The Fall River Board of Health held a virtual meeting on Thursday, March 24th, 2022, at 4 p.m. Board members Thomas Corey, Michael Coughlin, and Dr. Stephen Gagliotti were present. The meeting began with the approval of the minutes from the February 17th meeting, which passed unanimously via roll call vote. The primary discussion involved a request from Richard Santos, a tattoo artist, to accept the "Primal Instinct course" as an alternative to the board's one-year body piercing apprenticeship requirement. Mr. Santos, who is already certified in CPR and bloodborne pathogens, explained that the course is a hands-on, week-long program requiring over 30 piercings on live individuals, covering extensive anatomy, sterilization, and problem-solving. He noted that the board had previously accepted this course for other piercers. After a discussion comparing the structured course to the less regulated apprenticeship, the board unanimously voted to accept the Primal Instinct course as an alternative. Mr. Santos plans to return after completing the course, which starts April 4th, to apply for his license. Other items included the absence of a director's report due to Tess Curran's unavailability and no citizen's input. The board confirmed the next meeting for April 21st at 4 p.m., as Chairman Thomas Corey was unavailable on the traditional fourth Thursday. The meeting concluded with a unanimous vote to adjourn.
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good afternoon to everyone welcome to the board of health virtual meeting on thursday march 24th scheduled for 4 p.m my name is thomas corey present with me via zoom is michael coughlin dr stephen gagliotti tess curran our agent of the board is not with us today all our all are participating remotely today sandy barbie is tracking the meeting for us sandy can you call the roll please
0:32thomas corey present stephen gagliotti here michael coughlin here okay pursuant to the open meeting or any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible
1:07we have the approval of the minutes of the meeting from thursday february 17th are there any additions or deletions or corrections to be made to the minutes of the meeting as printed gentlemen what's your pleasure to accept second okay sandy can we have a roll call thomas carrie yes steven gagliardi yes michael coughlin yes okay approved the next we have a request from richard santos for the
1:46board to consider the primal instinct course as an acceptable alternative to the one-year peacing apprenticeship lisa you're presenting on this well i am to i didn't realize tess was not here today um he's here just to fill you in on the course itself um he knows all about this course he's a tattoo artist now yes i know okay so you you realize all that but yeah so rick's gonna talk to you about
2:17the course all right if you would sir yep so mr santos can you state your name and address for the record richard allen santos 781 jefferson street fall river so i am looking over um the body piercing requirements to get licensed here in the studio and um i had a couple of questions under the training and experience for a practitioner it states body piercers must present evidence of at least one year apprenticeship
2:56experience with no history of their piercing causing short or long-term health problems in the case of those not having completed an apprenticeship then documentation must be provided to the board for review to determine if it is acceptable so that's what i'm here for now is asking if this class in fact would cover that before i go and take the class i already have i've already been enrolled in the course
3:27um it starts april 4th but i'd rather not dish out thousands if it's not acceptable it has been accepted in the past a few years back for um ink clinic which was on uh south main street for two other body piercing guys but i know with time the board changes personnel and that's why i want to bring this up now before it's it's money out of my pocket and gets declined
4:01okay we understand that um if you're a tattooer you already have all those those um preliminary courses your cpr certified um osha bloodborne pathogen certified um lisa is there anything else in the regulation other than the one year no no he has all everything else yeah that that's what i thought yeah yeah gentlemen do you have any questions for mr santos tom do you recall the president that mr santos was
4:31referring to earlier yes i do yes okay so you were you were on the board then yeah yeah and you approved it then yes it would be uh it looks fine by me yes okay dr gabrielle any questions i mean as long as the course covers all the potential problems and how to take care of it and how to prevent things then so i did um make copies of the course objectives
5:08and it does cap it does cover just about everything as far as anatomy nerves you know the facial and different parts of the body um sterilization healing process problems and solutions the proper tools and jewelry and um shop environment exposure control it it covers everything that that was required in the regulations you know it's just that one year and add the one-year apprenticeship which was
5:44questionable in the way it's written and the requirements so with a with a one-year apprenticeship that means someone would work with someone else exclusively for a year under supervision that that's you know seems like a lot but um i think maybe with this course maybe because there is no direct supervision you're just taking the course without follow-up supervision we could do something like review it
6:18in a year and if there's no complications then mr mr santos would come back in a year for the actual license he would have it he would have an apprentice license temporarily and then he would we would have the full license in a year well here's here's the question with that who would i be apprenticing for because there is no one doing an apprenticeship as far as the hands-on this is a
6:42hands-on course this isn't you know read a book and and it isn't that it's and it's actual hands-on course with someone who's experienced and has been training in about 30 years i mean is it uh is it a life course or cadaver excuse me live uh people look at that no it's a live course in person i'm gonna be doing it where we are are required to do 30 plus piercings during this course
7:18of different parts of the body so it's it's not like we're gonna have synthetic skin and with no we're not doing that it's all real actual hands-on course on live people or cadaver unlive people i mean i i've given tests i don't know if she's handed everybody the copies that i handed to her but i've handed in to test everything that the cost covers and you know it's it's all hands-on who offers it
7:56it's a primal instinct up in new hampshire this this guy was licensed or actually is licensed in a few different towns in massachusetts right now and is also licensed in new hampshire that's just happens to be where he resides and where he opened his school how long will you be enrolled in the course it's uh well there's there's two different there's a couple of different courses
8:23the first one i'll be there for a solid week it's uh seven straight days eight hours per day and then there's other courses to follow after that if i wanted to get into different types of piercing that sounds pretty good today you're only committing to taking that first week though that's that's the basic primary one for which would be ears nose mouth you know eyelids um well and you know stuff like that
8:56i don't plan on doing genitals and stuff that's definitely not my cup of tea i mean a week-long course uh on live participants is um that's a lot more than a lot of people do for a medical procedure so and that's i think that's a pretty solid training and if we're going to be reviewing it in a year i mean obviously if there's a problem we you know we'd know about it ahead of time
9:31but as far as it's you know extensive training that sounds pretty good for a year but that seems like a lot i do have a copy of um the paperwork that rick's talking about that he ended in i can make copies and bring it down to the health department and have you know the test get that sounds like tess already has those but oh okay i didn't know she gave them to you
10:00it's definitely not a fly-by-night school you know you can go online i it's in that paperwork there the school you can look it through and everything everything's there there's nothing but there's no guesswork you know as as far as the apprenticeship goes i don't know how that would work again there's no there's no one here that apprenticed me once i go to school i go to school there's no
10:25there's no you know there's no overhead guy over here the notion of an apprenticeship is pretty standard in the industry it's not that usual for one person to open a shop and that there'd be nobody else there right the problem with that is if you got nobody that's willing to apprentice what's your next bet what should what's that you know what do you do do you just step out you know i've been in this business for
10:51over 10 years so as far as supplying equipment i know all the ins and outs about what the equipment is for house it's used and everything else okay so you've been tattooing for for 10 years but you haven't been body piercing no no but i i'm familiar with all the procedures and you know the health risks and whatnot yeah now if someone did an apprenticeship for a year with another
11:22body piercer how often would they go and do this piercing matt are you going to go once a week for a year are they going five days a week for a year well that's what would it even be what would an apprenticeship be even with an apprenticeship there's no set regulations on how many hours as of right now so you can have a you can say i've been apprenticeship for
11:46a year and bet walked in the studio three times like who's to say you know so there's really there's a time limit but there's no hourly r regulation how do you know how many piercings someone actually did what kind of um didactics what kind of you know formal teaching on anatomy and procedures in an apprenticeship this actually sounds a little more organized than you know going into someone's shop and
12:18watching them do it i mean and how do we know the person giving the apprenticeship is performing things teaching in the appropriate manner and before i leave this class i will have had to execute at least 30 piercings myself on you know a live person it's um yeah it's pretty it's pretty intense so you're looking to take this course as an alternative to the one-year apprenticeship is that what we're looking at yes
12:58i mean it has been accepted in the past and i just like i said i wanted to have everything set up i just don't want to go and spend the money and then things be different and until you complete the course and show us the documentation you won't be doing any body piercings in your shop no no i mean hey my business is my number one you know i don't i don't make a living i don't
13:23have anything without it tessa i mean um lisa's been in here a few times she she knows i'm my shop is pretty pretty neat you know i got things where it needs to be all right do we want to vote do we have a motion to accept this course as an alternative to the one-year apprenticeship i think that's the motion we're looking for and mr mr santos you will come back and let us
13:56know when you have graduated or oh yeah yeah i plan on i plan on going the course starts april 4th um when that's complete i'll revisit the city hall and i'll go down there to set up another meeting to see if i can get the license for the studio and everything else okay so do we have a motion motion to accept second okay sandy can we have a roll call oh thomas carrie yes stephen gagliardi yes
14:28michael coughlin yes desantos good luck excellent thank you i appreciate your time thank you uh tess not being with us today i don't think there's a director's report sandy do you know if anything came in under citizen's input there's nothing for citizens thank you gentlemen we have to confirm the date for the next meeting traditionally it would be the fourth thursday of the month which would be april
14:5828th i am not available april 28th would the 21st be okay yes sir that's fine april the 21st 4 o'clock sounds good okay uh sandy yeah we have a couple more months we can do this on zoom you know it was extended to july i believe right unless you want to go back to the city council chambers like i like to assume it is easier for me okay this is very convenient okay
15:33sandy was there any other business of such a nature that it couldn't make the agenda no business okay uh motion to adjourn we'll move motion second sandy can we have a roll call thomas carrie yes steven gagliard yes michael coughlin yes okay gentlemen thank you ladies thank you everyone have a wonderful rest of the day
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