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I’m sure it’s an overreach (we’re talking about NJ government, after all), but what they’re talking about isn’t just the normal “bikini area”, but the actual genital area which has a very different type of skin. I would assume that the ratio of actual injuries to reported injuries is VERY low.

The reporting mechanism was presumably via doctors who saw these women when they were hospitalized for treatment for their injuries — most people who got minor burns or infections this way wouldn’t require hospitalization, and if they just saw a doctor in a private office, it would likely go unreported, unless the patient expressly gave permission. My guess is that the injuries involved burns to mucus membranes, which would be very prone to infection. If I was a doctor and saw an injury like that, in a patient who said it had be inflicted by a commercial cosmetology business, I’d definitely get on the phone to some authorities.

The state is not talking about banning ordinary “bikini waxing”, but just that which extends into the actual genital area. Maybe not a bad idea. Certainly not a bad idea to ban it from being done on minors, and I’m sure quite a bit of it IS being done on minors. Not only should minors be protected from their own stupidity, but they are notoriously unwise when it comes to telling an adult when something like this (even if done with parental knowledge and reluctant permission) goes terribly wrong. A sixteen year old girl who begged her mother to let her have this done, is more likely to keep it to herself when a serious infection results, than to say “Hey mom, come have a look my vagina — do you think I need to go to the doctor?”. I remember a story of a teenage girl who got her tongue pierced (her parents knew at least right afterwards, though I don’t recall if they’d reluctantly agreed in advance to allow it) — she didn’t want to admit to her parents that it had been a really stupid idea, and so she kept it to herself as the infection got worse and worse — by the time it got so bad that she admitted she needed medical attention, it was too late and she died.