DECATUR - Some local tattoo artists say they are anticipating a boom in business when a new law goes into effect Jan. 1 making it legal for 18-year-olds to get tattoos without parental permission.

"I definitely think as 18 years old being the adult age; it's their right, and I'm glad to see it," said Frank Whittington, owner of the tattoo and piercing studio It's Just A Little Prick at 2612 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Whittington predicted the age change would help tattoo parlors in Illinois because all bordering states let 18-year-olds get tattoos, and some customers decide to get inked there instead of waiting to turn 21.

State law has held that people seeking tattoos need parental consent to get inked before their 21st birthdays, but the Illinois General Assembly changed the law during its fall veto session, overriding a veto from Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

"I don't want my daughters to rush to get tattoos on their 18th birthdays," Blagojevich said this summer in a statement explaining the veto. "At that age, most kids are still in high school and don't have the judgment or perspective to decide on something as permanent as tattooing your skin."

Whittington wasn't buying that argument, however.

"He needs to leave his kids out of his policies, I think," Whittington said. "If he doesn't want them to get tattoos when they grow up, then he should raise them that way, so as not to rebel against his authority."

The new law also includes tougher penalties for people who tattoo minors or offer them body piercing. The tougher penalty, up to a $1,000 fine and 364 days in jail, prohibits anyone younger than 18 to be on the premises of a business that conducts tattooing and body piercing without being accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Oscar Green, a tattoo artist at Skin Prints, 995 W. Eldorado Road, said the business likely would benefit from the lowered tattoo age, especially because of its close proximity to the Millikin University campus.

He also said he was pleased the legal tattoo age is changing because he doesn't think it has been effective in keeping people younger than 21 who want tattoos from getting them.

"If they can't get it done in a shop, they'll get it done somewhere else," Green said.

He said the lower age requirement could cut down on the number of people going to friends or unlicensed artists for tattoos that pose a higher risk of infection and often need retouching by professionals anyway.

Still, not everyone younger than 21 was excited to see the age limit for tattoos change.

Raquel Burns, 18, said she thinks it made more sense to keep the law banning tattoos without parental permission for people younger than 21 because "it takes awhile to figure out who you are or what you want to be."

"Sometimes these things are spur of the moment and spontaneous, and I think a tattoo is a big deal," Burns said. "I think it should be thought through a little bit."

Nineteen-year-old Chris Watkins said he thinks people who are 18 should be old enough to make their own decisions but acknowledged that, for example, a freshman at college away from home for the first time might "go crazy" and wind up regretting a decision to get inked.

But Erin Malcolm, a 19-year-old Millikin sophomore who has a tattoo, said she thought the age change was a good idea.

Malcolm said she got the tattoo in her home state of Rhode Island shortly before leaving for college, after much careful thought and with the support of friends and her dad.

"I wanted something that connected me to back home," Malcolm said. "I like it because I wake up and I know it's there and it's not going to change."

She said she knows people who have decided to get tattoos on a whim, but most are still happy with their tattoos - at least for now.

"By making the age 21, all you're doing is putting off something that's going to happen anyway," Malcolm said. "I don't think the difference between 18 and 21 is as drastic as people make it out to be."

Mary Tallon can be reached at mtallon@herald-review.com or 421-7984.