Vote on Body Piercing Bill Postponed

A bill to require parental permission for a teenager to pierce assorted body parts was bombarded with amendments and questions Tuesday until an Assembly committee postponed a vote to sort it all out.

“I think there are too many holes in it,” said Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) with a grin.

“It doesn’t appear to me this is very well thought out,” said Assemblywoman Carole Migden (D-San Francisco).

Assemblyman George Runner (R-Lancaster) said his bill was merely a matter of parental rights.

“The parents need to be knowing and aware of what it is when someone is poking holes in their children,” he said.

After Runner accepted several amendments and the committee, by a 7-6 vote, exempted ear piercing from the parental permission requirement, the Public Safety Committee decided to postpone a vote until next Tuesday.

Runner’s bill originally would have made it a misdemeanor for anyone to perform a body piercing on a person under the age of 18 without the presence or written consent of a parent or guardian.

Runner later amended the bill to prohibit body piercing of the nipple or genitals of anyone under 18, making it a misdemeanor or infraction. He said he added that because of “concerns about developing parts of the body.”

Other amendments included making the crime either a misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, or an infraction, with a maximum fine of $250, and allowing the bill to expire Jan. 1, 2005.

Runner also agreed to exempt from prosecution the teenager, the parent and someone not in the piercing business who might pierce the ears of a friend. He said his bill was aimed only at people in the piercing business.

Current law makes it a misdemeanor to tattoo anyone under 18, but there is no law addressing body piercing.

In 1994, the Legislature passed a bill that would set health and safety standards for tattoo and body-piercing businesses. Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed it, saying there was no demonstrated health hazard. That author, Assemblywoman Valerie Brown (D-Kenwood), has introduced a similar bill this year.