Culture
A Florida Court Upholds Key West's Right to Tattoo and Be Tattooed
And there is definitely a “Margaritaville” connection.
Key West just wanted to protect people from making a mistake they couldn’t easily erase.
The Florida city’s blanket prohibition on tattoo parlors in its downtown area lasted from 1966 to 2007; local lore has it that the ban came at request of the U.S. Navy, which didn’t want its sailors making regrettable decisions while enjoying their time on land. A legal challenge forced the city to relax its stance in the late 2000s, and there are now two tattoo parlors in the city’s historic district. Brad Buehrle, who already owned a tattoo shop in Richmond, Virginia, wanted to open one more. He ended up going to court.