DC Proposes to Ban Stupidity

24-hour waiting period proposed for D.C. tattoos, piercings

Some popular impulse purchases — tattoos and body piercings — could soon become less impulsive if District health regulators have their way.

A mandatory 24-hour waiting period is among the provisions included in a 66-page package of draft regulations governing the “body art” industry released by the city Health Department on Friday.

If the waiting period is adopted, D.C. will become one of a very few places in the nation where a person cannot walk into a tattoo parlor and walk out with a tattoo.
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It’s “honestly ridiculous,” said Paul Roe, who operates Britishink, a tattoo parlor on H Street NE. Roe, 45, testified in favor of a D.C. Council bill allowing the Health Department to regulate body art establishments because rules setting standards on hygiene, record keeping and licensing make sense, he said.

The waiting period, he said, does not.

“Why not 24 hours’ waiting time before shaving your head?” he asked.

Angela Diorio, of McLean, Va., has work done to her back tattoo .

Incidentally, the photo the online version of WAPO used to illustrate the article (left)  is a fine, if subtle example of Rule 5:  Everybody loves a pretty girl:

I strongly disagree with DCs attempt to outlaw impulsive behavior, partly on a strictly libertarian basis; people should be free to control their own bodies as they wish, not just the next day, and partly on a selfish basis.  Tattooing is indeed a marker for poor impulse control, and I for one am grateful that impulsive people often choose to self-identify by covering themselves with indelible dye.  Now if we could just persuade psychopaths to carve a large "PSY" in their foreheads with dull knives.

Take, for example, the case of Samantha Lynne Goudie, who famously had a Breathalyzer-measured blood-alcohol content of .341 when she was arrested at a football game last week:

“Just went to jail #yolo,” Goudie, using the Twitter handle @Vodka_samm, tweeted.

“Blew a .341 in jail,” she added, saying “I’m going to get .341 tattooed on me because its so epic.”

I really think she needs a little more ink to advertise her instability. As Stacy McCain notes:

Goudie is a “student” at the University of Iowa, and one wonders what sort of academic rigor is possible when consuming such brain-damaging quantities of booze. She’s into tattoos.

Do girls usually get tattoos when they’re sober? I think not. Is there a correlation between drunkeness and sexual promiscuity? I think so.

Just checked the 2012 exit polls: 60% of voters ages 18-24 voted for Obama. What do you want to bet @Vodka_samm is a Democrat?

I know people who disagree, but I tend to agree with Gary Duncan:




And it's Rule 5 Wednesday over at Wombat-Socho's lair at the Other McCain.