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Brighton becomes first city to tackle sexual assaults in tattoo studios following LBC investigation
27 January 2025, 05:46 | Updated: 27 January 2025, 06:28
Brighton and Hove City Council are pioneering DBS background checks for tattoo artists after LBC exposed the scale of abuse happening in tattoo studios.
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Three months ago LBC were told hundreds of women every month were asking for ‘cover-up tattoos’ after feeling physically and emotionally scarred from an assault in a studio.
After speaking with tattoo artists we were told the industry had no regulatory body or plans for one.
Now, as a result of our investigation, Brighton and Hove City Council are pioneering a DBS register for tattoo artists to help protect women and girls.
With more tattoo studios per capita in Brighton than in any other UK city, the council are asking tattoo artists to certify their DBS status by signing up.
A DBS check discloses a criminal record - and are often required when working in public facing professions like teaching or medical practice.
David McGregor, a Labour Councillor, is helping roll out the register and told LBC: “It’s horrific how abuse in tattoo studios is under-reported and LBC’s story highlighted that. “We want to be very progressive and forward thinking about making tattooing as safe as possible for people.
“We have a register of all the different tattoo shops but we’ve never had DBS-style conditions in place - only checks on licensing and hygiene.
“With a voluntary register, a sort of peer pressure thing, tattoo artists can voluntarily opt to have a DBS check - giving people a bit more safety and security about the choices that they’re making and the tattoo parlours that they go to.
“Making it as visual as possible would be really good too - we’d love to have ‘DBS certified’ in studio windows.
David told LBC he’s hopeful the scheme will be successful enough for other cities to mimic: “The first thing for us is to get the voluntary system up and running then we can start to see does that make a difference, do people feel safer?
“We can then expand that, so it’s a pilot scheme for something that could be national legislation - progressing from voluntary to mandatory DBS checks.”
Tattoo artist Dolly runs The Dollhouse tattoo studio in Brighton and told LBC three months ago she’s received hundreds of messages last year from women telling her about the abuse they had suffered.
Read more: Brighton becomes first city to tackle sexual assaults in tattoo studios following LBC investigation
She’s told LBC she’s ‘delighted’ to see changes being made in Brighton: “I feel like I’ve been screaming from the rooftops for about ten years for some sort of change to happen.
“At the moment there’s no one or a body to complain to about anything that isn’t to do with hygiene.
“Any corporate company, you would have a HR person that you can report sexual misconduct to and it would be investigated and you wouldn’t necessarily have to go to the police, but we don’t have that and this is a great step.
“There’s never been a criminal check when it comes to becoming a tattoo artist and there should be certain things that should be flagged - whether that’s GBH, ABH, sexual assault.
“We can then start saying Brighton have done this and it really works and here’s proof to why this is a good thing and then take it to other councils.”
Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Sian Berry told LBC she’s looking to take the scheme to Westminster: “With so many tattoo artists in Brighton, I think it’s great there’s something we could implement to give people confidence that these tattoo artists have clear backgrounds.
“If I can do anything in parliament to help to put that onto a statutory footing, make it regulated at a national level, I would be really happy to look at that.
“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to have complete confidence in people who are doing something so intimate and so permanent to our bodies.”
