Our View - Tuesday

SELF-POLICING TATTOO JOINTS
Don't involve county in body art

You walk into Bob's Tattoos seeking service. You want a bone through your nose and the Virgin Mary etched into your arm. Something's not right. You're struck by the stench of kitty litter and other strange smells. You're introduced to 300-pound Bob, the parlor's founding partner and managing artist. Bob wears a grubby muscle shirt and Dolfin shorts to show off his own tattoos. They don't look so good, but that's OK because Bob explains he got them in prison, and not at Bob's Tattoos. What do you do?

A. Look for a certificate from the county that says Bob's OK to pierce your nose and jam ink into your skin.

B. Leave, and do some research. Speak with multiple peers with good body art, and ask them which parlors do it best. Find a reputable shop, check it through the Better Business Bureau, and then personally assess the risks.

Unless you're ultra brave, the correct answer is "B." After all, even Bob's Tattoos could look good on the day of a county inspection. And even a once-good tattoo business can go downhill after getting a stamp of approval from the county.

The right tattoo on the right part of the right person can be a fine thing. But good, safe results aren't something the county can or should try to ensure. If ever there were an activity in which the buyer must beware, it's the business of shopping for body art.

The mere fact that so-called painful cuts to El Paso County's budget involve the elimination of tattoo parlor inspections indicates fiscal excess. The health department has no legitimate reason for spending nearly $30,000 annually to inspect tattoo parlors.

It's not in question that dirty body art tools can lead to infection and disease. But nobody is required to commission a tattoo, and the majority of citizens never do. It's a risk anyone can easily avoid by simply choosing against body art. Those who do seek tattoos and such ought to be responsible for assessing the risks themselves. The tattoo-free public shouldn't be forced to subsidize needless, private, elective bodily expressions.

The county's Board of Health plans to vote Wednesday on whether to permanently eliminate inspections, and most certainly they should. Tattoo artists are organizing to converge on the meeting, however, urging the county to maintain inspections.

The fact that responsible tattoo parlors favor county inspections isn't surprising. An approval certificate is like a valuable reward for good, clean practices. The inspection requirement creates a layer of bureaucracy that serves as a hurdle to entry. It dissuades cheap, startup fly-by-night operators from wanting to set up shop and compete. It also eases concerns of customers who might otherwise ask lots of questions or chicken out of getting tattooed.

Tattoo artists, however, don't need government to give them a useful stamp of approval. Reputations speak for themselves, and stamps of approval are best obtained through private associations of professionals. Free publications that sell advertising, for example, pay private auditing associations to verify circulations. Without the audit, it's hard to compete. Lawyers join private associations, such as the American Bar Association, that enforce standards on members and offer assurances to customers. Good tattoo artists, if they wish to separate themselves from the riffraff, need to form a credible organization that sells a stamp of approval to those who qualify.

No stamp of approval, however, should weigh in too heavily when it comes to letting someone inject ink beneath your skin. Few transactions require more personal information and diligence than the purchase of a tattoo. Good, safe tattoos aren't something the county can or should guarantee. Nothing can replace the ages old advice: Buyer beware. Besides, tattoos are free-spirited expressions of individuality. Don't involve the county in what's otherwise a solid act of rebellion.

MANITOU: INSPIRE, DON'T MANDATE

It's great that Manitou Springs Mayor Eric Drummond rebuilt his home greener than green after it was destroyed by fire. His home should stand as a shining example of what can be done to make efficient use of the sun and to live more in harmony with earth, rather than in conflict with third-party, monopolized energy suppliers.

It's even better that Manitou Springs politicians want a city that produces more energy than it uses, drawing on the sun and the wind.

If far-fetched theories about a human role in global warming are grounded in truth, conservation efforts in the United States could have at least some miniscule effect on stabilization.

But that's conjecture and theory. What makes Drummond's home and lifestyle so extraordinary is a fact: it frees him. Homes off the power grid, or minimally reliant on the grid, are places where soaring energy prices mean less personal hardship. Manitou Springs is full of free-spirited residents who can afford to free themselves from the bondage of the grid, and in doing so they'll lead what fashion environmentalists have labeled the "green" lifestyle.

But for some Manitou residents, it's not good enough to simply pursue efficient lifestyles of freedom and efficiency. A few have become so zealous in their environmental pursuits that they would force similar measures on others.

Drummond spoke to a gathering of the Green Summit 2 last month at Colorado College. Drummond talked about his home, and desires by Manitou officials to promote his eco-philosophy.

"This was my personal choice, my personal opportunity to walk the talk," Drummond said to the crowd.

Yes it was, and he's living proof that Americans don't need rules and regulations to embrace efficient lifestyles. Drummond grabbed the opportunity to go green the moment he found himself building a new home. He's not uncommon these days, as shown by most residents of an entire Kansas town that was wiped out by a tornado. Nearly every resident is rebuilding to high environmental or efficiency standards.

But Manitou's new climate action plan is anything but a document that simply promotes personal choice. It outlines a goal of "carbon neutrality" for the city by 2030. Some of it sounds sensible. For example, future city buildings would be designed to high levels of efficiency, powered by alternative sources. Residents and businesses would be "encouraged" to use fluorescent bulbs.

Other parts of the plan, however, are troubling. The city might contract with one garbage hauler, for example, stranding residents with one monopolized service. Why? To reduce trucks on the road.

The plan suggests an on-street parking fee to create an artificial expense for people who need to drive. This would supposedly urge them onto a trolley service the city would install at taxpayer expense, and other public transit. And the worst idea: Screen "Al Gore's ‘An Inconvenient Truth' at Manitou Springs High School."

Indoctrinating children with a widely discredited movie that exploits human fear is no way to green Manitou. The movie has no more place in a public school than a movie that frightens kids into preparing for the second coming. It's eco-vangelism at its worst.

Living "green" comes with enough inherent, personal rewards that most people can be easily convinced of the merit. Rather than taxing, spending, scaring, controlling and propagandizing, leaders of Manitou Springs should focus entirely on inspiring. All they need for that is Drummond's story, and the tales of others who've moved away from the oppression of the grid.