Starr joins challenge to S.C. tattoo ban
By The Associated Press
07.29.02
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COLUMBIA, S.C. — A tattoo artist who has spent three years trying to get South Carolina's ban on tattooing overturned has enlisted the help of former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr.
Starr, who returned to private practice in Washington after investigating former President Bill Clinton, said on July 22 that he has filed an appeal petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the tattoo artist.
"This was a very important issue in terms of our system of free expression," Starr said in an interview. "Our country believes in liberty, the ability of individuals to express themselves."
Ronald White, 33, has been fighting the ban since 1999, when he was arrested and fined $2,500 for giving an illegal tattoo on television. Oklahoma and South Carolina are the only states to ban tattooing.
"Let's not criminalize artists," White said. "Require that they live up to the standards, reasonable standards, to protect the well-being of the public."
White called the tattooing on television an act of "civil disobedience" and argued before the state Supreme Court in November that the law violates his First Amendment right of freedom of expression.
State attorneys argue the law, which prohibits tattooing by anyone other than a doctor, is a public health issue. The justices upheld White's conviction, saying the First Amendment right to have a tattoo is a separate issue from the process of tattooing.
One of White's biggest opponents is state Sen. Jake Knotts, a Republican who wants to keep the state free of seedy tattoo parlors.
"If we allow people like Ron White to go and just adamantly defy the law of South Carolina and not be prosecuted, then anybody that wants a law change can just go and defy it," said Knotts, a former police officer.
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