Public hearing to be set for body art business regulations
Date: 8/13/2012
By Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.comEAST LONGMEADOW — The Board of Selectmen, acting as the Board of Health, will schedule a public hearing regarding health regulations for body art establishments.
The board was prepared to make a vote on the regulations when Health Inspector Fred Kowal pointed out the need for a hearing.
Kowal said, the matter can be voted on by the Board of Health and would not have to go before a town meeting.
"By law, you have to have a public hearing where people can speak for or against it. You can vote at that time and create Board of Health regulations," he said. "It's like the smoking regulations we put together."
Board of Selectmen Chair Jack Villamaino explained that the board has been working on the regulations, which were modeled after draft regulations provided by the state.
The draft regulations were reviewed and edited by Town Counsel James Donahue and Kowal, who said the two attempted to make the regulations as restrictive as possible.
"I reviewed them with town counsel and made them as strict as possible," he said. "This was a model regulation that we made even stricter."
The Board of Selectmen forwarded the amended document to the Planning Board for their insight, despite the fact that the Planning Board has no say in Board of Health matters.
"We referred it to [the Planning Board] counsel-amended regulations and as far as I know, they voiced no objections," Villamaino said.
The draft regulations include a host of restrictions and parameters for the operation of a body art studio.
The regulations, if approved, would strictly forbid the piercing of genitalia, as well as branding — the use of hot metal brands or cauterizing equipment to permanently scar skin — and other scarification methods.
Body art establishments would be required have smooth, light colored, washable walls, floors, ceilings and procedure surfaces that are free of holes or cracks. Procedure areas would have to be partitioned away from any other area to prevent contaminations and each procedure station must have at least 45 square feet of working room and each area must contain a hand sink.
Any establishment would be required to have a cleaning area for the sterilization of equipment and all equipment must be kept in clean, dry, covered containers.
No animals or eating or drinking or smoking would be allowed.
Children under the age of 18 would be able to receive a body piercing, which the exception of genitalia piercing, if accompanied by a properly identified parent or guardian who signs a consent form.
In addition to the Board of Health regulations, the town must also adopt zoning changed to allow the use of property in the business district for body art establishments by right, provided it is not within 500 feet of a church or public school.
The Planning Board voted to present the bylaw changes at the Oct. 1 Special Town Meeting and have yet to schedule the mandatory public hearing for that article, which would most likely take place in mid-September, Planning Director Robyn Macdonald explained.
The town would have to approve the bylaw amendment at Town Meeting in order to be in compliance with an Oct. 2010 ruling by Superior Court Justice Barbara Rouse in the case of Sephan A. Lanphear & John Parkinson versus the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Rouse found in favor of Lanphear and Parkinson, who stated that Massachusetts General Law Chapter 265, Section 34, which prohibited tattooing in the Commonwealth, violates the First Amendment and article 16 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.
Macdonald told
Reminder Publications that failure to come into compliance would open the town up to a lawsuit, for which at minimum, the town would be responsible for legal fees.
