HB 443-TATTOOING AND BODY PIERCING  CHAIRMAN STEVENS announced HB 443 to be up for consideration. MS. SHARON O'DELL, Chief of Staff for Representative Vic Kohring, said in 2000 the legislature passed SB 34 to address safety and health issues with the body piercing and tattoo industry by bringing them under the licensing requirements of the Barbers and Hairdressers Board. The qualifying application deadline was set in statute, but didn't allow the department any kind of grace period or an appeal process. Because of that there were qualified practitioners who were already in business that will have to go out of business because they missed that qualifying application date. The practitioners they have talked to are in favor of the regulations set forth in SB 34, but even though the department did their best to notify everyone that would be affected by the new regulations, some people just got left out. They are trying to address that problem with those businesses that will have to otherwise close. They would have to go through the process of finding another practitioner who has gotten their license to get them through the training period. It could be difficult to even find someone in their area who is willing to take them on. This is an unintentional result of the law that went into effect in 2000. HB 443 does two things. It doesn't change any of the regulations or the qualifying date set forth in SB 34. It extends the transitional license application date to July 1, 2002 and extends the license requirement date to December 1, 2000. There is a fiscal note for the renotification because the DEC regulations that have been adopted will go stale in October in this year requiring renotification. MS. GAIL MCCANN, Owner of the Electrolysis Clinic in Fairbanks, supported HB 443. She is one of the individuals who would be impacted by the bill not being passed. If it didn't pass, it would definitely affect her livelihood and her ability to continue offering her service. She uses a tattooing technique for permanent and corrective cosmetics working with burn survivors, as an example, who have gone as far as they can with reconstructive surgery and want to take their improvement in appearance a step farther. Many times a burn survivor will have lost their facial hair - eyebrows and eyelashes and she can tattoo those features. She said people with surgically corrected cleft palates were another example of clients she served. MR. JOE SCHOOLCRAFT, Two Moons Body Piercing and Tattooing, said the tattooing community is small and he found it hard to believe that some people didn't know about this. He thought if a person missed the deadline that through the tattooing community they could find someone who could reach out and help them. The test has to do with sanitation and nothing with technique. MR. TODD GIPSON, Two Moons Body Piercing and Tattooing, opposed HB 443. He thought the interested parties should keep on top of the laws and what's going on. MR. JEFF MARTIN, Muttleys Tattoo Clinic, supported HB 443. He said he is in transition and somehow missed the application time. He has three employees who are affected as well. MR. ANDY KOPCZENSKI, American Tattoo, said he had been in this business for 22 years. He said he does the same thing that Ms. McCann does about 10 times a week. He opposed this bill. The fiscal note that goes with it comes out of the general fund, which is his money. He didn't want to be charged for people "not getting their homework done." MR. KOPCZENSKI said, "This is another way to charge me for the guy next door." SENATOR LEMAN moved to pass CSHB 443(L&C) from committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered.