For more than 20 years, Baker, 43, worked tattoo parlors from Canada to Florida, leaving his mark on the skin of eager customers.

After moving to Charleston two years ago, Baker was forced to put away his portfolio and find work in another field -- body piercing.

South Carolina is one of two states that outlaw tattooing. The other is Oklahoma.

Now, after a 10-year struggle in the General Assembly, lawmakers are poised to let artists such as Baker put ink to skin.

This week, the state House of Representatives is expected to take up a bill introduced by state Sen. William Mescher, R-Pinopolis, that would legalize tattoo parlors. Similar bills, all introduced by Mescher, have easily passed the Senate only to be killed in the House.

Lawmakers say this time will be different, mainly because the bill's chief opponent has finally stepped out of the way.

"I don't see anything stopping it," said House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston. "The person who was so against it is not here anymore. And I think most people agree that (tattooing) is going on underground in this state, and the way to stop it is through legalization and regulation."

Five times in the past 10 years, Mescher has proposed legalizing the industry and every single time, Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia, has killed the measure.

Knotts, a former police officer, served in the House before being elected to the Senate in a special election in April 2002.

Days before he moved across the hall, Knotts led the charge in the House to defeat Mescher's last attempt to legalize tattooing. Last year, curious about rumors of illegal tattooing, the senator went along on a police raid in Lexington County that uncovered an underground tattoo parlor.

The place was so dirty that he reconsidered his long-held position.

"I still don't like the idea of having tattoo parlors in this state," Knotts said last month. "But seeing that place convinced me we need regulation."

Should the measure clear the House, Gov. Mark Sanford is expected to sign it into law. Sanford spokesman Will Folks said the governor's main concern is that safeguards are in place to protect public health.

Despite the rosy outlook, state Rep. Shirley Hinson, R-Goose Creek, said the tattoo proposal would not get a free ride in the House.

"The torch that Jakie used to carry is beginning to glow again," she said. "I am hearing rumblings that there is still some serious opposition to it."

Most of that opposition centers on the bad image that some feel legalized tattooing would give South Carolina. Opponents of the measure fear tattoo parlors would pop up on every corner.

Such fears are unfounded, Mescher said, because the state's population won't support that many parlors. He added that his bill allows municipalities to control where parlors locate.

Mescher, 76, has no tattoos, nor does he want any. For him, this fight always has been about health.

"If someone wants to get a tattoo, they will get one," he said. "Let's at least give them a safe, clean, place to do it."

Underground tattooing has been going on in the state since the industry was outlawed some 40 years ago. At the time, lawmakers feared an outbreak of hepatitis similar to that in New York in the 1950s. It is said New York officials traced that outbreak to a tattoo artist working on Coney Island.

Known as "scratchers," amateur tattoo artists often work out of living rooms and garages and rarely have formal training in the sanitary requirements of the job.

Baker said he knows of at least 20 underground tattoo parlors in the Charleston area alone.

"I don't like the idea of kids running to these places to get work done," he said. "Most of the tattoo places I've known in other states were as clean as a medical lab. And that's the way it has to be. We are talking about blood borne diseases here. You can't just buy your equipment in the back of a magazine and start doing work."

Mescher's bill, thanks to amendments added by Knotts and state Reps. Catherine Ceips, R-Beaufort, and McLain Toole, R-Columbia, places several limits on the industry.

Tattoo parlors would not be allowed to offer other services, such as body piercing. They would not be allowed to sell retail goods. Single-use needles would be mandated, and no one under 18 could get work done, even if a parent consented.

Joan Graf of Charleston said she favors strict regulations. Graf owns four stores in Charleston and North Charleston that offer everything from used clothes to body piercing.

"Strong regulations help weed out the amateurs," she said. "That's good for everyone."

If Mescher's bill passes, Graf said two of her stores would be refitted to accommodate tattoo parlors. Graf said she knows about six tattoo artists, not counting Baker, who would immediately work for her.

"It's going to blow up once they do legalize it," she said.

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