{"id":20658,"date":"2020-10-16T16:26:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T23:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/local-tattoo-shops-reopen-in-anticipation-of-updated-state-guidelines"},"modified":"2020-10-20T11:16:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T18:16:37","slug":"local-tattoo-shops-reopen-in-anticipation-of-updated-state-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/news\/local-tattoo-shops-reopen-in-anticipation-of-updated-state-guidelines","title":{"rendered":"Local tattoo shops reopen in anticipation of updated state guidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Owner Mikey Vigilante tattoos a customer at Paper Crane Studio in the East Village Arts District of Long Beach, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. Photo by Brandon Richardson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Los Angeles County tattoo shops, including at least four in Long Beach, have reopened for business in the wake of an ongoing lawsuit against the state. The lawyer representing tattoo shop owners, however, said the state will make an official announcement regarding tattoo businesses Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The state attorney general\u2019s office deferred questions to the governor\u2019s office, which did not respond to requests for comment about the announcement.<\/p>\n

Attorney Robert Moest, who is representing the tattoo shops, said the attorney for the governor and the Department of Public Health said the state would revise its guidelines so that body art businesses could reopen along the same lines as nail and hair businesses.<\/p>\n

Moest is representing three tattoo shop owners in a lawsuit<\/a> against Gov. Gavin Newsom and two state health officials, which was filed in late September.<\/p>\n

In Long Beach, Port City Tattoo, whose owner Tom Moser is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, Paper Crane Studio, Outer Limits Tattoo and The Raven & The Wolves have reopened for business by appointment only. Between Sunday and Tuesday, the businesses announced their reopenings on social media.<\/p>\n

Owners of Black Raven Tattoo in Torrance and Palace Art Tattoo in Thousand Oaks, the other two plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the state, have also publicly announced they are now open.<\/p>\n

Moser said he opted to reopen ahead of any formal announcement once he was told the state was not going to fight the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if it doesn\u2019t go through, I\u2019m not closing down,\u201d Moser said. \u201cThey can send the police out here or do whatever because I know I have a lawsuit against the city and state for damages if I really wanted to pursue it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jamie Cheshire, 44, winces during her session with Paper Crane Studio Owner Mikey Vigilante, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. Photo by Brandon Richardson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A 2010 decision in the case Anderson v. City of Hermosa Beach by Judge Jay Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit states tattoos, the process of tattooing and the business of tattooing are fully protected under the First Amendment. Moest also represented the plaintiff in that case and used this precedent in his current lawsuit against the state.<\/p>\n

Based on legal precedent and the anticipated announcement, Moser said he is confident that being open now will not result in any citations or fines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hope that health inspectors can find more flagrant violations of the safety protocols than the safe reopening of a tattoo shop, but you never know,\u201d Moest said. \u201cI think if a shop were cited, they would have a good defense to the citation. Copies of my lawsuit are public record, but their lawyers would still presumably charge a hefty fee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mikey Vigilante, owner of Paper Crane Studio in Long Beach\u2019s East Village Arts District, said that he took out around $100,000 in loans to keep his shop afloat during the forced closure of the last seven months. He said the timing couldn\u2019t be better, as his unemployment benefits recently ran out.<\/p>\n

Tattooing is one of the oldest forms of human expression, Vigilante said, adding that if people took the time to educate themselves they would accept that tattoos have a role to play in society beyond the stigma often attributed to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cTattoos aren\u2019t a mark of vanity. It\u2019s not a luxury item. It\u2019s not cosmetic,\u201d Vigilante said. \u201cIt\u2019s deeply, deeply expressive and personal and part of the human experience. For myself, as an artist, \u2026 it\u2019s an exercise in meditation for me. To have somebody wear it and show it off with pride \u2026 connects us on a physical and spiritual level. It\u2019s my life\u2019s purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles County tattoo shops, including at least four in Long Beach, have reopened for business in the wake of an ongoing lawsuit against the state. The lawyer representing tattoo shop owners, however, said the state will make an official announcement regarding tattoo businesses Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":71316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2002],"tags":[3,17831,31491],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[25820],"class_list":["post-20658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-instagram","tag-coronavirus","tag-tattoo-shops","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20658"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=20658"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=20658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}