In a typical week, more than half the customers at LeDan Peace's Augusta tattoo parlor come from South Carolina, where a longstanding ban on tattooing has created a cottage industry for border towns.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
|
|
Have a thought?
Go to the Forums or Chat.
|
|
|
That all could change if, as lawmakers predict, the 37-year prohibition on permanent body artistry is lifted in the Palmetto State's next legislative session. For some, the writing is already on the wall - or the skin.
"I don't think that (ban's) going to last much longer," said Mr. Peace, a second-generation tattoo artist who runs Eddie Peace Tattoo Studio, Augusta's oldest parlor. "I think it's going to affect everybody's business here in Augusta."
Drawing on the demand from Fort Gordon and South Carolina, the Garden City has an abundance of tattoo parlors. There are at least 18 shops in the Augusta area, most counting largely on South Carolinians to keep the ink flowing and the cash register ringing.
For years, South Carolina state Sen. Bill Mescher, R-Pinopolis, a conservative 75-year-old lawmaker, has pushed to repeal the state's tattoo ban. He argued for the legalizing of tattooing on the grounds of public health, not freedom of expression.
South Carolina, like many states, banned the practice in 1966 after an outbreak of hepatitis in New York City was blamed on dirty needles. Most states gradually lifted the bans or had them overturned by their supreme courts, leaving South Carolina and Oklahoma the only states in the nation to prohibit tattooing.
Mr. Mescher said his motivation for pushing the repeal was the prevalence of underground tattoo operations, which lack health regulation or government oversight.
"They're all over the place," he said. "They caught someone in Moncks Corner tattooing a 14-year-old boy. My concern has always been the public's safety, with all the deadly blood-borne diseases out there."
As long as Mr. Mescher has pushed for the repeal, one lawmaker has stood in his way. Former Rep. and current Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia, a career law enforcement supporter, opposed tattooing on moral grounds, according to previous statements to the media. For seven years, he blocked legislation to overturn the ban.
According to Mr. Mescher, though, Mr. Knotts had a change of heart after he accompanied police on a raid of an underground tattoo parlor.
"He saw the conditions under which they were working, and he said 'We got to get rid of these filthy things,"' Mr. Mescher said.
Telephone calls to Mr. Knotts' residence for comment went unanswered.
Mr. Mescher said his bill now faces no significant opposition. It would have sailed through this year but for a legislative filibuster unrelated to the bill, he said.
Not all are convinced South Carolina will overturn the ban. Scott Lucas, the owner of Wizard's Lair on Gordon Highway and a tattoo artist for 20 years, said that if the bill does pass, South Carolina tattoo parlors won't be able to survive.
"If they do get open, there's no way they can stay open," Mr. Lucas said by telephone, over the intermittent buzz of a tattoo needle. "They're going to make it so difficult to get open and stay open, I just don't see it happening."
Mr. Lucas, who said about 60 percent of his customers are from South Carolina, noted proposed regulations that would keep anyone convicted of a crime - even a misdemeanor - from working in a South Carolina tattoo shop. He said it would cost the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control a quarter-million dollars to regulate the industry.
"South Carolina is not a wealthy state," he said.
Mr. Lucas said if the repeal is lifted, "it will kill a lot of" the tattoo parlors in Augusta.
Matt Roland, the owner of the Skin Graphix tattoo studio in Martinez, said how much business Augusta loses will depend on the quality of parlors in South Carolina.
"If what pops up in South Carolina are the fly-by-nights that pretty much have plagued Augusta for the last 10 years, chances are we might lose some business right off the bat," Mr. Roland said. "But if they're not good artists doing clean work, then (customers) are going to come right back over."
Mr. Roland said owners of multiple parlors in Augusta might close all but one store and move across the border.
"Anybody with the ability is going to go to South Carolina to throw up a shop and try to capitalize," he said.
Mr. Peace, who has tattooed South Carolinians from as far away as Charleston, said he is ambivalent about what he sees as an inevitable change in the business climate.
"On the one side, I know we'll lose some business and our income will drop some," he said. "But being a hard-core tattoo artist, I'm kind of torn between concern for income and for the state of tattooing."
Mr. Mescher said as many as 100 tattoo parlors could open in South Carolina.
"I keep getting calls all the time from people from other states who have interest," Mr. Mescher said. "I think it'll come pretty fast."
Reach Stephen Gurr at (803) 648-1394.
