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LINCOLN PARK - Council OKs tatoo parlors
(by Sid Johnston - Staff Writer - November 26, 2008)
LINCOLN PARK - The Borough Council has adopted two ordinances that bring tattoo parlors closer to establishment here but one more vote is needed before body art can begin.
One ordinance amends a previous law that only a licensed doctor could perform tattoos, and the other sets a $200 fee, as determined by the state, that tattoo parlors would pay for health inspections.
Adopted on Nov. 17, these ordinances started from the request of three entrepreneurs, Mike Citarella, Paula Clark and Larry Clark, who operate out of two tattoo parlors, Ground Zero in Haledon and Third Rail Tattoo & Body Piercing in Bloomfield. They approached the council in May 2008 to see if they could establish a tattoo parlor in the borough, to be called Devotion Studio & Art Gallery.
“It’s not going to be your stereotypical tattoo shop,” Paula Clark said. “It is going to focus on having an art gallery in it as well, and doing things beyond what a normal tattoo shop does.”
Clark said they picked the borough because of its strategic location. Clark said that the borough having its own train station makes it more accessible to potential customers. The NJ Transit Montclair-Boonton line runs through the borough, which connects New York City and Hoboken to as far away as Hackettstown in Warren County.
There was only one dissenting vote at the council meeting, from Louis Pepe.
“I agree that we need to promote economic development in our downtown area,” Pepe said. “However I do not believe that a tattoo parlor is the best use of space or necessarily a beneficial business for the residents of Lincoln Park.”
Pepe said that “many communities that have approved such business have restricted the locations to beyond neighborhoods or community centers, thus moving them to highways such as Route 23 or Route 46.”
He explained that since the proposed location of the tattoo parlor would not be on a major highway, this wouldn’t be an option in those towns.
The borough has yet to adopt an ordinance that would end the prohibition on service-only stores, like tattoo parlors, barbershops and nail salons. Establishments like barbershops and nail salons have been allowed to operate in the borough by including the sale of retail goods. This ordinance is set for adoption on Dec. 15.
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