

"They finally got so tired they gave up," he said. "We finally came to our senses and said, ‘This has to be regulated.’"

‘That’s kind of crazy’
Many outside the General Assembly already were there. Tattoo and other body-art professionals, regulators in neighboring, tattoo-friendly states and medical experts said they find South Carolina’s ban on permanent body marking puzzling from moral and health perspectives.

Oklahoma now is the only state to prohibit tattooing.

Americans are more accepting of permanent body art and piercings beyond the earlobe, said Don Pulliam, owner of Custom Skin Art in Lavonia, Ga.

"Eighteen- to 60-year-olds come in," he said. "All walks of life, all races, all creeds. It’s really amazing. I get a lot of Christians who come in and want to get a heart, a portrait of Jesus or a cross or praying hands."

The Lavonia native got his start at 13 when a friend got a tattoo machine and they practiced on themselves. He did not begin doing tattoos for a living until he was 30 and went to work for another friend. Five years later, he went solo part-time. Five months ago, he quit his job and opened his shop. With customers paying from $40 to more than $3,000 for body art, plus jewelry, T-shirts and body piercing, he expects to gross at least $100,000 this year.

A shop doing tattooing alone can work, he said, but it defies the culture.

"To me, that’s kind of crazy," he said. "They’ve either got a tattoo or a body piercing or want both. Ninety percent want both. It’s getting more accepted."

Selling jewelry and body piercing is "a big part of the business in North Carolina," said Mr. Hayes, the Environmental Health Program supervisor. "They’re kind of one-stop body art shops."

But Amanda Crocker, a 30-year-old, tattoo-covered hairstylist-turned-body piercer with Whatever Body Piercing in Greenville, said separating the businesses is better because they require different skills.

"I have no interest in doing tattoos personally," she said.

With the imminent legalization of tattooing, her boss has talked about opening a tattoo shop, but not seriously.

"I’m sure there will come a time," she said. "There is plenty of demand."

She got many of her 15-odd tattoos, including her newest and favorite, a set of cherries around her elbow with a leaf branching off, at World Famous in Columbus, N.C.

"They get a lot of South Carolina business," she said.

Mr. Pulliam set up in Lavonia not because it is near the border, but because it is his hometown. However, during the busy season between tax-return time and the start of school, about half his traffic each Friday and Saturday comes from South Carolina.

He is not worried about losing business to shops across the Savannah River.

"The only people I’m going to lose are people who don’t know me," he said. "If you’ve been to the same person to get your hair cut for five years, you don’t want to go to anyone else, because you worry a little bit."

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

Copyright 2004, Anderson Independent Mail. All Rights Reserved.