ith his forearms resting on his thighs. I could tell that he likes this conversation, because he hasn’t broken his eye contact with me once. I happened to ask him about the laws that come along with opening up a tattoo and piercing place, and to my surprise there are none. There is no law that requires any kind of certificate of experience or schooling for tattoo and piercing artists. The only law that binds them to the state is the quality of their apparatus and cleanliness.Jared explained that at Ground Zero Tattoos, they have the same kind of needles used in hospitals, and along with that they have a machine that sterilizes the needles after use. From what I observed at Jared’s place and other parlors is before the artists opens the secured package of needles, they have a mini speech that they make to the customer. Also, Jared told me the run down of things he says. First, he tells the customer that it is the first time he has opened this package, and then he mentions that it will not be used again after that piercing is complete. Then Jared tells them that the needles will be set in a machine in order to sterilize them. There is a small majority of piercings that he did resulted in infections. Which he says has nothing to do with the way it was pierced. It has to do with the way the customer takes care of it. Before, during, and after a piercing the artist instructs the customer about how to take care of the new hole in their body. Also, he mentioned that it very common for tattoo and piecing parlors to have a print out of all the information the artist told them, so the customer has a reference to look back on. Unfortunately, some people don’t take care of their piercing and end up with permanent scar tissue. For example, he told me that the belly button is more prone to infection than anywhere else on the body. So when Jared pierces someone, he stresses the amount of cleanliness the piercing would require. As for...
