Palatine, state investigating store body piercing without license

Officials are investigating how the Bead World jewelry store in downtown Palatine made body piercing part of its operation for years without proper state and village licensing.

Owner Martha Pafralides said her business at 8 S. Brockway St. has been piercing navels, nostrils and numerous other body parts for 16 years without incident.

Pafralides said she didn’t know Illinois requires that tattoo and body art establishments register with the state and undergo inspection.

“I don’t think Illinois requires a license,” she said. “We’ve been doing this for years.”

Village Manager Reid Ottesen said Bead World, which opened in 1994, annually applies for a business license operating as a jewelry store. It’s not uncommon for some jewelry stores to pierce ears, but Ottesen said piercing other body parts likely would require a special use permit approved by the village council.

“It’s when you start getting beyond mainstream, traditional expectations of what piercing is, that’s when you question whether there’s appropriate zoning in place,” Ottesen said.

Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Kelly Jakubek said once the state’s body art code was adopted on Dec. 31, 2008, the state executed contracts with local public health departments to conduct inspections.

The responsibility of enforcement for a time fell onto the Cook County Department of Public Health, but no inspections took place because Bead World wasn’t registered as a body piercing establishment. The state took back control of inspections when the county contract expired, Ottesen said.

Jakubek confirmed Bead World is not licensed and said an investigation will be conducted.

“The goal is to make them aware of the law and make sure they have the materials they need to be registered,” Jakubek said.

Diane Gartner, Palatine’s environmental health division field director, said the state, before adopting the body art code, inquired whether any village businesses provided the service. She told them she understood Bead World did body piercing.

“It’s not something we (the environmental health division) normally monitor,” Gartner said.

Palatine Mayor Jim Schwantz was made aware of the extent of the body piercing going on at Bead World, which advertises the service on its website, by Wheeling resident Beth Cisco. Village officials last month rejected Cisco’s petition to open a tattoo shop on Rand Road.