Store owner objects to section requiring zoning approval.
By: Jennifer Potash
The Princeton Regional Health Commission is expected to make its mark tonight on a new ordinance regulating body-art establishments.
The commission will hold a public hearing on the ordinance at a meeting scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. at Princeton Borough Hall.
Blake Carr, who opened Lucky 13, a tattoo and body-piercing shop on Leigh Avenue in Princeton Township in November, favors the health and safety standards in the ordinance. In fact, Mr. Carr said, he brought those standards to the attention of the Princeton Regional Health Department last spring.
"My effort here is to have the best shop I possibly can and have a reputation based on that," he said.
But Mr. Carr has raised objections over two sections of the proposed ordinance a preamble that states the ordinance should not be construed as approval of body-arts establishments in Princeton Township and Princeton Borough and a clause requiring zoning approval before the department grants a body-art license.
"I find it personally insulting and unnecessary (the Health Commission) should assault my line of work," he said.
Mr. Carr, who has worked in the body-art field since the early 1990s, questioned the inclusion of language in the ordinance stipulating the Health Department will not issue a body-art establishment license until the applicant provides proof of municipal zoning approvals.
Mr. Carr has not received zoning approval from Princeton Township, which holds the zoning variance granted to the previous tenant, a beauty salon, does not apply to body-art shops. Princeton Township has issued him two zoning violations, he said.
The policy of first requiring zoning approval is an attempt to bar him from operating his tattoo shop, said Mr. Carr, a Princeton Township resident.
Princeton Regional Health Officer William Hinshillwood said requiring zoning approval before a license is issued has been the department’s standard procedure but was never formally included in an ordinance. The attorney for the Health Department recommended adding the practice to the ordinance, he said.
Mr. Carr, whose establishment met the approval of the Health Department, said his body-art license should not depend on zoning approval.
The commission, at a February meeting, also added wording that the ordinance "should not be construed to impart or imply approval, consent or a sense of desirability of a Body Arts facility," but is intended to make sure any approved facilities comply with newly enacted state regulations as well as the municipal requirements.
Mr. Carr suspects the changes in the local ordinance are the result of prejudice or misconceptions about tattoo parlors.
"It’s not what they’ve seen in the movies with bikers and drunken sailors," he said.
His clientele crosses racial and socioeconomic borders customers are as likely to be Princeton University faculty or students as blue-collar workers, he said.
As much as he would like to challenge the ordinance in court, Mr. Carr said he lacks the financial resources.
"I’m not a rich man," he said. "I’ve worked hard and put everything I have into this shop."