Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Ol' Blue Eyes Faces Off With Oklahoma Bureaucracy

When you factor in the extremely small number of people who would want such a procedure as tattooing the whites of one's eyes blue (or pink or green); the small number of tattooists willing to venture down that doubtlessly lawsuit-strewn path; and tiny percentage that something could go horribly, HORRIBLY wrong, you would come up with an equation with probabilities so remote, they would make the Drake Equation seem like a sure bet. But that's not stopping the Oklahoma legislature from moving forward with yet more needless legislation (an Oklahoma tradition, if you didn't know).

Senate Bill 844 passed unanimously through the Health and Humans Services Committee at the behest of opthamologists who see the trend as dangerous, with the potential for blindness.

However, a local Oklahoma City tattoo artist, Jason King, stated that "you could probably count on one hand" the number of individuals in the United States who have eyeball tattoos. King believes the legislature is again trying to "advance a moral agenda and save us from ourselves." Many would agree.

It has only been a couple of years since tattoo shops were made legal in Oklahoma. Before that, those who wanted to get inked, fled south to Dallas - taking their cash with them. Gambling was another Oklahoma milestone, as it made tentative in roads via legalized gaming on Native American reservations. So, to some, this needless bit of legislation bodes poorly for the social and economic advances that had begun.

Not too many years back, Oklahoma ranked in the top five for highest paid state officials while ranking only around 47th for money spent on education. Consistently, issues such as legalized tattoos, gambling, and lotteries were shot down by the "moral" majority while the state languished in economic recession. Why does this matter to eyeball tattoos? Perhaps it doesn't, but it is symptomatic of the mindset at the capitol.

2 comments:

Blogess said...

ourthreegirlsI saw a program recently on a man in England who was havinghis eyballs turned black! That was creepy....I see these things and a sudden vision of this person as an old, old man springs to mind....

Cullan Hudson said...

Yes, I can't imagine anyone WANTING to do this, but should they wish to... I say follow your own ignorant bliss.