State v. White, 348 S.C. 532

Summary

The Supreme Court of South Carolina affirmed Ronald P. White’s conviction under S.C. Code § 16-17-700 for tattooing another person without being a licensed physician. The court held that the process of tattooing was not sufficiently communicative to receive First Amendment protection and that the statute had a rational relationship to protecting public health. Justice Waller dissented, concluding that tattooing constituted protected artistic expression and that the statute was an unconstitutional complete ban on that speech.

Holdings

1. The process of tattooing, as presented on the record, is not sufficiently imbued with elements of communication to qualify as protected speech or expressive conduct under the First Amendment.
2. Section 16-17-700 is a valid exercise of the legislature's police power because White failed to show that the statute is arbitrary, unreasonable, or unrelated to the legitimate governmental interest of protecting public health.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the process of tattooing another person constitutes speech or otherwise protected expressive conduct under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article I, section 2 of the South Carolina Constitution.
2. Whether section 16-17-700 is an unconstitutional exercise of the State's police power because it lacks a reasonable relation to the protection of public health.

Disposition

affirmed