ATHOL – The Board of Health is looking at how area towns regulate body art as it reviews its own rules, not updated for the last 22 years.

According to Health Agent Deb Vondal, the town’s regulations regarding tattooing, cosmetic tattooing, body piercing, dermal piercing, and microblading/micropigmentation have not seen any changes since 2001.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the board discussed the application of dermals, or microdermal implants. Dermals consist of an object being placed partially below and partially above the skin. The implant placed below the skin is used to anchor the decorative jewelry on the surface of the skin. Microdermal implants are less complicated to apply than transdermals, which are employed for both medical and aesthetic reasons.

Rob Davis, who does piercings at Ragnarok Tatto Company in Athol, told the board that there is not a single town or state in the country that requires different licenses for dermals, as opposed to piercings.

“Everybody else across the board has them under the same license,” said Davis. “Let me just say, I couldn’t find one that is different.”

Board member and retired RN Raenette Kramer described the application of dermals as a surgical procedure, since an object is being placed under the skin using a punch biopsy. Kramer said she wants to speak with someone “at the state level” regarding the procedure.

“The thing that I’ve found is that the removal process is usually something done by a plastic (surgeon) and the rate of infection is quite high, from everything I’ve read,” said Kramer. “So, my jury is out on these dermals until I get more concrete information from other health care professionals that have seen them.”

Dermals are not allowed in Athol and Davis said the demand is high, adding that he lost close to $1,000 this month from those that wanted them and went elsewhere. He only uses titanium or surgical steel and said susceptibility to infection depends on where the dermal is applied.

“I don’t care for gold; I don’t care for silver,” Davis said. “Gold is the dirtiest metal you can work with because it’s porous and holds bacteria.”

Asked how infections would be tracked, Vondal said that these are self-reported and would hopefully be made to the health department.

“It would be like any other complaint that we get for, say, food poisoning,” Vondal said. “Then we go to that establishment and start asking questions about the incident.”

The board hopes to put the finishing touches on all proposed body art regulations at its next meeting. They will then be reviewed by Town Counsel, after which they will be subject to consideration by residents at a public hearing.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.

]]>