Up to date to incorporate statements from Thomas Hernandez.
Erin N. Carillo and Thomas H. Hernandez, promoters of the Honolulu Tattoo Expo, have been served with a $120K high-quality after 12 artists have been allegedly discovered tattooing with out a state license on each the primary and second day of the conference.
If you happen to do not occur to be a tattoo artist or “in” the tattoo world, you most likely do not know the protocol that comes with tattooing at conventions. So let’s break it down actual fast—artists have to comply with native state legal guidelines for tattooing even at expos, which regularly means being licensed by no matter state you can be tattooing in. Because of this earlier than attending the Honolulu Tattoo Expo, artists should work with the occasion hosts to get licensed by the state—Hawaii provides so much of online programs to simply get licensed by the state. Then artists should apply to tattoo at no matter expo they’re attending.
Now, well being inspectors who have been attending the Honolulu Tattoo Expo report that they witnessed eight non-licensed individuals tattooing on the twenty fourth and 4 on the twenty fifth. Occasion promoter, Thomas Hernandez, informed the Star Advertiser that he plans on contesting the fines which are $10K per violation. That is the best value for the fines, as Hawaiian officers informed Star Advertiser there was “open disregard for Hawaii legal guidelines designed to guard public well being” by the expo operators. Hernandez argues in any other case although, placing some blame on the state.
“The artists have been notified by Thomas Hernandez that they need to instantly cease tattooing and wouldn’t be allowed to tattoo on the occasion,” Hernandez mentioned in an announcement to Inked, “All artists complied with our request and it was documented (that the artists had stopped tattooing) by the on-site inspectors… there have been no incidents wherein an artist was cited a second time… When questioned concerning fines for the citations the on-site inspector defined that the primary quotation is a warning and there could be no financial high-quality imposed.” You possibly can most likely emphasize with Hernandez’s shock when he obtained a $100K plus high-quality.
The artists have been simply as confused over their citations as properly, Hernandez mentioned “A few of the cited artists didn’t know their license utility was not processed. We obtained an inventory of artists whose purposes have been obtained on Monday, January 13, 2020 (after the 14 day deadline) and have been knowledgeable that their licenses could be processed after the occasion, they might not be allowed to tattoo on the expo, and the well being division was NOT going to inform them.” Hernandez and his staff tried to inform these artists, however no less than one didn’t obtain their communications about failure to use.
“It is usually necessary to acknowledge that the entire artists in query obtained all of the state accepted coaching and handed each the TB and Syphilis checks required by the state of Hawaii however the well being division refused to course of their utility in time for the occasion,” mentioned Hernandez.
