Update May 18, 2025
The tattooed can never accept as legitimate the destruction of tattoo by prohibiting the essence of tattoo: its raison d'être: its indelibleness, its non-removableness without which it cannot exist as a permanent mark on the skin. Tattoo is permanent by definition.
The wording of the Congressional justification is "gobbledygook". Here is the quote that is used to justify the FDA take-over.
"Products that are intended to alter appearance for more than 24 hours and removal by the consumer is not part of such conditions of use."
This Orwellian quote redefines tattoo but does not change or reveal the nature of tattoo nor descriptive of a new relationship that had previously been overlooked.
Judge for yourself if this justifies the FDA takeover of Tattoo creating a new concept that determines if a product is a Cosmetic for FDA purposes. This defining element REQUIRES REMOVE-ABILITY FOR TATTOOS.
Secondly, The British influence on the FDA is plain to see in the "MoCRA Draft Guidance for Industry 2023". This travesty should remain in the UK, not involuntarily imposed on Americans by a misled Congress: that which has always belonged to the people: tattooing.
Many States, cities and towns prohibited markings to peoples' bodies in the 20th Century. We took them to court and won our right to tattoo. New York City's Mayor signed the NYC Council's resolution in 1998 declaring Tattoo could not be prohibited.
MoCRA surely looks like federal interference by a work-around by prohibiting our safe and effective pigments that we tatooists have used in hundreds of millions of tattoos by tens of thousands of tattooists (in any living memory). As 1860 Orestes A. Brownson wrote, in essence, if cattle want to brand themselves they should not be prohibited. We would be fools ourselves to try to prevent them. Let them be cattle.
Which leaves only falsely-applied "Buyer's Regret" as if tattoos were sold as short-lived, temporary, knowing full well tattoos get old or even look poor one day. Today, that poor-looking tattoo can be fashioned into something with "dignity" so there is an answer that would not infringe on everyone else's individual rights: get a cover-up, that's the answer.
