Winter 2023 update

Greetings,

There has not been much to update so far this year, the slated RAC (rules and advisory committees) that were started were dissolved due to urgent work needed in the area of electrolosis. We have been in line waiting to resume after they finished that and have still been showing up to meetings in the meantime to show face and let them know we are still present. It’s been slow going but we are still hopeful our turn is coming.

As a precursor to some of this future work we have been informed that Oregon is a ‘wet signature’ state, meaning in-person petitions mean a lot more than online. We will be calling on our community to sign some petitions once we get to that point, so keep an eye out for Portland area meetings in 2024. Hopefully there are opportunities for us to connect with some other Oregon tattooer advocate groups from around the state coming up as well.

We get asked questions about continuing education a lot, and there have been some new developments around setting up seminars. Recently we have been told that it is no longer necessary to fill out a pre-approval form. We still recommend that whether you put on a seminar or attend one that you have records/documentation in case of audit. Thankfully now there are significantly less constraints around learning opportunities for tattooers.

For those interested, we have taken notes from the latest HLO board meeting and included them below.

BOARD MEETING 11/6

Rian Othus stepping down due to health reasons, motioned for new vice chair and chair since Matthew Holmes has a new job. Lisa Chambliss’s term is over too.

Paul and Audrey now Chair & Vice Chair for this meeting/the future.

New board vacancies? One or two positions coming up.

Fiscal year starts July 1 and ends July 30 the following year

100-130 new tattoo licenses issued PER quarter.

Body piercing gets 1-5 new licenses per quarter.

Graphs shown cover 2022 & 2023

Tattoo license renewals 300-400 license renewals per quarter 

3,748 license renewals total 

943 Body art facility licenses

Electrology is growing finally!

Tattoo Artists, 2223 licensees

Piercing is basically the exact same, 20 licenses for type 2 piercing steady over the last few years and a few more for earlobe piercing.

Revenues surpass over expenditures

$1mil profits after expenditures

109 complaints from ‘22, for our board.

Most complaints are regarding unlicensed practitioners.

Complaints come from “anonymous”, “clients” and “other” which means they leave their name but could be general public or other artists.

Anatomy of an investigation: complaint comes in, goes through 2 staff members to be assessed to see which type, jurisdiction etc. If it can be assigned to an investigator then they hire an inspector/investigator for evidence. Interviews, additional information or if it involves a client. Once info is gathered it comes back through the office and gets reviewed to see if it is a violation, and what civil penalties that exist in rule are appropriate. If there is an injury, infection etc outside of civil penalties, they bring it to the board and have an executive session to decide what happens.

Public comment:

-Adding trainers to the electrology section of the website since they allow mentorship outside of school environment (they found the list hidden on the website after this comment)

-Same question from Brenda, they said they can refer people to the state to refer trainers

-Statements from ROT regarding problems with tattoo schools, unsustainable license numbers, expressed disappointment in the lack of willingness to assist us in reforming the curriculum and rules surrounding tattooing when we bring them so much revenue. Hourly requirement for tattoo schools are lower than hair, nails, electrology, etc. basically any other trade and there is a need to increase the hourly requirement up from 360 hours.

Proctors- piercers concerned about instructors self proctoring, they said that the instructors DO proctor their own students. Posing the questions about nepotism/corruption within the system. State says they don’t hear complaints about botched piercings so they don’t see it as a problem, no need for 3rd party proctor they say. Lack of infrastructure, not enough piercers to do practicals every quarter.

RE: piercing: people don’t know how to file a complaint with the HLO, if you’re seeing botched piercings, botched tattoos etc. part of fixing that problem could be allowing a pathway to report them to the board.