Residents seek zoning rules for tattoo parlors

Sweetheart names, cartoon characters and cultural symbols have long been among the offerings at tattoo parlors.

But to hear one community leader tell it, the ink parlors of today offer rebellion in forms that the City Council needs to regulate.

James Nunn, president of the West Charleston Lions Park Neighborhood Association, told the council's Recommending Committee on Monday that residents were shocked when a tattoo parlor selling drug paraphernalia and offering body piercing opened near their neighborhood.

"Tattoo parlors have traditionally been in a red-light district," Nunn said. "Citizens in my community are parents and have children. Tattoo parlors are not harmonious in a neighborhood."

City Councilman Michael McDonald has sponsored a bill that would establish the zoning districts in which tattoo parlors are allowed. The bill passed the council's Recommending Committee on Monday and will now be forwarded to the full council for consideration.

If the bill is passed and becomes city ordinance at the April 26 council meeting, tattoo parlors would be allowed in Commercial-Industrial and Industrial zoning districts and by means of a special use permit in a C-2 (limited commercial) zoning district.

Opening a facility in a different zoning district, or without the required use permit, carries the possibility of a $1,000 fine.

The proposed ordinance began undergoing changes as soon as the committee opened a public hearing Monday.

The bill will be amended to include body-piercing salons along with the tattoo parlor designation. An amendment regarding the sale of drug paraphernalia such as water bongs and pipes is also being considered.

City Councilman Arnie Adamsen suggested the city examine Clark County Health District requirements to find out if there are any specific measures dealing with what he called the "quasi-medical" procedure of body piercing.

Nunn said body piercing could lead to infections, and thus form a medical threat to the community.

But it was the sale of drug paraphernalia, in what McDonald considers akin to a "head shop," that worried Nunn the most.

"It brings in people you don't want around in your neighborhood," Nunn said.

Nunn began talking with the city several months ago when a Diversity tattoo shop opened at Meadows Lane and Decatur Boulevard without residents knowing.

If the tattoo zoning districts are approved, residents would receive notice if a tattoo parlor was requesting a special-use permit to operate in a C-2 zone. The stores, however, would be allowed by right in industrial and commercial-industrial zones.

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