A group that advocates for prison inmates wants Corrections Canada to reopen six safe tattoo parlours that closed on Sept. 30, including one that operated out of the Atlantic Institution in Renous, N.B.

The tattoo parlours were open for one year as part of a pilot project aimed at reducing the spread of disease in federal prisons.

In 2004, Ralph White, left, was able to legally and safely get a tattoo from fellow inmate Anthony Sharratt at the Atlantic Institution in Renous, N.B.
(CBC)

The experiment is over and the parlours are closed while the department reviews the program.

But some are worried that with a new Conservative government in Ottawa, the project will die.

Graham Stewart is director of Canada's John Howard Society, a charity focused on rehabilitating prisoners. He says it was wrong to stop the tattooing before the results are public.

"Seems to me it's only been operating for a very short period of time. I wonder, to the degree to which it's really possible to get good data as to its implementation and its impacts," he said.

"Certainly it would be hard, I think, to determine the health implications of a project that had only been operating for a few months."

Neither Corrections Canada nor the Department of Public Safety is saying what will happen to the tattoo parlour project.

Stewart says cutting off access to safe tattoos is a dangerous idea, and not just for inmates. "It [the experiment] was intended to reduce the possibility of them being infected, because once infected and released, they pose a risk to the public as a whole."  

This time last year, Anthony Sharratt was openly tattooing fellow inmates at the Atlantic Institution. But for 20 years before that, the convicted murderer tattooed in secret.

"People have been known to put cigarette ashes with toothpaste under the skin," he said. "As far as needles are concerned, I've seen guys use sewing needles, paperclips, the twist tags of cookie bags."

Corrections Canada says that kind of underground tattoo work is one reason for the prison's staggering infection rates. Behind bars, odds of contracting HIV are 10 times what they are on the street. The odds of contracting hepatitis C are 30 times higher.

Last fall, the federal government spent $700,000 to reduce those numbers, including the tattoo parlour experiment.

Paul Harrigan is a union representative for corrections officers and a former Renous prison guard. He says the tattoo parlours didn't work out because inmates stole ink and needles for illegal tattoos.

"It created more problems than it solved. We as a union knew that. We were totally against this whole process."

Harrigan doubts the Conservatives will bring the parlours back.