Archive Note
The NYC Health Code had made commercial tattooing unlawful from November 1, 1961, on a public-health rationale tied to an alleged Coney Island hepatitis cluster, and the ban held for more than 35 years even as a working underground continued in apartment and basement studios. In February to March 1997 the city repealed it through Local Law 12 of 1997 and replaced it with the Body Art Studio licensing regime, requiring Department of Health permits for tattooists and studios, single-use needles, autoclave sterilization, recordkeeping, and bloodborne-pathogen training; Mayor Giuliani noted publicly that no case of hepatitis B transmitted by tattooing had been documented in the city in nearly 40 years. Daredevil Tattoo opened at 174 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side that year under Brad Fink and Michelle Myles, among the first openly licensed shops, alongside continuing studios like Fun City, and the first post-legalization NYC International Tattoo Convention followed in May 1998 at the Roseland Ballroom. The post-1997 licensing model was broadly replicated by other American cities.