Effective Dec. 12, some changes have been made that will complicate the process of tattooing--and getting tattooed--and possibly make things a lot more expensive.

The short of it is that--ostensibly in order to protect clients from health issues and enforce cleanliness in shops--there will be regulations on what ink can be used for tattooing. Instead of using large bottles and pouring the ink out into caps, individual, pre-packaged "shots" of ink must be used. Artists feel that the amount of money this will cost (buying in individuals instead of being able to buy bottles in bulk) and the lower quality of the ink make it a real problem for both tattooists and clients--who will, of course, have to bear the added costs.

There has been a lot of talk about it in the tattooing community and there's a Change.org petition that's been getting a lot of support. Check it out and sign it here if you'd like to (and if you'd like to read the actual law):

In order to straighten things out, we talked to Ken from Black Cherry Tattoo, who has been in the Hudson Valley tattooing community and campaigning for regulation in the industry for almost 30 years. He explains the consequences of the law and what can be done to prevent health issues--without more costly and low-quality ink.

More From WPDH-WPDA