These Tats Are Made for Talking: Why Tattoos and Tattooing Are Protected Speech Under the First Amendment

This Comment examines the current split among the federal circuit courts of appeal on the issue of First Amendment protection of tattoos and argues for the United States Supreme Court to grant certiorari to Anderson v. City of Hermosa Beach and adopt the approach taken by the Ninth Circuit Court. Traditionally, courts have viewed a restriction on the process of creating pure speech as a restriction on the speech itself. As a result, the courts vigorously protect the process of creating the speech. Tattooing, a process inexplicably linked to the creation of tattoos, must be protected with the same fervor as the process that creates any other pure speech. Subsequently, zoning laws restricting tattoo establishments would be examined under stricter constitutional standards leading to greater freedom of expression