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PEEKSKILL, N.Y. - The city may soon see the ban of tattoo parlors lifted. But first, city officials must work out the details on where such establishments will be allowed.
After a public hearing last month in which residents showed support allowing tattoo artists to set up shop within city limits, the Common Council is proposing to change city zoning laws to allow tattoo parlors in the C-1 and C-1A shopping center district, the M-1 light industrial district, M-2 and general industrial district, M-2A design industrial district, and M-3 industrial park district.
The move to end the ban is mostly due to a tattoo artist who has been working to open a shop in the city for about two years.
Under the current proposal, tattoo work would have to be done in a back room where it would not be visible to people outside of the building, just as city law previously allowed before such establishments were banned in the 1980s for quality-of-life concerns.
Council members at Monday's Committee of the Whole meeting said they wanted to keep tattoo parlors at least 500 feet from schools and from other tattoo parlors, but wanted to first examine if such a distance was practical in such a small downtown area. Places of worship are not currently being factored into the law.
Special permits for permitting tattoo parlors would be handled by either the Council or the Planning Commission. Mayor Mary Foster wants to give the Council control of that function while the first such parlors are being established in the city.
"It's no different than starting with the outside dining," Foster said. "Initially, I think a lot of that started with the council and then we moved it over to Planning and then it just became an administrative procedure."
The Common Council would review maps at an upcoming meeting in order to finalize the list of acceptable zoning locations for the parlors.
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