Response to the Police Offences Amendment Bill 2013 Tattooing, Body Piercing & Body Modification of Youth September 2013
Our Vision A Tasmania where young people are actively engaged in community life and have access to the resources and services needed to develop their potential. About YNOT YNOT is the peak body for the non government youth sector in Tasmania. YNOT represents the interests of its members and the interests of young people (aged 12-25) in Tasmania. YNOT aims to represent these interests by collaboration and involvement of both young people and service providers in identifying and responding to issues that are affecting the youth sector in Tasmania. Youth Network of Tasmania A: Suite 4a/236 Sandy Bay Road, Sandy Bay T: 6223 5511 M: 0458 235 511 F: 62232255 E: ceo@ynot.org.au W: www.ynot.org.au Contact: Joanna Siejka Chief Executive Officer, Youth Network of Tasmania Co-chair, Statewide Youth Collaborative Group 2
Contents Contents 3 Introduction...4 Definitions.4 Education, regulation of sales and safe environments.. 4 Tattoos...4-5 Non intimate body piercing.5 Intimate body piercing.5 Body modification (excluding tattooing and body piercing)...5-6 Cultural Practices.6 Further Comments..6 References 7 3
Introduction The Youth Network of Tasmania (YNOT) appreciates the opportunity to provide comments relating to the proposed amendments to the Police Offences Amendment Bill 2013 Tattooing, Body Piercing & Body Modification of Youth. Body modification is increasing in Tasmania s youth sector and as such amendments to current law are required. YNOT provides the following comments: Definitions YNOT believes that further work to define body piercings would strengthen the proposed amendment. The current definition of intimate body piercing is descriptive, however, YNOT believes that this does not adequately reflect the health implications of non intimate body piercing which are equally concerning. Therefore including a definition of intimate body piercing in Section 35A(1) is strongly recommended. Education, regulation of sales and safe environments Consultation suggested that young people s conscious understanding of body modification is only fully understood after they have undergone a body modification procedure. The young people who had engaged in an act of body modification under the age of 18 felt strongly that such procedures should only be legal for young people over 18. Consultations conducted by YNOT supported this research with many young people stating that education on body modification is needed for young people. Further consideration into developing a community education program and implementing such programs in schools to focus on the health and social implications of body modification to support the legislative amendments is recommended. YNOT recommends the need for inclusion in the Act specific to the regulation of the sale of body modification equipment, particularly the sale of such equipment to young people. Young people purchasing body modification equipment are committing an illegal act which could result in a criminal record for many young people potentially having detrimental impacts to their future prospects. Inclusion of the sale of body modification equipment to young people, YNOT believes, is a step forward in preventing criminal charges being made against young people. The Public Health Act 1997, is the Act in Tasmania relating specifically to the body art industry, therefore YNOT recommends regulation of body modification equipment to young people should also be included here. YNOT also maintains that ensuring that body modification procedures are only performed by professionals in a safe and sterile environment are important issues which need to be addressed in any legislation changes. YNOT believes that young people will resort to unsafe and risky procedures, potentially leading to long term consequences to their health if the age of consent for tattooing and non intimate body piercing is not lowered. This has been discussed further in the following section. Tattoos YNOT suggests that the legal age to independently access tattoo services should stay as it currently is, which is that is it illegal under the age of 18. However, YNOT recommends that with a parent or guardian s consent then it should be legal at 16 years old. This proposed change is consistent with the majority of other Australian states and territories and is 4
reflective of the changing youth culture where tattoos are increasingly becoming the norm (Makkai & McAllister 2001). In the event that this recommendation is legislated YNOT further suggests that parents or guardians be required to give their consent in person including submitting identification (for recording purposes), stating what the tattoo will be and where they are consenting to the tattoo being situated on the body of the young person. New South Wales has also adopted this practice with regard to tattooing of young people under the age of 18 however they opted for parental consent being satisfactory if it is in writing. YNOT believes this may be effective in some cases however in order to adopt best possible practice we feel that consent in person is desirable. YNOT believes reducing the legal age for tattooing to 16 with parental consent is in the best interests of young people in order to prevent the practice of unsafe tattooing such as tattoo kits being purchased over the internet for personal use and seeking out backyard tattoo artists. Research suggests that in 2011 40% of newly acquired (within the last two years) were infected by means other than unsafe drug injections, a proportion is suggested to be the result of unsterile tattooing or body piercing procedures (Hepatitis Australia, 2013). Research shows that 57% of secondary school age respondents (of a survey) were aware that hepatitis C can be transmitted from tattooing and body piercing (Smith et al, 2009). This is of particular concern to YNOT and as such we believe that allowing young people to get a tattoo at 16 with a parents consent will contribute to containing the number of young people contracting blood to blood transmitted diseases such as Hepatitis C. Over half of young people asked were aware of the risk of hepatitis however it cannot be said with certainty that this is enough of a deterrent if the sterile and safe services are not available legally. Non intimate body piercing Ear piercing, belly button piercing, eyebrow piercing and nose piercings are all considered normal in current youth culture and as a result YNOT believes the legal age for these types of non intimate body piercings should be lowered to 16 years old. Parent or guardian consent for people under 16 years would be required and YNOT feels this should be consistent with our recommendation for tattooing and require the consent be given in person rather than written. Furthermore, if this recommendation were to be used, this would need to be defined in the Act as a distinction would need to be made between these non intimate body piercings and other forms of non intimate body piercings. New South Wales has a non intimate body piercing age of 16 and South Australia recently adopted this age limit also. Intimate body piercing YNOT is in full support of the Act prohibiting any form of intimate body piercing, as defined by the Act, on any person under the age of 18. This is consistent with other states and territories and YNOT feels this is an area which is important to include in the legislation. Body modification (excluding tattooing and body piercing) Full support is given to prohibit all other body modification on a person under the age of 18 unless the procedure is performed in the course of medical treatment as stated in the Act 5
or, as in the following section, if performed in a safe manner as a cultural or religious tradition. Cultural Practices YNOT understands that deliberate and permanent body modification of any kind on a child or young person by an adult could be treated as a criminal matter and potentially result in criminal charges. However given Tasmania s growing multicultural population, YNOT suggests that body modification as a cultural practice needs to be considered and discretion be used in interpreting the Act in these cases. Further comments At present, there is no way of monitoring young people who are participating in these practices on others or themselves. For example, tattoo kits can be purchased online, scarification can be done anywhere by anyone and body piercings are often performed at home by friends or oneself when access to services is restricted. YNOT is concerned about how the Act will deal with these cases. Section 35A(3) states a person must not perform a body modification procedure on a youth and YNOT feels this needs to explicitly state that it applies to young people performing the procedures on other young people or this needs to be included in a separate section in the Act if it is inclusive of prohibiting young people performing these acts on other young people. Performing such procedures on oneself, as far as YNOT can see, would be considered self harm and therefore not a chargeable offence under this proposed amendment. 6
References Hepatitis Australia (2013), About Hepatitis C, accessed 11 September 2013, www.hepatitisaustralia.com/about-hep-c/ Makkai, T & McAllister, I (2001), Prevalence of Tattooing and Body Piercing in the Australian Community, Communicatable Diseases Intelligence, vol.25, no.2, accessed 11 September 2012, http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/cdacdi2502-pdf-cnt.htm/$file/cdi2502i.pdf. Smith, A., Agius, p., Mitchell, A., Barrett, C. & Pitts, M (2009), Secondary Students and Sexual Health 2008, accessed 11 September 2013, http://www.latrobe.edu.au/arcshs/downloads/arcshs-research-publications/secondarystudents-and-sexual-health-2008.pdf. 7