I know I'm a week behind on mentioning this, but I wanted to link to “Tattoos keep neighbors apart” in Ann Landers from last Friday… I really think she deserves credit for her response (click the link for the whole thing):
"Tattoos and body piercings do not make the girl an irresponsible babysitter or a bad influence. She may, in fact, be a terrific person. You cannot expect to shield your son from every person who has tattoos and piercings."
Anyway, time to get to the story that I wanted to talk about, and that I suspect hasn't gotten much press outside of Australia and New Zealand. James Leota-Tui, a 29-year old Samoan man, wanted to go through the same tattoo ritual (his pe'a) that his father went through now that he'd become the head of the family. Because “cultural tattoo artists” are exempt from health code rules, the artist was not keeping up with modern sterility guidelines. Five days into the procedure James had to be hospitalized from failing health, and died a few days later from flesh eating disease.
This is not the only case of this type of problem. Tattooing of this type is still done by “tattoo families” using traditional tools and traditional sterility control (ie. none). The problem is, modern times don't allow us the luxury of being sloppy when it comes to microbes…
James Leota-Tui was buried the same day the new tattooing health and hygiene guidelines were passed into law.
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