The state Department of Health is advising that anyone getting a permanent tattoo should avail themselves of a licensed tattoo artist who operates his or her needle in a legal shop. The department, which regulates and issues licenses to tattooists
The state Department of Health is advising that anyone getting a permanent
tattoo should avail themselves of a licensed tattoo artist who operates his or
her needle in a legal shop.
The department, which regulates and issues
licenses to tattooists and permits to tattoo parlors, advises that almost all
official tattoo shop permits are posted in conspicuous locations, and if not
seen should be asked for.
Department officials also advise a person getting
a tattoo to ask to see the artist’s license before going under the
needle.
Folks who are seeking facial tattoos — a category that includes
cosmetic tattooing, like permanent eyeliners and other beauty touches — are
also advised to use caution.
Hawai`i statutorily requires that “application
of facial tattoos shall be prohibited except by a licensed physician or by a
tattoo artist under the general supervision of a physician.”
The Department
of Health, under the direction of Bruce Anderson, reminds consumers that the
art of tattooing is generally safe when done by licensed professionals who
sterilize their equipment and follow appropriate sanitation procedures.
The
department lists its primary concerns for people receiving tattoos as:
l
Infections.
l Contraction of blood-borne illnesses from unsterilized
equipment.
l Unsanitary shop conditions and tattooing by unlicensed
individuals.
Getting a tattoo in Hawai`i is getting it done pretty close to
the source of an ancient art form.
The word tattoo comes from the Tahitian
“tatu” which means, “To mark something.”
Evidence of tattooing has been
found as far back in time as 10,000 B.C.
In Borneo, women tattooed symbols
on their forearm to indicate their particular skills — sort of walking
billboards to increase their bridal price. Also, women were the official
tattooists.
Tattoos around the fingers and wrist were believed by island
peoples to ward off sickness and bad luck.
Tattoos have long been used as
clan markings, a practice that continues today with groups as different (yet
the same) as outlaw white bikers and urban black and brown street
gangs.
The Greeks used tattoos for communication between each other in
foreign lands. The Romans marked criminals and slaves. And more recently, of
course, the Nazis tattooed inmate numbers on the bodies of Jews and Eastern
Europeans incarcerated in the concentration camps.
Capt. James Cook, the
legendary explorer who ended his life (with a little help from former friends)
here on Kaua`i, first brought tattooing to modern Europe. Cook took back to
England a heavily tattooed Polynesian named Omai.
Omai was a huge hit in
London. Upper-class players of both sexes began being tattooed, albeit in
discreet places on their pale bodies.
But tattooing went quickly out of
fashion, and in urban, western society, tattooing was banished to the sleazier
sections of the city for quite a while.
That’s been changing in the past
two decades as the urban-primitive movement has reestablished tattooing’s
popularity amongst members of all social classes.
There are five tattooists
listed in the latest Kaua`i telephone directory. They include Gary Tadao, the
owner-operator and licensed tattooist of Garden Isle Tattoo in Wailua.
The
34-year-old Tadao practices what he preaches.
“I have lots of tattoos. I
just came back from a convention in Virginia where I got some more. There were
hundreds of tattoo artists at the convention. We took up the whole Holiday
Inn,” he said.
Tadao, who moved here from Oahu 20 years ago, said most
tattoo artists have a minimum charge of $50.
“But I’ve done projects that
were years of work. It’s an ongoing process,” Tadao said.
Staff writer
Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and [
HREF=”mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net”>dwilken@pulitzer.net]
