Tattoo and piercing shops now regulated by province

Tattoo and piercing shops in Nova Scotia are now regulated and inspected by the province.

The Safe Body Art Act took effect on Feb. 1, requiring shops to meet standards for cleanliness, infection control and record keeping.

Before Friday, tattoo artists and piercers in the province weren't required to have any safety training and didn't even need a permit from the province to operate.

Many in the industry welcome the introduction of rules.

"Hopefully, we'll have more trust," said Julie Taylor, the owner of Skin Decision in Truro and Halifax. "Certainly lots of studios are already working at a super high level already but those ones that are slipping through the cracks are not going to be able to do that anymore."

Under the new rules, operators must get training on infection prevention, provide written and verbal instructions to clients on how to care for their body art and keep detailed records about the client and the sterilization equipment used during the procedure.

Staff must meet standards for personal hygiene, barrier use and skin preparation and facilities must have adequate lighting, sinks and water.

If a permit is suspended or revoked, the shop must be closed and a closure notice must be posted publicly.

'Something seemed wrong'

That's good news to Allison Fudge, who said she had a terrible experience at one Halifax-area tattoo shop a year ago.

Fudge said the rose tattoo she got on her arm healed fine at the beginning, but when she returned about a month later to get shading done, things went awry.

"Something seemed wrong," she said. "The bandage was filling up with stuff and it was gross."

She said she returned to the shop to have the bandage removed, and the artist aggressively pulled it off, ripping her skin and causing the tattooed area to bleed.

When she got home, her uncle who is a nurse told her, "'You need to go to hospital because this is either infected now or it's going to get infected,'" she said. "Within a day — completely infected."

Fudge took antibiotics, and although the skin healed, the tattoo still doesn't look quite right because of the infection, she said. Fudge believes it was the shop's procedure and advice on wrapping the skin tightly that likely caused the problem.

She said she hopes the new rules catch operators who don't operate safely, and that she'll be looking for a permit next time she goes to a shop.

"I'll be a lot more observant," she said. "It's been an eye-opener, big time."

Taylor said while the permits will help clients, "that sticker isn't the be-all and end-all."

"People are still going to have to trust their guts. They still are going to have to ask questions because we can't necessarily trust that that sticker is going to mean complete safety. But it definitely will be, I think, a step in that direction."