Body Adornment

Registration Form
Body Art
Piercing and Tattoos
Preventing Needlestick
Injuries
Vaccinating and Educating
Reducing Cross-Con-
tamination
Organizations involved
in identifying bloodborne
pathogen exposure
risks in the body art
industry

Assembly Bill 186

                                     Tattoo, Body Piercing, and Permanent Cosmetics Regulations

WHAT IS AB 186?
On January 1, 1998, California Assembly Bill 186 went into effect. This bill requires County Health Departments regulate the practitioners of Body Art (tattooing, body piercing and permanent cosmetics). This bill was industry driven State legislation enacted to protect both consumers and practitioners of tattooing, body piercing and permanent cosmetics from transmission of contagious diseases obtained through cross contamination of instruments and supplies. The law promotes sanitation, sterilization, and safety standards for persons engaged in these types of businesses. Specifically, this bill requires all practitioners to register with their local health agency. State law requires health and safety standards be monitored and enforced locally by Santa Barbara County Environmental Health Services, the designated agency responsible for annual inspections of each facility engaged in tattooing, body piercing, and permanent cosmetics.

The California Health and Safety Code, sections 119303 – 119307
requires that those engaged in the business of tattooing, body
piercing and permanent cosmetics do all of the following:

*  Register with the local health department in the county in
which that business is conducted.

*  Obtain a copy of the county health department’s standard
sign an acknowledgement upon receipt of those standards
and commit to meet those standards.

*  Provide the county health department with his/her business address and the address at which the registrant performs tattooing, body piercing and/or permanent cosmetics.

* Pay a one-time registration fee to the county health department.

* Pay an annual inspection fee to the county health department.

* Make the location(s) where the activities of tattooing, body piercing and permanent cosmetics are performed available for annual inspections by the county health department.

NOTE: The law does exempt those individuals or businesses who only perform ear lobe piercing with a mechanical device that forces a single-use stud or solid needle through the ear. Also exempt are duly licensed physicians and surgeons.

HOW DO I REGISTER?
Registration can be accomplished by filling out a registration form available at either Environmental Health Services office. All questions on the form must be answered to the best of your ability in legible print. You may also print a registration form from the Environmental Health Services website.

A person that fails to register as required by the California Health and Safety Code or who violates the sterilization, sanitation and safety standards will be subject to a civil penalty of five hundred dollars ($500.00) per violation.

California Penal Code, sections 652, indicates it’s an infraction for any person to perform or offer to perform body piercing upon a person under the age of 18 years, unless the body piercing is performed in the presence of, or as directed by a notarized writing by, the person’s parent or guardian. Section 653 of the Penal Code states that regardless of parental consent, every person who tattoos or offers to tattoo a person under the age of 18 years is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Body Adornment