|
On Wednesday, May 9, Jody Bodine Bouchette, an Andrews native, began to cry in his small tattoo parlor. The young man, tattooed with a red dragon across his chest and black designs up and down his arms, cried because he had finally won a nearly year-long battle.
Three days later, with a temporary operating license on the front door, Bouchette opened the first legal tattoo parlor in Georgetown County, and his business, supported by long-time friends, Andrews police officers and bikers, has not slowed.
Since Saturday, May 12, Bouchette has completed more than 60 tattoos and has booked appointments for the next two weeks. Even before Bouchette opened — just days before the annual Harley-Davidson Bike Week began and two weeks before Black Bike Week was scheduled to launch — bikers were calling and stopping by to schedule appointment times.
Tattoo 521, less than a mile from Andrews’ town limits on U.S. Highway 521, was able to open after Bouchette passed a S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) inspection with no violations. Bouchette and his girlfriend of more than a year, Chastity Ray, endured five inspections before getting the go-ahead from DHEC to open.
Bouchette said he would have never been able to open his tattoo parlor if it hadn’t been for Ray who cleaned the parlor “on her hands and knees” before each inspection. Now, Ray handles the complex and extensive administrative duties of the parlor.
The tattoo parlor, which sits on land in Georgetown County outside the town of Andrews, has been ready to open for several months as Bouchette turned the storage facility into a fully-functioning parlor.
Bouchette created a lobby decorated with a flat screen television and hundreds of tattoo designs for customers to choose from. The parlor also has a handicap accessible bathroom and a private tattoo room. In the tattoo room, Bouchette’s pre-packaged needles, ink and gloves line the wall around a tattoo chair some 60 years old that was passed down through the generations. Stainless steel covers the countertops of the tattoo room and a bio-hazard trash can, delivered by the same company that serves area hospitals and health clinics, sits next to the sink that Bouchette installed.
An 18-year-old girl, who was escorted by her father, was the first person to receive a legal tattoo in Georgetown County, according to Bouchette. This girl is considered a minor, said Tyson Steen, an eight-year Georgetown County EMS employee who trained Bouchette in the DHEC-required courses of infectious disease control, CPR and first aid.
In South Carolina, 18- to 21-year-olds must have parental permission to legally receive a tattoo or body piercing. In Bouchette’s parlor, however, not only do parents have to sign the state permission form, but he also requires that parents be present while their child is inked. Bouchette said he gave both the daughter and her father a tattoo on his opening day just over a week ago.
Battling Andrews Town Council
While Bouchette’s dream of opening a tattoo parlor has finally been realized, his battle is not completely over. Originally, Bouchette wanted to open his tattoo parlor in his hometown of Andrews.
He said the parlor would bring new business and money to the town in the form of increased water and sewer and business license taxes Bouchette would have to pay the town. Andrews is currently a half-million dollars in debt.
Bouchette, who has 17 years of tattoo experience, said a parlor in the town limits would also keep money in Andrews as residents would not have to travel to other states to get tattooed or search for jobs, as Bouchette plans to hire five locals to run his parlor, he said.
In August 2006, Bouchette approached Andrews Town Council asking for a business license to open his tattoo parlor in the town limits. This request started a heated debate, pitting most Council members and older residents against the town’s younger generation who grew up in an era when tattoos are more socially acceptable.
One side claimed that a tattoo parlor would attract drug-users and unruly bikers who like to drink. Tattoo 521 is across the street from Sarah’s Night Life, a members-only bar that is frequented by locals. The bar has been in the area for more than five years.
Those supporting Bouchette argued that business is a business. This side also strongly believed that new businesses is the only way to save Andrews, and stated that the tattoo parlor was welcome as long as Bouchette complied with state health regulations enforced by DHEC.
Bouchette, who was born in Andrews and lived there for the past 15 years, said in the absence of a legal tattoo parlor in Georgetown County, area residents are receiving illegal, unsafe tattoos in hotels, residences and other unsanitary locations.
In these places, unregulated by DHEC, non-certified tattoo artists use pen ink, a tiny motor and guitar strings to imprint tattoos on friends and family. A sewing needle is also often used.
Unlike certified tattoo artists, Bouchette said most who give and receive illegal tattoos are into drugs. Bouchette said they give tattoos as a way to make money to support a drug habit or exchange tattoos for drugs.
Steen, who applied to Council on Bouchette’s behalf, said Bouchette wanted to open a tattoo parlor near Andrews to help residents be safe and contribute monetarily to the town where he grew up and received his education.
On Sept. 21, 2006 — 10 months before the parlor opened on land in the county — Council held a public hearing to receive input on the idea of a tattoo parlor coming to town. Andrews Mayor Curtis Dorsey told The Times that the hearing would decide the location of the parlor. But, the hearing did not end the debate as Council could not come to a decision in regards to Bouchette’s zoning and business license request.
Council, led by Council member Michael Shaw, told Bouchette the night of the public hearing that the town’s governing board, with help from town attorney Holly Wall, would create a new ordinance for the zoning of tattoo parlors in Andrews.
About 10 months later, on Thursday, May 17, 2007 Council approved a second reading of a tattoo parlor zoning ordinance that is not much different from state tattoo zoning laws requiring all tattoo parlors to be 1,000 feet from churches, schools and playgrounds. Council should approve a final reading of the ordinance during its June meeting.
The ordinance states that any future tattoo parlors erected in Andrews town limits would have to be built in an area that is already zoned industrial. Most state parlors are zoned in commercial areas.
Tired of waiting for an answer from Council, Bouchette accepted an offer from Boyd Johnson, Georgetown County’s director of planning and code enforcement, to lease a space in the county, where his parlor now sits.
Although any tattoo parlor zoning ordinance that Council passes will not apply to Bouchette because he is not in the town limits, he said he still has a vested interest in the creation of a new tattoo parlor zoning ordinance.
Although there is no state law requiring local government bodies to respond to a citizen’s zoning requests in a certain amount of time, Bouchette stands firm by his theory that Council “dragged their feet” in responding to his request with the hope that he would “just go away and give up,” Bouchette said. He said he wants to see the ordinance through because it is the principal of the thing.
|
