Who makes sure that our food, water, air, homes, and communities are safe? We know that it’s environmental health professionals, but to most people, our work goes unnoticed. Fortunately, Americans trust that their water is safe to drink, or that the restaurant they are eating from is clean, but they don’t consider how that happens.
Apply for the NEHA Body Art Committee TodayIn 2021, we conducted a nationwide survey to assess the needs of the workforce related to body art facility inspections. This needs assessment examined attitudes, skills, and knowledge related to inspection standards, best practices, and resources. The information from this needs assessment can be utilized to identify priorities that guide training and resource development for environmental health professionals responsible for ensuring safe body art practices that protect public health are implemented and followed.
View the Needs Assessment Results Summary
We are updating our model code for body art and request review and comment from both the environmental health and body art communities. The NEHA Body Art Model Code serves as a resource for local and state organizations to update their own body art code to protect public health.
“Our goal is to provide the best, most useful guidance possible so that environmental health professionals at the local level can focus on the real work of partnering with body art facilities to keep communities safe and healthy,” said Dr. David Dyjack, NEHA executive director.
Body art is regulated by state and local jurisdictions, and there is great variation in licensing and training requirements across jurisdictions. Body art safety is a critical element of environmental health. NEHA developed a policy statement to advocate to stakeholders the importance of uniform safety standards, licensing requirements, and training. NEHA recommends legislation requiring that body artists are licensed and work in licensed facilities, standardized body art-specific training requirements for body artists and environmental health professionals, and adequate enforcement mechanisms for such requirements. NEHA advocates for health departments to adopt the most recent version of the Body Art Model Code.
View the full policy statement here.
The NEHA Body Art Model Code Annex was recently published and can be found here. The NEHA Body Art Model Annex provides justification, rationale, and best practices to support the requirements outlined in the NEHA Body Art Model Code. The Annex is available for state and local agencies and other organizations as a resource for updating body art codes and protecting public health.
One of NEHA’s responsibilities is to speak up on issues of concern to our members and the profession through the adoption of policy statements. These are statements that have been vetted by NEHA and adopted by the NEHA Board of Directors as official statements of the association. These statements set forth NEHA’s beliefs on a specific subject related to environmental health, and are shared with state, local and federal policy makers, including both the executive and legislative branches, as well as relevant environmental and public health boards.
These policies remain active for 3 years from their adoption by the NEHA Board.
Join the Association of Food and Drug Officials' Body Art Committee and the National Environmental Health Association for a one-of-a-kind, thought-provoking body art adventure with a panel of body art experts including environmental health specialists, body artists that specialize in different techniques, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulators, past and present.
The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) is proud to announce the release of the updated NEHA Body Art Model Code (BAMC).
In the time since the original code was released more than 20 years ago, body art has become much more accepted, diverse, and popular.
The NEHA Body Art Model Code Annex was developed to provide justification, rationale, and best practices to support the requirements outlined in the NEHA Body Art Model Code. The Annex is available for state and local agencies and other organizations as a resource for updating body art codes and protecting public health.
Just over twenty years ago, environmental health professionals and industry experts developed the first NEHA Body Art Model Code (BAMC). In the time since the original code was released, body art has become much more accepted, diverse, and popular.
In Spring of 2016, NEHA began working with subject matter experts and national partners to develop an updated Body Art Model Code (BAMC). The updated BAMC was created with input from environmental health and industry professionals, and addresses the ways body art impacts public health, both old and new. The BAMC is available for local and state agencies and other organizations to use as a resource to update their own body art codes and protect public health.
