Members of the Berlin Tattoo Ordinance Committee last week discuss plans to seek Mayor and Council support to lobby the Worcester County Board of Health to change county tattoo regulations.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(April 26, 2017) The Berlin Tattoo Ordinance Committee wants Worcester County to provide health inspection services for any parlors that open in the town.

First, however, they will seek Town Council support to help lobby the Worcester County Commissioners on that point.

According to a staff recommendation provided by Town Administrator Laura Allen, “The Tattoo Ordinance Committee should determine the level of council support for seeking a change in the Worcester County Code before developing tattoo parlor regulations.”

After meeting with health department officials in January, committee members found that the county code would have to be changed by the commissioners so the county health department could monitor the health and safety of the town’s tattoo parlors.

State tattoo regulations only provide for a complaint-driven response, the committee said in its report.

Town regulations would need to be approved by the Worcester County Commissioners acting as the board of health for Berlin to have “inspection and related health services support from the Worcester County Health Department.”

Allen asked for advice from health department officials in Baltimore City and Allegany County.

Baltimore City has 21 environmental health specialists for 25 parlors, with an average salary of $70,000, plus benefits, according to the report. The inspectors handle other businesses, in addition to tattoo parlors.

Allegany County employs one full-time environmental health specialist to inspect “less than 10” parlors and also handle other business.

The report, quoting Allegany County Environmental Health Director Brian Dicken, said, “it would be hard to find a sanitarian to work for the Town under contract to perform inspections … this function really should be under the county health department.”

If the town licensed tattooing without health and safety regulations in place, similar to how Wicomico County operates, “You wouldn’t have increased liability, but think about what you are telling the public. They will see the license and assume the town has vetted the business from a health and safety perspective. You’ll give people a false sense of security. It’s not the responsible approach to take.”

Wicomico County, based on the report, issues business licenses and ensures tattoo parlors are appropriately zoned, but does not monitor parlors for health and safety purposes.

The report concluded, “The town is not in a position to address the health and safety aspects of the committee’s concerns. There appears to be no option to contract with a local sanitarian to provide that support. Even if there was, the town doesn’t have the expertise to interpret reports from a contracted inspector.”

Committee members, during a meeting last Wednesday, unanimously agreed with the staff recommendation.

Town Attorney David Gaskill, during that meeting, said the request would be for the Worcester County Commissioners, acting as the Board of Health, to allow for health department oversight of tattooing in Berlin only.

“What we would ask them to do is carve out an exception for the town limits of Berlin to adopt regulations allowing a tattoo parlor to be in town – it wouldn’t change anything else,” he said. “It would have to be restricted to the town of Berlin, because Ocean City has their own ordinance, which they don’t want [tattooing].”

Gaskill said he contacted County Attorney Maureen Howarth after the last committee meeting to ask how, procedurally, a request would work.

“Her response was very short: ‘put in writing what you want to do and send it us. We’ll kick it around and talk about it, and if the county commissioners are interested, they’ll do it – and if they’re not, they won’t,’” Gaskill said.

He added it was important to first run everything by the Town Council.

“If we as a committee contact the county and send this down, the first question is going to be, ‘what’s your Mayor and Council think?’” Gaskill said.

Committee Chairman Matthew Amey agreed it would be ideal to have the county health department oversee health and safety inspections.

Amey said the county already has an inspection mechanism in place for body piercing, permitted in Ocean City, and suggested tattoo oversight in Berlin “could be added to that group and their cost could be equal to the cost of the individual piercing places.”

By consensus, committee members agreed parlors in Berlin should be allowed in B-1 and B-2 zoning districts, which would include the downtown historic district.

“Any time you push a business like this to the edge of town, it’s less visible – and less visible is not good,” committee member Patricia Dufendach said. “You want to see people coming up and down Main Street … you don’t want people to think because it’s on the outside of town it’s not completely controlled, or that it’s anyway less important.

“If we embrace this, it’s going to be an important economic driver in our town,” she continued. “I don’t think we should force it to be on Main Street – or force it to be out of town. I do believe that you need to have high standards, no matter where you are.”

The committee plans to meet again on May 2 and then approach the Town Council on May 14. Allen suggested committee members also request an extension of the town moratorium on tattoo businesses, which expires May 22.

“Between now and then my goal is going to be to continue with proposed regulations that I put forward, with any edits … but also put together a form that an inspector would use when they go into these establishments,” Amey said. “Get everything, so that whomever does eventually look at this will see the logical process of, here are the regulations, this is how they would be on the books, the person who is ultimately responsible for these inspections will have this sheet.

“The goal is to set up regulations so that everyone is successful,” he added.