Chicago Department of Public Health Neglects Tattoo Industry

The importance of health inspections at tattoo parlors

Nick Garcia
Jul 22, 2017 · 10 min read

By: Nick Garcia

Since 2014, only about 10 percent of Chicago’s tattoo parlors have had a health inspection every year, according to an analysis of city data obtained by this reporter. During that time, out of the 170 tattoo parlor inspections conducted by the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), only 18 showed no violations.

One possible reason for the low count of tattoo parlor inspection in Chicago: only one health inspector, Luberta Campbell.

A few blocks west off the California blue line stop, past a strip of bars and restaurants is Logan Square Tattoo, located at 2352 N. Milwaukee Ave.

The shop is reminiscent of a traditional style tattoo parlor. As you walk in, notebooks full of tattoo sketches lay open on the front counter and there’s a small seating area off to the right side. The rest of the tattoo parlor is spotless. Kept clean like shops are required to be.

There are three work stations, one sink, a side closet for storage and a bathroom, the essentials. All three artists that occupy the shop have stencils hanging by their stations displaying artwork that will eventually be transformed into a new tattoo.

Gifford Kasen, the tattooed, soft spoken owner of Logan Square Tattoo, has been a tattoo artist for 12 years and a business owner for three. According to data obtained by this reporter, in the three years he has been in business, his shop has only received two health inspections, in 2014 and 2016.

Gifford Kasen, owner of Logan Square Tattoo doing what he does best, creating skin art. (Photo by Nick Garcia)

That is contrary to Jam & Jammers, his ‘pop-up’ style venue for tattooing and art shows, located on the second floor of the Logan Square Tattoo property, which has been inspected over a dozen times in the past year. This is because the CDPH requires an inspection for a one-day permit.

Kasen said normally, unless a shop is having complaints, an inspection will happen once a year or once every 2 years.

“Every year would be best; keeps everyone on their toes. Two years is a long time, a lot of turnover can happen,” he said.

Like it has across the country, tattooing and body art has become more popular than ever. But with nearly one-third of the nation’s population getting tattooed, attention has been called to the safety of the art and the profession.

“They have decimated public health by not having enough people,” said State Rep. Patricia Bellock (R-Hinsdale).

Bellock, a co-sponsor on the Tattoo & Body Piercing Establishment Act, said at the time, medical personnel came to her with concerns that there were no inspections for that particular industry.

“They were worried about the cleaning of needles and other sanitary concerns — It’s an interesting issue because I couldn’t believe there were no regulations on tattoo shops before,” Bellock said.

According to House Bill 3375, created in 2007, before a tattoo parlor can receive its certificate of registration, which allows it to operate in city limits, it must first have a health inspection completed.

This is accordance to Illinois state law.

Some neighboring states have similar regulations such as Wisconsin, while others are less stringent in their policy like Indiana. According to Indiana State Legislation, the Hoosier State does not require tattoo artists to register with the Indiana Department of Health, nor does the department routinely inspect shops.

But just because a shop has not been inspected routinely does not mean it has not been meeting health code standards. In fact, most shops that did record violations were due to simple clerical mistakes like forms being out of order or not having a code book on hand.

Conducted by the CDPH’s lone inspector, roughly 1 in 10 inspections showed zero violations.

According to data obtained by this reporter, infractions ranged from serious offenses like shops not carrying up to date blood-borne pathogen certification and open spore testing, to minor violations like failing to post up-to-date business hours.

Blood-borne pathogens are infectious microorganisums that can be transferred from unsterile equipment like needles and tubing. These pathogens include, but are not limited to, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.

Shops that do not have up to date certifications can be hit with a serious ‘immediate fix’ violation. A ‘none compliance’ could, but rarely does, result in a shop shutting down.

The one person who might be able to shed light on why some places were inspected over others, was not available for comment for this article.

When attempting to contact Campbell and other state officials, all requests were referred to supervisors who were not available for comment or did not return calls.

No longer the symbol for just sailors and biker gangs, tattooing has become more prevalent among younger generations. According to a Harris Poll conducted in 2015, three in 10 U.S. adults have one tattoo, up from 20 percent in 2012.

In the Midwest, 27 percent of males and 31 percent of females have at least one tattoo. Also, roughly 47 percent of millennials ages 18–35 are recorded as having one tattoo, according to the Harris Poll.

The growing popularity raises questions of how important clean tattooing is, in comparison to how much a tattoo costs or the reputation of the artist doing the tattoo.

A union man from the Southwest side, Jerry Marzullo, 39, said when he picks a shop to get a tattoo from, he considers the quality of work, the atmosphere and how clean a shop is.

During his fourth tattoo session to work on his arm piece, Marzullo said, “I’d rather save up the money and wait to get tattooed by someone good than just walk into any shop in the city.”

Patrick Cornolo, artist and co-owner of Speakeasy Custom Tattoo, inks Jerry Marzullo mid afternoon. This is Marzullo’s forth session to work on his arm piece. (Photo By Nick Garcia)

Marzullo’s new tattoo is based on the Industrial Workers of the World’s pyramid of the capitalist system. The multi-layered drawing visually depicts capitalism in pyramid form, with different social classes being supported by the working class at the base.

Kasen said, “Certainly cleanliness is important but the average consumer isn’t going to know what to look for.”

A 34-year veteran in the tattoo community, Mike Martin, president of The Alliance of Professional Tattooists, said clean tattooing is of the highest importance.

“For one thing you can get hepatitis C. That kills a lot of people, its killed a bunch of my friends over the years,” he said.

The Alliance of Professional Tattooists, based in Shawnee, Kansas, was established in 1992 by a group of tattoo artists who realized the industry was growing rapidly and saw government oversight on the horizon.

Martin said members established the organization to focus on educating artists and people who work in tattoo shops on the importance of safe tattooing.

He also said the alliance has worked with health departments across the country on making sure regulations stayed reasonable and had the artists’ best interests at hand.

“I don’t like the fines for shops doing something wrong when they are trying to do something right. But if they are doing something wrong just because they don’t care — then yeah, kick them in the butt, to me that’s cool.”

Before being allowed to tattoo in Chicago, artists must complete a series of sanitation courses that teach artists about the health risks associated with tattooing.

Among those is a course on blood-borne pathogens and how they can be transferred through poorly sanitized equipment. If proper procedures are not taken, diseases such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus, commonly known as MRSA, can be contracted.

According to experts, the super bug has been around since the 1950s, but back then it was commonly associated with clinics rather than tattoo parlors.

A report released by the National Center for Biotechnology Information in 2005 investigated 6 of 44 reported cases of MRSA by 13 unlicensed tattooists across three states: Ohio, Kentucky and Vermont.

MRSA can affect the heart, lungs and bones and can show up days after a tattoo is completed. In 2012, a severe outbreak affecting 19 people was recorded in Rochester, New York. In that incident, the unidentified tattoo artist was doing everything correctly; the infection was eventually linked to the ink.

“The infection is terrible,” Martin said. “Just think of a needle jabbing into skin hundreds of times with that disease — it can take months to get rid of.”

Sandwiched between a liquor store and a bagel shop, Speakeasy Custom Tattoo, located at 1935 W. North Avenue, has been operating in the heart of Wicker Park since 2008.

Co-owned by Kelly Cornolo and her husband Patrick, the tattoo parlor could be considered a prime example of a shop that continues to do good work regardless of the outcome of its health inspection.

Contrary to Logan Square Tattoo, Speakeasy has received three health inspections in three years, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Walking up the steep stairway after being buzzed in, the tattoo shop appears more like an up-scale spa than a classic tattoo parlor.

Emerging from the staircase the shop is outfitted in shades of dark green and black. There is a state-of-the-art drawing station and refreshments for guests in the waiting area. Complete with a couch and a few chairs the area has a book shelf and complimentary bowl of candy where clients can relax and look at paintings from ten different artists that work out of the space.

Speakeasy Custom Tattoo. (Photo by Nick Garcia)
Customers sit and relax as they wait to get get inked at Speakeasy Custom Tattoo. (Photo by Nick Garcia)

Although Speakeasy has never received a report with ‘zero violations’ from Campbell, the shop has never had any serious violations either.

“We are really good. There are shops out there that need more structure and shops that don’t. We take it upon ourselves to stay at the highest level — we are at the high end for a reason,” Cornolo said.

Kasen said there is a difference between shops with minor violations during health inspections and those receiving serious offences.

Shops not using autoclaves, a device used to sterilize needles and tubing to prevent disease, when needed, or those not practicing proper sanitation are major offences according to Kasen, as well as keeping your establishment visually clean.

David Vidra, founder of the Health Educators, a non-profit organization that educates and teaches the tattoo and modification industry on current practices and techniques said, shops that repeatedly receive serious violations should all have the same repercussion.

“Close the shop down,” he said. “They would close a restaurant down, there’s no way around that.”

Based out of Lakewood, Ohio, Vidra’s credentials span from being a nurse, medical assistant and an orderly, to a member of the tattoo and piercing community since the 70s.

His eight hour, one-day course, educates artists on everything from proper aftercare to infection control and can have anywhere from 10 to 15 participants. He also provides more classes if necessary.

Vidra has worked with Robert Jones owner of Insight Studios, located at 1062 N. Milwaukee Ave., over the years and credits Jones’ passion and willingness to adapt to the changing industry as keys to success.

“As far as I’m concerned, Insight Studios is the best tattoo parlor in Chicago from its ethics to the way its run,” he said.

Vidra said he teaches classes on safe tattooing with a blunt, hard nose demeanor. He has also worked with health departments to teach inspectors on what to look for during routine walkthroughs.

“The tattoo industry is hard to deal with. Few artists know proper aftercare and few health inspectors know exactly what to look for,” he said.

According to Vidra, there are simple things consumers can look for to make sure a shop is practicing safe procedures.

First, make sure an artist is setting up needles, ink and other equipment in front of you, not before; this will allow customers to know exactly when items were opened. Second, identify common courtesy.

“You are hiring someone for a service. Why would you give someone your money if they are going to be rude to you? Yes, maybe 30 years ago that would have been acceptable but that’s not how it works today,” he said.

Vidra compares tattooing to surgery, an outlook that some practicing tattoo artists and body modifiers may not have. He said it constitutes the same level of cleanliness because “It’s an invasive procedure — (like) anything that breaks the skin period.”

There has yet to be any serious outbreaks of disease associated with tattoo parlors in Chicago in the past three years, but can luck and only one health inspector hold the industry together?

Bellock, the Illinois state representative, said even though legislation is not as good as it should be, with the knowledge that tattoo parlors might be inspected they are more likely to keep their shops up to health code standards.

“What we did do was good, but not good enough because we should be making sure that all of them are inspected,” she said.

There are some tattoo artists like Kasen that think otherwise.

“I’ll be careful to say we need to regulate it more. Some don’t have the best interests in mind for tattooists,” he said

As the buzzing sound of his tattoo gun echoed through his shop and night settled on the city, Kasen said, “All it takes is one bad outbreak of staph and it will hand the reins to legislators and not tattoo artists.”

(Photo by Nick Garcia)

Editors Note: Below is a link to a public map I created that displays all registered tattoo and body modification shops in Chicago from 2014–2016. The map was created after going through data provided by the Chicago Department of Public Health through a FOIA request. It also shows the number of times each shop has been inspected in the last 3 years.

Registered Tattoo Shops

Nick Garcia

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