Lawmakers are looking to get straight to the point when it comes to body piercing laws in Massachusetts by unifying how the piercing business is governed statewide.
“This legislation would provide regulations that promote safe and sanitary practices so that individual cities could refer to them,” said Rep. Bruce Ayers, who sponsored the bill heard at the State House yesterday.
Ayers said individual cities and towns currently have their own governing practices when it comes to putting needles in peoples’ bodies.
Ayers proposal would give the state’s Department of Public Health the ability to enact regulations governing the licensing and monitoring of body piercing operations, however.
“What’s working now in Quincy might be different from Weymouth or Amherst and what they have on the books,” said Ayers. “These new requirements would make it clean and safe.”
Local piercer Christina Kelley said she supports a blanket law statewide so every establishment could be on the same page in the Bay State.
“I’m in favor of having strict laws when it comes to body piercing. The public hears a lot of different information from different cities, so it would be beneficial to have a unified law,” said Kelley, the piercing manager at Stingray in Allston.
Kelley did say, however, that she worried there wouldn’t be enough state inspectors to visit every shop in Massachusetts.
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