SALEM – The city board of health discussed tattoo and piercing establishment inspections last Wednesday.

Board President Judy Sicilia reviewed the city’s ordinance governing tattoo and piercing establishment licenses after the board heard concerns from a business owner during a Dec. 17 meeting who felt that inspections should be conducted more frequently. Sicilia found that the ordinance requires businesses to meet the standards set by the department to be issued a license, but that it does not actually state that they must be inspected and may need to be updated.

“I went back and looked at our current ordinance because they were talking about more frequent inspections, and actually the ordinance doesn’t say they’re inspected at all. It just says that ‘each registration is issued and shall expire annually and be renewed in accordance with Salem City Health District policy,’… it says they have to be in compliance with the policies, but it doesn’t say that we inspect them to assure compliance,” said Sicilia.

Mayor Cyndi Baronzzi Dickey suggested that the ordinance might instead specify that the business must comply with the department’s policies “as verified by inspection,” which Sicilia agreed. Environmental Health Director Charles Weatherly was concerned that the ordinance does not specify that bi-annual nor annual inspections will be conducted. Weatherly also said that there was currently no inspection checklist for tattoo and piercing establishments –and that if the decision was made to update the ordinance to address the omission of inspections that he could develop an inspection checklist to present the board with at its next meeting.

During his report, Weatherly told the board that he had completed 11 inspections in December, including three school inspections which he noted took up the bulk of his time. He said that while he was keeping pace with the department’s monthly average of 8-12 restaurant inspections each month, he was currently behind the necessary pace to complete all the inspections slated for this year. He also said that while there were no animal bites, nor nuisance complaints in December, there have been “quite a few” in January.

During her report, Director of Nursing and Health Commissioner Chelsea Clark said December had been a slower month for the department, with eight office visits and 11 vaccinations. She said that there were four Covid-19 associated hospitalizations in December, which she noted would be the new reporting mechanism for covid infections moving forward rather than individual cases being reported.

Clark also said the department had finished job shadowing sessions for Youngstown State University (YSU) students’ public health rotations for the year, and that the department had been invited to partner with the university again next year. She said that as part of the partnership the department would work with the university to set up times where students could shadow either herself or Public Health Nurse and Accreditation Coordinator Jodi Snyder.

The meeting concluded with an executive session to discuss contractual matters.

The board of health will meet next at 2 p.m. on Feb. 18.