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Tattoo Shops Had No Idea There Even WAS a Law Against Inking 18-Year-Olds

By Joe Ward | December 11, 2015 5:38am
 Chicago wants to lower the legal age from 21 to 18. But shops have been tattooing teens for years.
Chicago wants to lower the legal age from 21 to 18. But shops have been tattooing teens for years.
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CHICAGO — Tattoo artists in Chicago have been inking 18-year-olds for years. Now, Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to make it legal.

And some shops didn't even know they weren't supposed to do it.

Though it has been the common practice for licensed shops to tattoo any consenting adult over 18, the city has technically banned parlors from inking anyone under 21 years old, even if they had the consent of a guardian.

That could soon change, as Emanuel on Tuesday offered to amend the municipal code to allow those 18 and over to get tattoos. A city spokesman said the amendment was to make city law square with state law, which sets the age at 18.

The amendment was introduced to the city's Committee on Health and Environmental Protection at Wednesday's City Council meeting.

Such a change might have led tattoo parlor owners to jump for joy — except many of them have been tattoing 18-year-olds at least since 2006, when the state passed the law to reduce the tattoo age from 21 to 18.

"We go by the state, because they regulate us," said Evelyn Ramos, manager of Deluxe Tattoo, 1461 W. Irving Park Rd., in Lakeview.

In fact, many tattoo businesses in the city had no idea Chicago had laws governing legal tattoing age that differed from the state's.

"It's already 18," said Vince Leblanc, of Animal Farm Tattoo, 2455 W. Armitage Ave., in Logan Square. "It sounds like they're just making it official."

Robert Hixon, owner of West Town Tattoo, 1907 W. Chicago Ave., said he thought the city got out of the business of regulating tattoo parlors when the state stepped up in 2005.

Before that, Hixon said you needed a special use permit to operate a tattoo business. Then the state starting licensing tattoo shops through the Department of Public Health, which inspects each shop on a yearly basis, Hixon said.

"The city said, 'If the state is going to regulate it, we don't need to,'" he said.

In fact, Hixon said he remembers a "gold rush" of parlors opening in Chicago after the age was lowered to 18 and the permits were created. He said owners thought the lowering of the age would dramatically increase the tattoo market in the city.

"I don't think anyone really made a whole bunch of money off that because so many [businesses] opened," Hixon said.

Shop owners and managers who spoke with DNAinfo Chicago said it makes good business sense for the city to bring their age in line with the rest of the state.

Leblanc likened it to being able to buy fireworks across the border in Indiana: The fireworks ban in Illinois doesn't really matter to Chicagoans who want to get them. 

"Kids, they're going to get tattoos no matter what, if they really want one," said Tony Luthe, owner of Tattoo Union, 2601 S. Halsted St., in Bridgeport. "I believe 18 is fine. I wouldn't want it any lower."

But whereas some people do get busted for bringing fireworks over the state line, Ramos said she's never heard of a tattoo parlor getting in trouble with the city for inking people under 21.

"We talk, and I've never heard of that happening," she said.

Ramos said it's funny that the rule change is being championed by Emanuel, because he — or at least his signature — has been complicit in the act for some time.

"We're straight As with the regulators," she said. "The certificate is signed by Rahm Emanuel."

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