LAYTON, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Chastity Bendele had a health scare when she chose to tattoo her leg.
“I was horrified,” says Bendele.
Within hours a sore was forming.
“My tattoo started oozing and crusting,” says Bendele.
She had a form of a staph infection doctors were able to kill with antibiotics, but tattoo artist, Jared Preslar, says some aren’t so lucky.
“We’ve seen it go from an infection into the flesh eating bacteria,” says Preslar.
He is seeing an increase in people coming into his Layton tattoo shop with festered sores. They want their tattoos fixed, but he sends them straight to a doctor.
“It’s like zombie flesh. It looks like pizza, like the skin is gone and you can see the fatty tissue,” says Preslar.
Preslar has been sounding the alarm with health department officials for the past couple of years. He wants their help to regulate the tattooing industry in Utah.
“They are regulating the tanning industry harder than the tattooing business,” says Preslar.
A spokesperson for the Davis County Health Department tells ABC 4, they require a permit to open a tattoo shop. They perform yearly inspections, but they require the shops owners to do their own monthly contamination checks on their equipment.
“We need to be regulated more. There needs to be proof of experience and proper training,” urges Preslar.
Preslar says it’s the only way to prevent people from being harmed.
A spokesperson for the State Health Department says doctors are not required to report to them when they see patients who may have many forms of staph infection including the flesh eating bacteria and MRSA.
