NORFOLK, Va.-
A 56-year-old ban on tattoo parlors has been lifted in this Navy town. The City Council approved an ordinance Tuesday allowing tattoo parlors in certain parts of the city, home to the world’s largest naval base. The ordinance restricts parlors to a few industrial zones and downtown.
The move came after courts ruled that cities may no longer prohibit tattoo parlors.
Sixty years ago, Norfolk’s East Main Street was world-famous for its tattoo parlors, taverns and burlesque palaces. In 1945, there were about a dozen parlors.
That ended in 1950 when the City Council banned all tattoo parlors. Tattoos were branded unsanitary, vulgar, even “cannibalistic.”
Tattoos have become heavily regulated by the Navy. It forbids tattoos in places not covered up by the uniform and regulates the types of tattoos sailors may have.
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