THE STOREFRONT AT 380 Centre Street in the Hyde Square neighborhood of Jamaica Plain still bears the colorful, if retro, ’60s-era sign for Nelson’s Radio & TV Sales and Service. But in the past seven months, the space’s new tenants have gussied it up: the door has been painted, the big glass windows sparkle, and vibrant paintings by one of the tenants hang in the windows. Located on a busy, multicultural city block featuring Spanish markets, nail salons, International Beepers & Cellular Phones, the Brendan Behan pub, and the Milky Way Lounge, the new business, dubbed Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo, is poised to attract an eclectic mix of customers from the area’s young, arty crowd.
But 10 months after a Massachusetts Superior Court judge ruled that the state’s statutory ban on tattooing was unconstitutional, the City of Boston still hasn’t allowed tattoo artist Ram Hannan and his wife, Juliette Houlne, who leased the space in January, to open for business. The problems Hannan and Houlne have encountered epitomize the confusing and contradictory way the Commonwealth is now regulating — or not regulating — body-art shops. And legal experts say that unless the regulatory mess gets cleaned up — and fast — Massachusetts is likely to face another lawsuit seeking to expand tattooists’ rights.
Before she and her husband signed their lease for the shop, Houlne went to Boston City Hall to research the zoning and learned that the store was classified as a general retail business and/or barber or beauty shop for the Hyde Square Neighborhood shopping subdistrict. She was even more convinced of the location’s suitability for a body-art gallery when a zoning officer assured her, she says, that newly legalized tattooing would be allowed in commercial areas of Boston under the same rules that apply to hair salons. At the time, new local regulations governing tattoo parlors had not been finalized. (Susan Elsbree, spokeswoman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, says that when the agency first considered the matter, there was some discussion of zoning tattoo parlors in the same manner as hair salons. And she concedes that someone from the BRA may have informally encouraged Houlne.)
Hannan and Houlne signed the lease, were issued a building permit, and set to work clearing out debris, remodeling the space, installing a new plumbing system, painting the walls a bright orange, and installing track lighting. But just as they were putting the finishing touches on their renovations, Hannan and Houlne learned that the BRA had decided to restrict tattoo parlors to areas of the city zoned for industrial use, which include Freeport Street in Dorchester, parts of South Boston, the Newmarket area at the south end of Mass Ave, and the South Bay mall area. Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo was denied an occupancy permit, and Hannan and Houlne were forced to appeal directly to the zoning board for a conditional-use permit. ( " We’d invested too much to back out, " recalls Hannan. " We were in too deep to pick up and move, so it was fight it or go down hard. " ) Such permits are required of so few businesses that Elsbree could think of only two other types that must go through the process: pawnshops and check cashers.
Determined to pass muster with the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA), Houlne and Hannan set out to woo their Jamaica Plain neighbors, spending nearly five months on a campaign to teach them that a clean, well-run body-art gallery would be a boon and not a hindrance to a neighborhood in flux. They opened the doors of the new storefront to show neighbors their plans. They reassured area residents and business owners that their tattoo parlor, under state law, would not work on anyone under age 18. (Indeed, a big sign hangs prominently on the front door at 380 Centre Street, warning people under 18 that they will not be served.) Hannan and Houlne appeared before the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council Zoning Committee, which voted to endorse their appeal. They put together a press kit filled with letters of support and newspaper articles from the Jamaica Plain Gazette.
On July 24, the ZBA granted Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo a conditional-use permit to open in Hyde Square, to the delight of the heavily tattooed contingent that accompanied Hannan and Houlne to the hearing. Hannan and Houlne hope to open by the end of August, after the mandatory 20-day appeal period ends. Even so, the victory is bittersweet. " It just proves how lame and ridiculous the zoning ordinance is, " said Hannan after the unanimous and swift decision by the ZBA. " A major weight has been lifted from our whole situation. But body art is still not being treated as any other business. "
