Twenty Years Legal: How Oklahoma Went From Tattoo Ban to Tattoo Celebrations
On Nov 1, 2006, Oklahoma became the last state in the country to legalize tattooing. Twenty years later, the state is marking the anniversary with flash tattoos at a history center.
For more than four decades, getting tattooed in Oklahoma was against the law. Then, on Nov 1, 2006, it wasn’t, and the state became the last in the country to make the art legal.
This month marks 20 years since that change. The ink that once had to be done out of sight is now being celebrated at a state history center.
The ban that lasted 43 years
Oklahoma banned tattooing in 1963, KGOU reported in 2021. Its reporting says bans in that era followed a national trend tied to fears about Hepatitis B, even though there was no evidence of an outbreak caused by tattooing.
There’s also a popular story that the ban started because a lawmaker’s daughter came home with a tattoo. It makes for good shop talk, but KGOU found no proof, and nobody knows who that lawmaker would have been. Treat it as folklore.
The fight to change the law
Change took years. KGOU reports that Rep. Al Lindley, a Democrat from Oklahoma City, pushed for legalization for nearly a decade.
Artists pushed too. Tattooist Brandon Mull told KGOU he was arrested twice in the early 2000s and helped form a coalition of artists to press the case.
The result was Senate Bill 806, signed by Gov. Brad Henry. It took effect Nov 1, 2006, according to the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, an Oklahoma Historical Society site.
Marking 20 years with flash
The anniversary is getting its own event. Inked in History runs Friday, Nov 13, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, 507 S 4th St in Enid.
Featured artists will offer flash tattoos, the venue says:
- Culture Tattoo, Enid
- Nathalie Standingcloud, Earthly Medicine Tattoo, Tahlequah
- Spaded and Jaded Tattoo, Tulsa
You must be 18 or older with ID.
A scene that’s still growing
The anniversary lands just after another first for the state. Gathering of Ink (NDN Territory), billed as an inaugural three-day Indigenous tattoo convention, ran Oct 23–25, 2026 at OKANA Resort in Oklahoma City, Crosswinds News reported. It was organized by Missy Mahan.
Mahan told Crosswinds she had seen the momentum building: “I have been noticing within the last five years, all these Indigenous conferences and conventions happening.”
From outlaw to on display
Twenty years ago, Oklahoma artists were still working around the law. Now a state history site is opening its doors for flash day. That’s how fast a culture can move once it’s allowed to stand in the light.
If you’re in Oklahoma on Nov 13, Enid is the place to mark it.
Sources: Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center (Oklahoma Historical Society), “Inked in History” (event Nov 13, 2026); Crosswinds News, Brittany Harlow, Oct 20, 2026; KGOU, Katelyn Howard, Oct 13, 2021 (background).
