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TARRYTOWN, N.Y. Tarrytown trustees hope their latest vote on the issue of tattoo parlors means the law will finally be as indelible as an actual tattoo.
Village board members voted 4-2 in favor of changing the definition of a school to one found in the New York State Public Health Law: the term 'school' means and includes any public, private or parochial child caring center, day nursery, day care agency, nursery school, kindergarten, elementary, intermediate or secondary school.
Trustees Robert Hoyt and Becky McGovern voted against the measure. Hoyt and McGovern have been opposed to allowing tattoo parlors in the village since the original law was proposed.
Mayor Drew Fixell said the law's past definition of a school as one who teaches students under the age of 18 was not what we intended.
Trustees decided to change the law after learning that The New York School of Esthetics and Day Spa admitted students who were 17 and had graduated from high school. The board's original intent, Fixell and other members have said, was to have the law apply to secondary schools and below, not adult schools.
Chuk Hognell, plans to open The Mighty Horseman tattoo parlor at 15 Neperan Rd. on Jan. 10, did not have a comment on the board's vote. Hognell is currently auctioning off the first tattoo of the shop on eBay and will donate the proceeds to the American Cancer Society.
Residents at the public hearing on Tuesday told trustees they were frustrated that another hearing on the matter had been called and they felt the board was changing the law to suit Hognell's shop location.
Really? We're having another public hearing to amend a law again? Christina Serafin said, later adding Why are you tailoring it and changing this and that to make it work for this location? There are lots of vacancies that would work.
Lori Semeraro questioned why the board voted on an amendment to make the definition of a school one that serves students under 18 during the last public hearing, even after residents brought up the esthetics school.
You had the ability at the last meeting to table the vote, she said.
Fixell acknowledged Semeraro's point, but said we're here now.
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