The Washington, D.C. Health Department has proposed a 24-hour waiting period for tattoos and piercings.
The waiting period is among a list of provisions included in a 66-page package of regulations for the “body art” industry released last Friday.
According to the Washington Post, if the waiting period is adopted, D.C. will become one of a very few places in the nation where a person cannot walk into a tattoo parlor and walk out with a tattoo.
City officials insist that the rule will protect the public. Najma Roberts, a spokeswoman for the Health Department, told the Washington Post that the new regulations were mandated by a law the council approved last year and are mainly intended to prevent “serious health risks.”
