About Tattoos and Waiting Periods

The Washington, DC city council is considering a new rule requiring a twenty-four hour waiting period before getting a tattoo.

If you had to stop and think about it for a day, would you still get that giant dragon tattoo across your back? That’s the question being raised by health regulators in our nation’s capital, where Washington, DC officials are considering a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before getting a tattoo or body piercings. 

"The licensee or operator of a body art establishment shall ensure that no tattoo artist applies any tattoo to a customer until after twenty-four (24)hours have passed since the customer first requested the tattoo," reads the language of proposed language of new regulations from Washington DC’s Department of Health. 

“We’re making sure when that decision is made that you’re in the right frame of mind, and you don’t wake up in the morning . . . saying, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’ Washington DC Health Department Spokeswoman Najma Roberts told the Washington Post.

In other words, the potential new regulation would largely be aimed at stopping people from getting a tattoo while drunk, or under the influence of other drugs.

This story offers lots of possibilities for comments from a snark like me. But here’s the most obvious one and the one all of my social-conservative friends will jump on: Given that it is a safe assumption that the DC council is populated entirely by people who are well to the left of US society as a whole, especially on social issues, I wonder what they would think of a twenty-four hour waiting period for more serious decisions – e.g., abortions?

Actually, something similar was voiced by a tattoo parlor owner: “Why not 24 hours’ waiting time before shaving your head?” Why not, indeed. Seems like a sensible course of action. The parlor owners are concerned, of course, since probably the majority of their customers are drunk. If this law passes, I can see people waking up the next morning and saying, "Geez, what a hangover! But at least I didn't get a tattoo."

A marketing opportunity for bar owners located near tattoo parlors comes to mind: Sell tickets good for free drinks to tattoo parlor owners, who will then give them to prospective customers signing up for the waiting period. The tickets are good for the next evening. The prospect, the parlor owner hopes, will get drunk again and maybe get the tattoo. Please forward 10% of your gross receipts to me.

My friends on the left would probably be thinking in terms of a waiting period to buy guns, but DC apparently already has that rule.

Full disclosure: I should state that I hate, hate, hate tattoos. Probably almost as much as some of my friends hate abortion and guns. Well, maybe not that much, but I told my kids when they were teens that if they ever got a tattoo they should not bother coming home. I might even have meant it.