CALGARY — Health officials are urging anyone who received a tattoo or piercing at a home-run parlour in Calgary to line up for another kind of needle prick.
The warning to get tested for HIV and hepatitis B and C came Wednesday after seven unlicensed tattoo and piercing parlours were shut down. Officials said there could be many more operating under the radar.
Dr. Judy MacDonald, the city’s deputy medical health officer, said there’s no way of knowing how many people were exposed to instruments that may not have been sterilized.
“We actually have no idea how many clients these seven unapproved facilities might have had,” she said. “Since they didn’t keep client records at all, there’s just no way of knowing.”
The majority of tattoo artists operate outside of traditional parlours and advertise on social media websites and in classifieds, making it more difficult for authorities to track them down, she said.
A search for “tattoo” on the online classifieds website Kijiji brought up a number of Calgary advertisements. It also showed an Alberta Health Services bulletin warning that anyone who has been inked at a home-based or mobile parlour — whether or not it was one of the seven closed —should arrange for tests.
MacDonald says the parlours potentially could have spread blood-borne diseases by reusing contaminated needles.
“If that equipment is not properly clean and sterilized, those viruses can stay on the equipment, and then when it’s used on someone else, that’s how it gets transferred from one person to another.”
Mark Fehr, Calgary zone manager for environmental public health, said several of the shuttered parlours combined tattoo areas with kitchen areas.
Each violation under the Public Health Act can carry a fine of up to $2,000, but officials hadn’t yet decided whether to pursue any charges.
Steve Peace, owner of Immaculate Concept Tattoo, a licensed facility in Calgary, said the closures give the entire industry a black eye just as it is finally achieving mainstream respect.
“Tattoos have been trying to come out of the gutter for 100 years and, pretty much, we’re finally there,” he said. “The guys at home aren’t really following the rules.”
There are stringent health-based requirements to get a licence to operate a tattoo parlour, but there’s no standard of training for individual artists, Peace said. The number of home-based operations has drastically expanded, he added.
“Seven, that’s a low number. I’d say there’s more out there. There’s about 100 I’d say, easy.”
Health officials say investigations are ongoing and more closures are expected. They were tipped to the existing home operations by members of the public.
Fehr said about 45 tattoo parlours are licensed to operate in the city. They need to pass an initial health check as well as inspections every six to 12 months.
People looking for a tattoo should ask for the most recent health inspection report and should look around to get a sense of how clean the parlour is, said MacDonald. Good signs include visible hand sanitizer or nearby sinks.
The facilities shut down include Dustin Blatz Tattooing, Grave Marking Tattoo, Latino Tattoo Removal, Norm’s Tattoos, Piercer Dan and Tattoo Girl. Outlaw Tattoo was also closed for improper procedures, although it has since received approval to reopen.
Peace said beyond the health dangers, untrained tattoo artists can be risky for another, more superficial reason — the finished product just doesn’t look good.
He said he had at least two clients in the last couple of days who wanted bad tattoos covered up.
“It’s almost 25 per cent of my business now.”