Police close unlicensed shop that pierced teen gir

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Police close unlicensed shop that pierced teen girl's tongue





By Joe Brogan, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 18, 2001





JUPITER -- Police said an unlicensed man illegally pierced a teenage girl's tongue and told police he had done the same to nine others.



Albert Hatfield, 24, of 149-B Fern St., was charged Friday with body piercing a minor without parental consent. He was released Sunday from the Palm Beach County Jail on $1,000 bond.



Hatfield also faces possible fines from the county health department for being an unlicensed body piercer, and from the town for operating a business without a license. He operated Kustom Killer Graphics at home and 222 Jupiter St.



Hatfield, who sports a tattoo on his right shoulder and has a pierced tongue and left nipple, was arrested after a mother spotted her 16-year-old daughter's pierced tongue and the daughter told her where she got it.



The girl said she paid Hatfield $20 for the procedure and went to him because she had heard he does not ask for the parental consent required for those under 18, investigators said. Police confiscated needles, scissors and balls used in piercing, according to police reports.



Health department spokesman Tim O'Connor said parents of children who had the piercings should monitor them for signs of infection and confirm that they have had school-required hepatitis B shots. O'Connor said people who get pierced in unsanitary conditions are subject to a host of diseases, but said Hatfield did have sterilization equipment.



Anyone with additional information about the case is asked to call Lt. Lenore Maio at 741-2384.