Bettendorf, Iowa (ABC 4 News) - A small town in Iowa is considering putting a ban on tattoos and piercings in public places.
Tattoo shop owner Ryan O'Tool says that such a ban "definitely goes against everything that the First Amendment stands for."
Many people agree with O'Tool's statement. However, there are always two sides to every coin.
The reason Bettendorf town leaders want to ban tattoos and piercings at parks and pools? To protect kids from potential offensive material.
This potential policy stemmed from an incident last year at one of Bettendorf's public pools.
"We had an incident last year where someone had a tattoo that was at our pool, Splash Landing, and someone brought it to the attention of a staff member that they thought the tattoo was offensive," said Steve Grimes, Director of Parks And Recreation in Bettendorf.
An issue they ran into was figuring out who would decide what was offensive and what wasn't. Town leaders decided the only thing to do would be to ban them all.
Many people are not happy with this potential new policy, feeling that it does violate one of their freedoms as U.S. citizens.
"Without those simple freedoms of expression, then you know, this country wouldn't be what our founding forefathers imagined it to be," O'Tool said. "Everybody has a right to judgment, you have to allow people the right to be who they want to be."
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Information from: CNN
