Government may ban tattooing

Manama : The government has pledged to tighten its grip on tattoo parlours and unlicensed tattooing practices in the Kingdom, it was revealed yesterday.

The revelation came in the government’s reply to a parliamentary proposal submitted by the end of 2015, demanding official ban on tattooing in Bahrain.

The government stressed that it’s rejecting applications submitted by beauty salons to practice tattooing, considering the protection of the public from diseases, especially the youth category.

“Health, Industry Commerce and Tourism Ministries are coordinating in this regard. The government is keen on not providing licenses to practice tattooing, be it for individuals or beauty salons and shops for both genders,” said a government reply to the 2015 proposal.

The proposal was initially presented in November 2015, by MP Jamal Dawood. “There are people who provide this unwanted service privately at their homes. They have more customers than beauty parlours. They market their services using social media networks. This phenomenon requires more supervision from the government,” said Jamal Dawood while discussing the government’s reply before the parliament yesterday.

Besides Dawood, MPs Abdulhaleem Murad, Mohsen Al Bakry, Nabeel Al Balooshi and Ali Al Muqla submitted the proposal, which was earlier passed by the majority of MPs.

They claimed that the proposal comes to “maintain the Islamic identity of the country since tattooing is prohibited in Islam”, in addition to “protecting the youth from falling to harmful fads”.

Health Ministry supported the proposal back then, quoting the Food and Drug Administration, which warned of the dangerous effects of inks used in tattooing, claiming that it could lead to deadly diseases in the future”.

The Ministry also admitted that “tattooing services are practiced in Bahrain by individuals using social media networks to promote their services, away from official supervision”.