Hey, Tempe, tattoo you!

A real, if incomplete, victory for economic liberty has been won in Tempe, Arizona:

After nearly a two-year battle, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ordered this week that a Gilbert couple's permit to operate a tattoo studio in north Tempe remain valid.

But the ruling also ordered the Tempe City Council to review its decision to revoke the permit and revote on the matter.

Although Tom and Elizabeth Preston consider the court's decision an "opening-round victory," their permit to operate the business near McKellips and Scottsdale roads is still in jeopardy.

This is what comes of requiring people to get permission from government to do business -- and makes that permission conditional on the consent of every half-wit, bigot and competitor with an axe to grind. A two-year battle to open a retail establishment? I'd think that damned few people have the reserves and patience to engage in that sort of warfare. Kudos to the Prestons -- and to Clint Bolick of the Goldwater Institute, who represents them.

Are tattoo parlors really undesirable businesses? More undesirable than what?

If I was a landlord, I'd much rather rent to a tattoo parlor than to a government agency, which might decide it likes the digs so much that it wants to steal them. Private businesses don't generally try to nab title to their leased premises.