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TARRYTOWN, N.Y. The fight over tattoo parlors is just as indelible as a bad tattoo.
A few Tarrytown residents who fought against a local law allowing tattoo parlors are now protesting one new tattoo shop's location and storefront window displays.
I'm disgusted, John Garibaldi said. I'm upset. These graphic pictures disturb me. I'm a 60-year -old man. If they disturb me, how are our children supposed to interpret what they've already seen?
Garibaldi was speaking of a sign placed in the storefront window in November which showed tattoos of women with blood on their faces and hands. The Mighty Horseman tattoo parlor located on Neperan Road is owned by Chuk Hognell.
Hognell has since taken the sign down after the village issued a summons for violating the tattoo parlor law's signage requirements. The law prohibits displays of tattoos in his window.
Residents also took issue with the new tattoo shop's location, which is within 500 feet of The New York School of Esthetics and Day Spa. The law prohibits tattoo parlors within 500 feet of any school. Trustees announced Monday night that they would be amending the law to exclude adult schools, such as The New York School of Esthetics and Day Spa. They reason the school's students are over 18 and legally allowed to get a tattoo and therefore don't need to be protected.
The board's original intent was always to address students attending schools who are under 18, Village Administrator Michael Blau said, later adding it was never their intent to address schools who provide training to adults.
Another reason trustees have decided to amend the law is because of a mistake in the first law's public noticing, Blau said. The first of several public notices included provisions of limiting tattoo parlors near parks, but that was part of a draft that was not meant to be included, Blau said.
A public hearing on the proposed amendments will be December 5 at 8 p.m.. Hognell is legally prevented from opening his shop in its current location until the new law is passed.
Hognell said he hoped that the school issue could be ironed out without much issue. He also downplayed residents' issues with his shop's logo.
There are a very small minority of people in this town who are simply biased against me and my profession and will nit-pick at anything to give me grief, he said. Honestly, who gets personally offended by a two-dimensional image of a man on a horse?
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