A new ordinance under consideration in Westbrook would prevent people who have committed crimes of “moral turpitude” and those who might be “likely to cause a breach of peace” from running tattoo parlors.
The proposed restrictions have the owner of the only tattoo parlor in the city feeling singled out.
The draft is based on the city’s massage therapy ordinance, which requires that massage therapists acquire a special license from the city to run their business. The ability to acquire and maintain a license, which would cost $100, is subject to several standards in the proposed ordinance – some of which riles James Hodgdon, the owner of Death or Glory, the only tattoo shop in Westbrook.
The City Council last discussed the tattoo ordinance in January 2007 per a request by Paul McCarthy, the police chief at the time. Council President Brendan Rielly had asked that the issue be re-visited at a Committee of the Whole meeting Monday.
Aside from undergoing a background check, which Hodgdon has no problem with, the applicant must not have committed “a crime of moral turpitude” in the past 10 years, and the applicant and clients may not have caused or be “likely to cause a breach of peace.”
In the ordinance drafted, the list of crimes an applicant may not commit within 10 years of obtaining a tattoo license include drug offenses, sex offenses, assault, terrorizing and criminal threatening.
Once an application is received, the city is required to investigate the applicant’s business reputation and moral character “to the extent necessary to protect the public health, safety and welfare.”
To Hodgdon, the standards sound subjective.
“Am I going to have to shut my business down and have someone judge my moral character?” he asked Tuesday.
Hodgdon, 35, has owned the Westbrook shop since June 2006. Two weeks ago, he moved from 406 Main St. to 415 Main St., in the middle of the rotary. A self-taught tattoo artist, Hodgon, who grew up in Maine, has been tattooing for 11 years. He moved back to the state from Austin, Texas, where he owned a shop.
When Hodgdon received notice that the city’s rules for running his business may be changing, he contacted Ed Symbol, whom he thought was on the City Council. Though Symbol resigned last week, he still came to the meeting Monday and spoke in support of Hodgdon and his shop.
“This is a solution looking for a problem,” Symbol told councilors.
Symbol said Hodgdon was an artist running a family business, and the standards being requested were based on McCarthy’s “antiquated view of what a tattoo parlor is.”
Councilor Michael Foley said that, according to Police Chief Bill Baker, there had been no calls for service at the shop.
“I was not even supportive in the first place,” said Councilor Dorothy Aube. “I just think that the state regulations are really extensive. I don’t think we need to regulate it even more than that.
Though Councilor John O’Hara said he wasn’t against the business, he would like to see more regulations put in place by the city.
“I really think we have to go above and beyond state law if we want to be a pace maker,” said O’Hara, who strongly suggested that no one under 18 years of age be allowed on the premises.
“Do you want your children in and around this type of establishment?” he said.
Hodgdon said, though sometimes children come in with their parents, he doesn’t have children hanging around his shop.
“It’s not a candy store,” he said.
The only person under 18 that is around the shop is Hodgdon’s daughter, Ava, who is 5 years old. According to her mother, Maria Tran, Ava likes looking at the art and being in the store.
“It makes me feel like, am I a bad parent?” she said in response to O’Hara’s request not to allow minors in the shop.
As Hodgdon prepared to tattoo a customer Tuesday, he said he understood that the city was not trying to punish him, but using the ordinance as a preventative measure.
Though he said there are undesirable sides of tattooing and an association with gang activity in some places, “This is Westbrook, Maine. It’s not East L.A.,” he said.
The Committee of the Whole voted 4-2 to refer the ordinance to the City Council, with Councilors Drew Gattine and Aube opposed.
Eli Cassidy, 20, of Portland, is tattooed by James Hodgdon on Tuesday evening at Death of Glory Tattoo Studio in Westbrook. Send questions/comments to the editors.
