City of Ottawa moves to clean up tattoo parlours, nail and hair salons

Ottawa Public Health is holding consultations as it calls for more tools to crack down on health standards in hair salons, nail parlours, spas and tattoo and piercing shops. 

The department says health officials often have a difficult time locating all the personal services businesses in Ottawa in order to carry out annual inspections, which are required by the Ontario Public Health Standards through the Infection Prevention and Control in Personal Services Protocol.

That means it's harder to keep customers safe by enforcing health standards, according to Vera Etches, Ottawa's deputy medical officer of health.

"We're looking to create a bylaw that would require (personal services businesses) to register with Ottawa Public Health so then we'd have a list of all the premises that we need to be inspecting," Etches said.

"We think that we're in most of them but because there's no list that exists, there are some that we're concerned we may be missing."

Currently there is no licence required for personal services businesses, and no obligation to register with the city.

Etches hopes that will change.

"Right now, it's up to us to try and find them," she said. "We sort of discover about 20 to 30 a year, so we expect there are a couple hundred (businesses) out there we don't know about."

Ottawa Public Health is aware of about 1,000 businesses, Etches added.

"We're confident that we're inspecting 100 per cent of the businesses we know about but we want to make sure we know about all of them in the city." 

Public Health is also proposing fines for repeat offenders.

"We have the power to shut businesses down, but that's a bit of a harsh consequence for what is sometimes not an immediate health risk to the public," Etches said. "It's about education."

Tattoo artists open to registration idea

Cynthia Deveau, who works at Universal Tattoo on Rideau Street, said she welcomes the idea of requiring businesses like tattoo and piercing parlours to register with the city, especially because some establishments need to be reminded to keep their tools clean.

"They want to make quick, easy money and they don't like spending money on supplies. Therefore, they reuse some stuff or don't spray them down properly," Deveau said. 

Kip Johnson, a piercer at Future Skin, agreed.

"Cross-contamination is a big thing," he said. "There's no real 'rules' rules, it's basically all common knowledge."

Johnson said requiring businesses to register with the city would ensure a safer environment for customers.

"We're certainly open to more enforcement," he said. "There's always a couple shady shops around the town."

Public Health seeks input from community

The next step for Ottawa Public Health is to gather feedback from residents and business owners to gauge support for registration, Etches said. 

New rules wouldn't come into effect until next year, she added. 

"We're having this conversation with the public, then taking our results to the Board of Health and they will make a recommendation to the City of Ottawa for a new bylaw," Etches said.