OTTAWA, CANADA - A contentious pilot project that set up tattoo parlours in federal prisons to allow inmates to practice safe tattooing is on the Conservative government's hit list and faces possible cancellation.

For the last year, prisoners at six Canadian penitentiaries have been able to legally obtain tattoos for about $5 to $15 each, as part an effort to cut down on the spread of HIV-AIDS and Hepatitis C through dirty needles.

The government is considering whether to continue with the project, confirmed Melisa Leclerc, communications director for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. Leclerc cautioned that no final decision has been made.

Internal government documents indicate that Day, immediately after assuming his portfolio last February, told the Correctional Service of Canada that he wanted to look at other options to the $700,000 pilot program.

The fledgling initiative has its supporters and detractors, and trying to convince the public of the benefits has been a challenge, acknowledged Suzanne Leclerc, a spokeswoman for the Correctional Service in Ottawa.

''It's an expense, but it's not that much of an expense compared to the price of treatment of an inmate or a person with an infectious disease,'' she said. ''It's an investment in the long term.''

Tattoos traditionally have been part of prison culture, with almost half of offenders getting tattoos while incarcerated, according to a federal survey.

Statistics also show that the rate of Hepatitis C in prisons is 30 times higher than among the general population, and the rate of HIV-AIDS is seven to 10 times higher.

''This is a way of satisfying the jailhouse urge to get tattoos without people getting sick,'' said Gord Tanner, chief of education at Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford, B.C., where 108 of roughly 300 prisoners have been legally tattooed in the last year with such markings as the names of their girlfriends or rings of barbed wire to signify they've done prison time.

Other than Matsqui, the penitentiaries offering tattoos are Atlantic Institution in Renous, N.B., Cowansville in Quebec, Bath Institution in Ontario, Rockywood in Stony Mountain, Man., and the Fraser Valley Institution for Women in B.C.

The prison-sanctioned parlours meet federal health standards, and they are closely supervised so that equipment cannot escape, said Tanner. The tattoos are administered by one or two trained inmates at each facility.

A spokesman for the union representing corrections officers said that the pilot project has been a waste of money and that backroom tattooing is just as prevalent as ever. Prisoners use whatever makeshift implements they can get their hands on, from razors to guitar strings, and ink from a ballpoint pen.

''It won't ever stop illegal tattooing. That's just part of the culture of living in prison,'' said John Williams of the Union of Canadian Corrections Officers in Abbotsford, B.C.

''There are some excellent artists who do tattoo work, and they're still going to do that. It's a big commodity in jail and it's a trade-off. It's a barter system where you wheel and deal. I give you tobacco; you give me a tattoo.''

Williams said government-sanctioned tattoos ''won't even put a dent'' in reducing infectious diseases.

''So why put money into a dead horse? Put it into other things, like zero tolerance on drugs,'' he said.

Tanner said it would probably take years to properly measure the success of the tattoo program.

In the meantime, it would be a shame if Ottawa cancels the program, particularly when Canada is in a position to set a worldwide example of harm-reduction in prisons, said Glenn Betteridge, senior policy analyst with the Canadian HIV-AIDS Legal Network.