Setting standards good for tattoo parlors
Ten years ago in Columbia County, after a rash of prostitution-related arrests centered around seedy massage parlors, county officials knew they had to take action.
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Calling together legitimate massage therapists, they worked together to create regulations for operating such businesses.
The result included licensing and inspections for those businesses - minimum requirements that legitimate operations had no problems meeting, but which made it tougher for the phony parlors to continue.
A few random arrests occasionally occur from businesses on the edge, but on the whole the massage industry in the county has been cleaned up.
Next stop: Tattoo parlors.
There haven't been any complaints about the small handful of tattoo businesses in Columbia County. But right next door, Augusta officials have been making plans for setting regulations for tattoo parlors. Without similar regulations here, Columbia County could be in danger of becoming the dumping ground for unlicensed artists chased across the county line.
The good news is that members of Columbia County's Board of Health have been meeting with the county's existing tattoo artists, along with reviewing other communities' tattoo and body-piercing regulations.
As a result, the board has drafted a set of ordinances to begin licensing such businesses. The county's attorney currently is reviewing the proposed laws, which eventually would go to the county commission for approval.
At that point, uniform standards for sanitation and licensing would apply to all tattoo artists working in the county - and that also would apply to any who might want to set up shop here in the future.
Ideally, the state would enact similar standards so the regulations would be uniform across the state. That's what happened not long after Columbia County's massage regulations were enacted, and the state likewise passed indoor smoking restrictions after Columbia County banned the practice.
It's not often enough that as Columbia County goes, so goes Georgia - but in these cases, it's a pretty good idea.