BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 300
                                                                  Page  1

          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
          AB 300 (Ma)
          As Amended March 10, 2010
          Majority vote 

           HEALTH              17-0        APPROPRIATIONS      16-0        
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Monning, Logue, Ammiano,  |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey,          |
          |     |Atkins, Bonilla, Eng,     |     |Blumenfield, Bradford,    |
          |     |Garrick, Gordon, Hayashi, |     |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
          |     |Roger Hernández,          |     |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto,   |
          |     |Bonnie Lowenthal,         |     |Hill, Lara, Mitchell,     |
          |     |Mitchell, Nestande, Pan,  |     |Nielsen, Norby, Solorio,  |
          |     |V. Manuel Pérez, Smyth,   |     |Wagner                    |
          |     |Williams                  |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |     |                          |     |                          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           SUMMARY  :  Imposes minimum statewide standards for the regulation 
          of practitioners engaged in the business of tattooing, body 
          piercing, and the application of permanent cosmetics in 
          California.  Specifically,  this bill  :  

          1)Repeals existing law governing the development of body art 
            standards for persons engaged in the business of tattooing, 
            body piercing, or permanent cosmetics.

          2)Prohibits a person from performing body art if he or she is 
            not registered with the local enforcement agency (LEA).

          3)Requires the applicant to provide specified information as a 
            condition of registration including, among other things, the 
            following:  evidence of current Hepatitis B vaccination; 
            evidence of completion of training in bloodborne pathogens, 
            first aid, and CPR; proof that he or she is 18 years or older; 
            self-certification of knowledge and commitment to state law 
            and relevant local regulations; and, payment of a registration 
            fee, to be determined by the LEA in an amount sufficient to 
            cover actual administrative costs.

          4)Requires a practitioner to display the registration 
            certificate in a readily visible place at the facility where 
            the practitioner is performing body art and makes a valid and 
            current registration issued by a LEA valid in any other 








                                                                  AB 300
                                                                  Page  2

            jurisdiction for no more than five consecutive days, or 15 
            days total, in any one calendar year.  Requires a 
            practitioner's registration to be renewed annually.

          5)Prescribes a number of hygiene and sanitation procedures for a 
            practitioner to follow before performing body art and at the 
            completion of the procedure.  Directs the practitioner to 
            maintain a clean and sanitary environment, as specified.

          6)Prescribes various requirements for commercially manufactured 
            inks, dyes, pigments, soaps, trays, single-use needles, needle 
            bars, grommets, razors, machines, and tools used in the 
            performance of body art.

          7)Imposes various restrictions on the performance of body art 
            including informed consent and client disclosure requirements, 
            as specified.

          8)Requires sites that only perform mechanical stud and clasp ear 
            piercing to meet separate notification, sanitation, training, 
            and equipment requirements.

          9)Prohibits a body art facility from conducting business without 
            a valid health permit issued by a LEA and requires the 
            application for a health permit to include a copy of the 
            facility's Infection Prevention and Control Plan and a 
            specified fee, as determined by the LEA.

          10)Specifies that the health permit is valid only for the 
            location of the facility and the time period indicated on the 
            permit and is non-transferable.  Requires the health permit 
            and certificates of registration for all practitioners 
            performing body art in the facility to be posted prominently 
            at the body art facility.

          11)Requires a person who proposes to construct a practice site 
            or mobile practice site, other than a temporary body art event 
            booth, to submit plans and a specified fee to the LEA for 
            review.  Requires the plans to be reviewed before any 
            building, plumbing, or electric permits are issued and 
            requires any corrective action to be taken and the site 
            approved to open before any body art can be performed.  

          12)Specifies that, if a practitioner performs body art in a 
            vehicle in a jurisdiction for more than seven days in a 








                                                                  AB 300
                                                                  Page  3

            consecutive 90-day period, the practitioner is required to 
            obtain a health permit from the LEA in that jurisdiction.  
            Requires a vehicle that will be operating in the jurisdiction 
            for less than seven days in a consecutive 90-day period to be 
            treated as a temporary demonstration booth, as specified. 

          13)Allows a practitioner to operate in a temporary demonstration 
            booth for a maximum of seven days in a 90-day period in the 
            local jurisdiction of registration provided that the booth 
            meets certain specified requirements.

          14)Permits a LEA officer to enter a body art facility during the 
            facility's hours of operation and other reasonable times to 
            conduct specified inspection and compliance activities.  
            Requires the LEA officer to make a written report and furnish 
            a copy to the owner or practitioner upon completion of an 
            inspection or investigation.   

          15)Makes it a violation of this bill for the owner or any person 
            working in a body art facility to conceal or withhold records 
            or evidence, interfere with the performance of a LEA officer, 
            or knowingly falsify or misrepresent information required to 
            be submitted or maintained by this bill.  Allows a LEA to 
            suspend a certificate of registration or health permit for a 
            violation of this bill.

          16)Provides for specified due process whenever a LEA officer 
            finds that a practitioner or body art facility is not in 
            compliance with the requirements of this bill.

          17)Requires practitioners, body art facility owners, and 
            sponsors of temporary body art events to obtain and pay for 
            necessary registration and permits, as specified.

          18)Makes it a misdemeanor to perform body art without being 
            registered or to operate a body art facility or temporary body 
            art event without a health permit.  Authorizes the LEA to 
            assess various administrative penalties.
          19)Allows a city, county, or city and county to adopt 
            regulations or ordinances that do not conflict with, or are 
            more stringent than, the provisions of this bill. 

          20)Makes the provisions of this bill operative on July 1, 2012. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Assembly Appropriations 








                                                                  AB 300
                                                                  Page  4

          Committee, this bill will have:

          1)No direct state fiscal impact.  Most provisions of this bill 
            provide specific direction to body art practitioners and 
            businesses with respect to clean and sanitary practices.  Any 
            workload created by this bill falls on local health 
            departments that are authorized to fund that workload through 
            local public health fee schedules. 

          2)Several requirements fall on agencies charged with the 
            protection of community health and safety.  Like other locally 
            funded programs such as solid waste, hazardous materials, and 
            food inspection, this body art regulatory and enforcement 
            framework is fully-fee supported, with the fees levied on 
            individuals and business supporting the workload of the 
            regulator. 

          3)Minor nonreimbursable local law enforcement costs, offset to a 
            degree by increased fine revenue to local enforcement 
            agencies.

           COMMENTS  :  According to the author, the state lacks enforceable 
          and sufficiently detailed statewide standards regulating body 
          art despite requirements in existing law and repeated efforts 
          from both health practitioners and established body art 
          professional trade associations.  This bill is jointly sponsored 
          by the California Association of Environmental Health 
          Administrators, the Health Officers Association of California, 
          the Association of Professional Piercers, and the Alliance of 
          Professional Tattooists to establish a uniform body of law to 
          promote safer body art practices and assist these small 
          businesses by streamlining the patchwork of local regulations.  

          AB 186 (Brown), Chapter 742, Statutes of 1997, establishes a 
          statutory scheme to regulate body art practitioners.  The 
          sponsors note that they have been working for over ten years to 
          draft sanitation and safety guidelines and urge the Department 
          of Public Health (DPH) to adopt them as standards.  However, in 
          January 2008, DPH issued a memo concluding that regulations are 
          not necessary as current law does not explicitly require DPH to 
          adopt these standards.  DPH contends in the memo that while 
          current law makes reference to the adoption of these standards 
          by DPH, these references do not reflect the intent by the 
          Legislature for DPH to adopt regulations.  Rather, DPH maintains 
          that it was the intent of the Legislature that, after reviewing 








                                                                  AB 300
                                                                  Page  5

          the standards, DPH would distribute them to each LEA.

          The sponsors of this bill state that it represents an extensive 
          multi-year collaboration between public health and environmental 
          health representatives, individual practitioners, and body art 
          trade associations to ensure that the statewide standards 
          developed in this bill are not only protective of public health, 
          but fair and reasonably enforceable.  Supporters add that these 
          standards are long-overdue and will establish clear scope of 
          local authority, provide clear requirements for practitioner 
          registration, establish consistent enforcement of mobile and 
          fixed body art sides, protect clients through informed consent 
          requirements, and enhance practitioners' knowledge of bloodborne 
          pathogen exposure control. 


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Cassie Royce / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097 
          FN: 0000186