Palm Desert council to weigh tattoo shop ban

Palm Desert council to weigh tattoo shop ban
May 27, 2010
K KAUFMANN
mydesert.com

A Palm Desert tattoo shop owner says the city's proposed law aimed at freezing the number of tattoo shops on Highway 111 could be discriminatory because it doesn't apply to permanent makeup businesses as well.



“They literally changed the ordinance to (say) that permanent makeup is not considered tattooing,” said Carla Lytle, owner of Body Accents Tattoo, one of five tattoo shops on Highway 111 that could be affected by the proposed law.

“According to state law, they're the same thing,” said Lytle. “So if they're going to go after tattooing, that is literally prejudicial and pretty much against the law.”

The City Council is expected to vote on the proposed law — which is aimed at maintaining the city's upscale retail profile — at its meeting at 4 p.m. today.

Tony Bagato, principal planner for the city, countered that the proposed law does not discriminate because it isn't based on health and safety issues.

“This is being treated as a use aspect,” Bagato said. “Permanent makeup is usually part of a beauty salon, which is part of the retail community (in) a resort community.”

The proposed law would freeze the number of tattoo shops as well as the number of massage establishments, smoke shops and fortune tellers on Highway 111 and El Paseo, the city's premier retail corridors and sales tax generators.

According to a staff report, the city now has five tattoo shops, eight massage businesses, one palm reader and three smoke shops on Highway 111 and El Paseo.
rom both streets, including body branding or scarification shops, pawn shops, bail bonds businesses, and pool or billiard halls. These businesses would be allowed in other commercial areas of the city.

But the proposed law specifically exempts permanent makeup shops, even though they are required to meet the same state health and safety requirements as tattoo shops, Lytle said.

Ellie Stephan, owner of Ellie's Permanent Makeup, also on Highway 111, hasn't made up her mind about the law, but she said, “Basically I am a tattoo artist. There is no difference in our procedure, in the actual age-old art of tattooing. Anytime you discolor the skin, it's called tattooing.”

Tattooing and permanent makeup do differ on some points, such as the numbing agents and kinds of pigments used for permanent makeup, she said.

The council considered limits on tattoo shops on Highway 111 in 1997, when only two were on the street, but decided they should be classified as personal services, similar to barber or beauty shops, according to a staff report.

The ordinance going to council today was already revised once, after tattoo shop owners said the proposed freeze would leave them unable to relocate on Highway 111, putting them at the mercy of landlords who could raise their rents.

The revised version allows existing businesses to relocate on the street.
The law would also ban other types of businesses
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