All the laws that have been imposed on us as tattooers have not made tattooing any safer or better for the general public.  They have put a monetary burden on us, and forced us to spend lots of time complying to these seemingly arbitrary regulations. There is absolutely no enforcement of the laws we currently have- which means that only the tattooers who are trying to abide by the laws are affected in any way.  Tattooers know their craft better than anybody on some board could ever know.  The more the apprenticeship process is taken away from tattooers, the worse the outcome will be.

Why woud any self-respecting, or competent tattooer take the time to teach their craft to anybody who can cough up some cash?  Those who can- do, and those who cant try to legislate their way into getting a slice of our pie.

I imagine a future where every Piercing  Kiosk in every mall(not subject to the same piercing standards as tattoo shops) will have a state trained non-capable tattooer sitting there handing out hepatitis to the unsuspecting public who falsely assume that because there is a state issued license that the person tattooing knows what they are doing. They will buy their way in. There will be bloody bandages piling up in the food courts of malls everywhere.