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New Laws Relating to Body Piercing and Related Practices

New laws relating to body piercing and related practices come into effect on 1 January 2009. The new laws are designed to protect young people and cover scarification, tongue splitting, branding and beading, as well as body piercing
and tattooing.

What does the Summary Offences Amendment (Tattooing and Body Piercing) Act 2008 do?

The new laws:

• make it an offence for a body piercer to perform intimate body piercing on a person aged under 18. The maximum penalty will be 60 penalty units (approximately $6600).
• make it an offence for a body piercer to perform non-intimate body piercing on someone under 16 without the consent of a parent or guardian.

The maximum penalty for doing so will be 20 penalty units (approximately $2200).

• prohibit scarification, tongue splitting, branding and beading on people aged under 18. The maximum penalty for doing so will be 60 penalty units.
• increase the maximum penalty for the offence of tattooing of people aged under 18 years, to 60 penalty units.

It will also be an offence for a body piercer to employ someone under 16 to perform a non intimate body piercing in breach of the parental consent requirements (maximum penalty of 20 penalty units), or an intimate body-piercing on someone under 18 (maximum penalty of 60 penalty units).
Under the new laws, a defence to a body piercing offence would be to prove that at the time of the alleged offence, the defendant had seen an evidence of age document (for example a drivers licence or passport) indicating the young person had reached the relevant age of consent for the procedure.

Know your obligations under the new laws.
As of 1 January:
“Body piercer” will be defined as a person of or over the age of 16 years who:

• carries on a body piercing business; or
• is employed in a body piercing business; or
• performs body piercing for a fee, wage or other remuneration or payment in kind.

“Intimate body piercing” will be defined as a piercing of the nipples, genitalia, anal region or
perineum.
“Non-intimate piercing” will be defined as any piercing except of the nipples, genitalia, anal region or perineum.

Further information:
A copy of the legislation may be downloaded from www.legislation.vic.gov.au
Further information may be obtained from the Department of Justice on 03 8684 0000.

The fact sheet is available as PDF download below.

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Author:	Department of Justice
Place of Publication:	Melbourne
Publisher:	Department of Justice
Date of Publication:	December 2008
Number of Pages:	1
Copyright:	State of Victoria, 2008