JONESBORO -- As many as 100 Arkansas State University students have been tattooed by a 19-year-old student whom police say is unlicensed and is alleged to have left at least two students sick and seeking medical care.
University Police Chief Jim Chapman said he did not know whether the tattoo artist charged the students for his work. Chapman said some of the students were tattooed in the young man's dormitory room and, in other instances, he went to the room of the person getting the tattoo.
But police said the student did not have a state license, had not paid required state fees and had no means of properly disposing of blood and blood-borne pathogens, according to the report. Police say he also had failed to take a state-mandated examination in order to tattoo.
Authorities say the student has been tattooing people on campus since the spring.
Chapman declined to identify the tattooist on Tuesday, saying he didn't want to compromise his investigation. He said state law requires a tattooist to be licensed with the state, as well as work for six months under another tattooist who has been licensed for at least three years.
University police seized from the student's dormitory room several bottles of ink, notebooks containing tattoo drawings and other equipment used in tattooing, according to a police report. Chapman described the equipment as professional-grade.
"There are indications he was studying under a tattoo agent not in the state of Arkansas," Chapman said. "He does have some experience."
However, police found no disinfectant supplies during their search.
Chapman said Arkansas requires children under 18 to have parental consent before receiving tattoos. Customers sometimes seek unlicensed tattooists because their services are less expensive, or because they cannot go to a licensed tattooist without parental consent.
Chapman said health laws did not allow him to release the illnesses reported by students who received the tattoos. As of now, he said his office was in contact with the prosecutor's office and the Arkansas Health Department about what charges to file against the 19-year-old.
Chapman said operating without a license was a misdemeanor, but other charges could be filed as well.
"It's so new to us," Chapman said. "You don't come across this type of thing."
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