Norfolk, VA -- The city of Norfolk, Virginia has lifted its decades-old ban on tattoo parlors.

The city council will begin to allow parlors in certain industrial and downtown zones after a 56-year-old ban on tattoo artists in an area defined by its relationship to the U.S. Navy.

According to the Associated Press, sixty years ago, Norfolk's East Main Street was world-famous for its tattoo parlors, taverns and burlesque palaces. In 1945, there were about a dozen parlors. That ended in 1950 when city council banned all tattoo parlors. Tattoos were branded unsanitary, vulgar, even "cannibalistic."

While tattoos and sailors have a long history, the U.S. Navy now prohibits certain kinds of tattoos, and limits them to only places covered by a seaman's uniform.

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