Ure wants to ink tougher tattoo penalties

Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, wants the owners of Utah's 55 tattoo parlors to make sure their underage customers have a parent's OK before getting a tattoo.

Ure has sponsored a bill that would increase the penalty for giving a minor, who doesn't have parental consent, a tattoo or a piercing from a Class C misdemeanor to a Class B.

"I'm just trying to put enough bite in the law that law enforcement will go in and get (tattoo artists who ignore the statute)," Ure said.

The proposal is one of several "get-tough" bills introduced by both Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature this session that will stiffen penalties or make harsher laws.

According to the Utah code, a person can be fined $1,000 for committing a class B misdemeanor, compared with $750 for a Class C.

Ure says that because the fine for a Class C misdemeanor is small, minors are able to get tattooed all the time and the parlors, if caught, just consider the fine as a cost of doing business.

But Marcus Schwarzfifcher of A Way of Life Tattoo, located at 1792 S. State St., says that isn't necessarily true.

"It's a moral standard by reputable tattoo artists anyway to not tattoo anyone under 18, whether they have parental consent or not," he said.

According to Schwarzfifcher, everyone who comes into his shop has to show proof of his or her age.

"I don't care if they're in a wheelchair," he said.

Schwarzfifcher says the only people who are going to suffer from this bill are minors whose parents aren't around enough to care about what they do.

"They're going to go to Wal-Mart and pick up the pigment they want and have their friends do it," he said. "There's no way to stop it, and diseases are going to spread."

Ure believes that kind of talk comes from people who have something to hide.

"If they're doing everything legal, the bill won't bother them at all," he said.

He also disputes the assertion that no parlor would tattoo anyone who was not 18.

"Just go to any high school and walk around and look at the kids and see how many of them have tattoos," Ure said.

The bill is before the House Judiciary Committee.

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E-mail: pnagy@desnews.com