‘Permanent Makeup’ Made Legal

“Permanent makeup” artists will be allowed to take up their tattooing needles again under a new law adopted Tuesday by the Torrance City Council.

The emergency ordinance, approved 6-0 with Councilman Bill Applegate absent, exempts only doctors and licensed cosmetologists and electrologists from a 1959 city ordinance that bans tattooing within city limits. The ban on all other forms of tattooing remains in effect.

Permanent makeup is applied with extremely fine needles that are used to slip color into the skin beneath eyebrows, around lips and along the eyelash line. The procedure is not regulated by any government agency.

In October, city staff members ordered three beauty salons to stop offering the service after a permanent makeup artist seeking a business license brought in the salons’ advertisements to show that the procedure was already being done in Torrance.

Electrologist Irene Hatate asked City Council members to change the anti-tattooing law to allow her to continue the service, which she said provides half her income.

Under the emergency ordinance, Hatate was allowed to begin work immediately but did not have a client scheduled until today.