I hate to condemn any one place outright, but over the past few years, I’ve seen sufficient proof of the province of Alberta, Canada having far too many incidents of unregistered or unsanitary tattooists operating businesses. The most recent evidence of this comes thanks to Darren Kennaway and Thomas Kennedy of Edmonton, whose tattoo operation, Loki’s Haven Tattoos has been caught tattooing in people’s homes between two different neighbouring towns without the necessary health permits. It was only through a chance spotting of Kennaway and Kennedy’s advertising on Facebook that health officials discovered what was happening.
‘Tattoo operators must be undergo a health inspection before they can receive a permit for their operation. Horne said an investigation into the Loki’s Haven Tattoos showed proper sanitary measures weren’t followed.Public health investigators obtained a list of clients from the business, but issued a health alert after discovering the list was incomplete.“Because these operators did not have proper sterilization processes in place, all individuals who received tattoos from them, in any location, may have been exposed to viruses such as hepatitis B and C, and HIV,” Horne said.
If the men don’t abide by the public health orders, they could be charged under the Public Health Act, Horne said.’
As far as I’m concerned, Alberta is not a good place to get a tattoo. Hey, apologies to all the legit artists working and living there, but the province of Alberta in general seems to be kind of slack on the issue of ensuring that their artists are working in clean and legal environments. Hell, Kennaway and Kennedy have been tattooing without permits for at least two years. Two years? That’s insane. What’s even crazier is that if the men don’t abide by the public health orders, they could be charged. Are you kidding me? How about immediately charging these two stupid rednecks for endangering the lives of hundreds of people over the last two years? There’s no doubt about it, the Alberta health departments need to step the hell up on this one.