Health board reverses ban on tongue, genitals piercing

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

By Sam Petri

Jackson Hole, Wyo-The Teton District Board of Health met Tuesday morning to hear new information on tongue and genital piercing, practices it banned at a meeting last month amid concerns about the risk of complication and infection.

The first regulation set on piercing for Jackson Hole made Teton County the only county in Wyoming that prohibited tongue and genital piercing, according to Sarah Budge of the Teton County Board of Environmental Health.

Due to a miscommunication, Susan Woodward, owner of Sub-Urban Tattoo and Piercing in downtown Jackson, was unable to make last month’s crucial meeting on this issue.

The owner of the sole business in Teton County affected by the regulation, she attended Tuesday and was able to convince the board its decision had been a misinformed one.
In a sometimes acrimonious exchange, Woodward suggested the board regulation the credentials of pierces, as opposed to banning the two specific acts in question.

“The majority of the problems that we’re talking about out there are obviously from unregulated shops,” she said. “The problems we’re seeing in our own community are because there have been no shops regulated by the department of health.”

She mentioned that shops throughout the region cannot receive a health inspection because there are few, if any, state or local rules regarding how a tattoo and piercing shop is run, leaving the regulating up to the business owner.

Woodward noted that despite the ban, people in our community will continue to seek out the procedures. If complications and infection were the board’s concerns, a better move would be to offer regulated, professional, sanitary places where they can take place.
“We had two people come in to get their tongues pierced last week,” Woodward said. “We said we couldn’t do it.

The girl turned to her friend and said, ‘Oh, I’ll just get some horse needles from my father.’ This is what we’re looking at here. This is really not a good idea.”

Sub-Urban Tattoo gets three to four requests for tongue piercing a week. It has performed only four genital piercings since opening its doors, Woodward said.

“Public health policy must not sometimes but always be based upon evidence that is supported by studies that prove that there is a health problem that needs to be addressed,”  she insisted. So far, she said, there is no evidence showing that infection from tongue and genital piercing has been a problem here in Teton County. 

As of Tuesday, the Teton County Board of Health removed the statement under prohibitive procedures regarding tongue and genital piercing. The board also added a clause that requires all Teton County licensed piercing and tattooing establishments to report all complications including, but not limited to, infections, bleeding and necrosis.

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Health board reverses ban on tongue, genitals piercing | Planet JH News Article: Business

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