Think twice before you decide to get a tattoo. A Mississauga tattoo shop might have put up to 3,000 people at risk of HIV and hepatitis and people who have received tattoos or piercings at that shop have been advised by health officials to get blood tests.

A Peel Region health official is of opinion that poor record keeping and little public health oversight might have put lives of up to 3,000 people at risk.

Mortimer, a 32-year-old Meadowvale resident, is one of those 3,000 people who may be at risk of contracting HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C from Moonshin Tattoo. After the disclosure of sloppy record-keeping by the studio, combined with a lack of monitoring by public health officials at the parlor, Mortimer has decided to join the $20-million class action lawsuit filed this week against owners of the Dundas and Hurontario Sts. parlor and the Region of Peel.

The suit, filed by lawyers Todd J. McCarthy and Sean A. Brown, of Flaherty Dow Elliott & McCarthy, names parlour owners Charles A. Mason and Evelyne Smith, the Peel Region Public Health Department (Peel Public Health) and The Regional Municipality of Peel as defendants.

However, according to Dr. Eileen de Villa the advisory is a precautionary measure and that the infection threat from HIV and hepatitis is low.