There’s a new business opening in town, but the DeKalb City Council might not welcome them with open arms.

The city council will discuss the possibility of regulating or banning a tattoo parlor that is scheduled to open across from McCabe’s, 323 E. Lincoln Hwy.

City Attorney Ronald Matekaitis sent a letter to City Manager Mark Stevens asking that “the city of DeKalb consider either regulating such operations by requiring the presence of a physician or osteopath or prohibiting the activity altogether.”

Assistant City Manager Gary Boden said the letter will be introduced to city council members at the council meeting tonight.

“We’re suggesting three alternatives—permitting it, regulating it or banning it,” he said.

The tattoo business did, however, sign a lease, Boden said.

“We talk about downtown improvement and then we have property owners leasing out to tattoo owners,” he said.

Boden said measures have been taken in other states to regulate or ban tattooing and those decisions have been upheld in court.

Matekaitis said DeKalb does not currently have any regulations on tattoo parlors.

“The actual process of tattooing requires the injection of dye into the recipient’s skin by the use of needles or machines which utilize needles,” he said. “As is the case with any minor surgical procedure … the transmission of communicable disease, both bacterial or viral, is possible.”