More news out of Hermosa Beach today where city residents have been making a great deal of effort to chase tattooist and tattoo studios from the area, despite a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision last year which stated that tattoos and the business of tattooing are forms of expression protected by the First Amendment.
If you’re familiar with this story, then you’ll probably also know that back in March, the Hermosa Beach City Council asked the Hermosa Beach Planning Commission to hold a public hearing this month in order to determine what can be done about the city’s current tattoo ordinance. Here’s the list of proposed regulations that concerned residents came up with, which will be discussed at the next planning commission meeting on May 17th.
Tattoo businesses in the Hermosa Beach area will be required to:
1. Not be within a 100-foot buffer zone around residential property.
2. Not be within a 200-foot buffer zone around parks, schools and religious facilities.
3. Operate between 8am and 9pm.
Honestly, can’t these whiney city residents just let it go already? They’ve lost. Tattooists are protected by the First Amendment. It is their right to open and operate their own businesses. Imposing the above restrictions on tattooists is not only unconstitutional, but it further stigmatises these legitimate artists and businesses.
What the concerned group of citizens and homeowners in Hermosa Beach don’t understand is that it’s they who are maintaining and adding to the bad reputation of tattooists. These people believe that tattoo studios are going to create a criminal element and drive down the real estate value. Obviously these people are not aware of how much money tattooists make. They’re also only serving to keep a negative stereotype alive by trying to push the tattooists out. While the tattooists quietly go about their business, these obsessive residents are carrying on about how undesirable tattooists are. Get it residents? You’re creating, maintaining and spreading the lie that tattooing is somehow dangerous, morally corrupt and detrimental to your living space. Let the businesses flourish for a year and then try and tell me that tattooists are bad for your community.
I guess we’ll see what happens at the next meeting in May, but something tells me that there is no way in hell that these residents are going to win. And that’s a very good thing.