It’s no secret that regulation on tattoo shops and tattoo artists vary widely from state to state, but you would expect that something that requires a needle to be inserted beneath the skin to deposit a foreign substance would require more regulation than cutting hair. Right? Not in California.

Fifteen hundred hours of training is required in California before someone can legally cut hair. Four hundred hours of training are required before someone can perform a manicure. However, the state only requires 2 hours of training to be able to give someone a tattoo, and that wasn’t required until this past summer.

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma of California drafted a bill that would require a minimum of 2 years of blood borne pathogen training per year. If you’re wondering why Ma didn’t push for more extensive regulations, that would be because it took six years to pass this version. She must have eventually decided that some regulation was better than none at all.

Call Kurtis of CBS Sacramento did an investigative report on the regulations of tattoo artists and shops. View his full report here http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/11/12/call-kurtis-investigates-uc-davis-student-died-after-tattoo-does-new-law-go-far-enough/#.UKKB9_qVzng.email.