Dunedin City Council staff have received 10 complaints from members of the public, alleging poor practices, health side effects and unregistered tattooists operating in the city in the last year, councillors at yesterday's full council meeting heard.
Details emerged as the council released a draft update of its beauty therapists, tattooists and skin piercers bylaw.
Council environmental health manager Ros MacGill told the meeting the bylaw was adopted in 2005, and aimed to prevent the transference of communicable disease or infection.
The council was required to review the document every 10 years, which meant an update was due, she said.
Council environmental health officer Tanya Morrison said the 10 public complaints about the industry received in the last year included ‘‘five or six'' about unregistered tattooists operating in the city.
The most serious complaint alleged the work of an unregistered tattooist resulted in the transfer of hepatitis C to a client.
That was unable to be confirmed without blood tests immediately before and after the procedure, but it was "more than likely'' the work of the tattooist was to blame, she said.
"It was more than likely, but you cannot say 100% that that was the cause,'' she told the meeting.
Other complaints included concerns raised about skin irritation, including in "quite sensitive areas'' of the body which required medical treatment, she said.
An issues and options paper, presented to councillors at yesterday's meeting, outlined gaps in the existing bylaw, including a lack of provisions covering mobile operators.
The number of public complaints highlighted the industry's practices "may put the public's health at risk'', it said.
In particular, initial feedback from industry members and stakeholders indicated concern over the growing number of unregistered operators in the city, it said.
The council had begun selective consultation to update the bylaw in March, including talking to registered industry operators and organisations like Hepatitis C Otago and the Medical Officer of Health.
The resulting updated draft bylaw featured key changes, including certifying mobile premises and operators and requiring all operators to demonstrate the competency of their staff, among other changes.
Councillors at yesterday's meeting endorsed the new draft bylaw for public consultation, which would run from January 25 to February 22.
