Cronies

The county plans to tighten the rules on tattoos and body piercings:

Operators of Fort Wayne tattoo and piercing parlors will need to buy an annual license from the health department costing $295 and each artist at the establishment will need an artist license that will cost $65 a year. No one under the age of 18 will be allowed to perform tattooing or body piercing.

Under the purposed ordinance there will be some changes at local tattoo festivals. Each booth would need to have a license, which would cost $45 for two days. In addition, each tattoo artist at the booth would need to be licensed. For local artists this should not be a problem because in theory they would already be licensed. Tattoo artists from out of the area would need to get a special license for the event.

The Fort Wayne-Allen County ordinance also prohibits branding, cutting, dermal punching, implantation, nullification (body-part removal), scarification, skin peeling, suspension piercing, tongue bifurcation and tongue splitting.

The county has been consulting with existing tattoo shop owners, who, surprise, surprise, are supportive of the idea:

Local tattoo artist Don Corah, owner of Artisan Tattoo in Waynedale, said he agreed with the purposed ordinance, except that he would like the board to have the ability to fine people who advertise online or on flyers or post business cards as tattoo artists, but don't have the proper licensing. The board agreed to his suggestion and will be adding that into the wording of the ordinance.

It's been true as long as there have been businesses and governments to regulate them. Novice entrepreneurs, whether they're pots-and-pans sellers or hair cutters or tattoo artists, want the busybody bureuacrats to mind their own business instead of stifling growth with their fussy rules. But once they're established, what better way to thwart new competition and keep out the riffraff than to enlist government to make it harder to get into the business? It gets to be to be a very cozy little relationship.