Tattoo parlors feeling pinched by rising fees
By: Joshua Sabatini
June 22, 2009
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| Getting word out: Paul Stoll, owner of Body Manipulations in the Mission district, has started a campaign in hopes that The City will repeal the $1,263 permit fee increase. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco’s tattoo parlors were socked with a whopping annual business permit increase that is more than 12 times the current fee, and owners warn it could drive operations underground and jeopardize safety.
San Francisco’s liberal views and general acceptance of what some consider strange has contributed to the success of tattoo and piercing businesses in The City. These colorful operations and talented artists serve as an attraction for visitors from around the world.
Tattoo and piercing shops are also generally small businesses, in some cases with only one or two workers, and they are finding a bill in the mail that shows their annual business fee for the fiscal year beginning July 1 has increased from $109 to $1,372.
Paul Stoll, owner of Body Manipulations, a piercing and tattooing business, has become a frequent visitor to City Hall since receiving the bill about four weeks ago. He’s attempting to convince city officials that there’s something wrong with the fee hike. He’s worried the fee will be tough to shoulder for small shops and will cause others to go underground to escape regulations, putting people at risk.
“We have some of the best artists here,” Stoll said of San Francisco’s tattoo industry. “[San Francisco] is one of the premier places. We are a destination location. People come from all over the world to visit us.”
The Department of Public Health, which increased the fee and is in charge of inspecting the establishments, recently sent a letter to the 47 permitted businesses in The City explaining the fee hike and apologizing for not offering an explanation earlier.
Rajiv Bhatia, a health department director, said in past years the department failed to fully account for the cost of inspecting the tattoo and piercing shops, and set the new fee to ensure the program comes at no cost to The City.
“The program net cost with shared operations and city overhead in the current fiscal year is estimated at $64,500, and the license fees reflect this cost appropriated among an inventory of 47 establishments,” Bhatia wrote. He also said the fee increase was approved last year with an effective date of July 1, 2009.
Stoll has launched an online petition and also dropped off hard-copy documents at various establishments in hopes of persuading city officials to decrease the fee.
“I understand they are up against the wall budgetwise, but The City should figure out ways to decrease the inspection costs,” he said.
The fee hike “probably will result in the exact opposite of what we are trying to achieve here,” Stoll said.
The cost of doing body art
Tattoo shops face a substantial fee increase July 1 to operate in The City.
47 Number of permitted tattoo businesses in The City
$109 Previous annual fee for tattoo and/or piercing businesses
$1,372 Annual fee for tattoo and/or piercing businesses starting July 1
$64,500 Public Health Department cost to inspect 47 such businesses
jsabatini@sfexaminer.com
