Guide Collections Laws Updated June 25, 2026

Weird Laws in Arkansas

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Weird Laws in Arkansas

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Arkansas keeps some unusual laws on the books because repealing low-priority oddities rarely outranks the rest of the state's short legislative agenda.

Quick Answer

Weird Laws in Arkansas

  1. 1

    Three Arkansas weird-law claims are confirmed real: a statewide tattoo ban, an 1881 pronunciation law, and a Sunday car sales ban still enforced today.

  2. 2

    The pronunciation law does not criminalize mispronouncing 'Arkansas.' It declares the official form but attaches no penalty to getting it wrong.

  3. 3

    Claims about car horn bans near sandwich shops and post-midnight walking rules have no traceable statute or ordinance in official Arkansas records.

Unusual Laws in Arkansas That Are Real

Strange Arkansas Laws include one erased from the books only 22 years ago and two still active today. All three look implausible at first glance and all three are documented.

Statewide Tattoo Ban (Repealed 2003)

Statewide Tattoo Ban (Repealed 2003)

Law
Arkansas maintained a statewide prohibition on tattooing under its professional licensing code. Getting or giving a tattoo was illegal anywhere in the state.
Meaning
No licensed tattoo parlor could legally operate in Arkansas. Residents wanting tattoos had to cross into neighboring states. The ban ran for most of the 20th century before the legislature repealed it in 2003.
Reason
The prohibition grew from early public health concerns linking tattooing to bloodborne disease and unsanitary conditions. Most states dropped similar rules by the 1960s. Arkansas held on until it became the last in the country to repeal one.
The Pronunciation of 'Arkansas' Is Legally Defined

The Pronunciation of 'Arkansas' Is Legally Defined

Law
Arkansas Code officially establishes that the state name is pronounced "Arkansaw" — not "Ar-KAN-sas" — based on a resolution the General Assembly passed in 1881 and later codified.
Meaning
Correct pronunciation is a matter of state law. Calling it "Ar-KAN-sas" carries no fine, but the official declaration exists to settle the question permanently.
Reason
Settlers arriving in the 1870s increasingly pronounced the name to rhyme with Kansas, which residents considered a corruption of the French-derived Quapaw name. The 1881 debate was contentious enough to require multiple legislative sessions to resolve.
Buying a Car on Sunday Is Prohibited

Buying a Car on Sunday Is Prohibited

Law
Arkansas Sabbath statutes prohibit licensed auto dealers from selling vehicles on Sunday. The restriction applies statewide to all franchised dealerships.
Meaning
Drive to any Arkansas car lot on a Sunday and the salesroom is closed by law, not by choice. Dealers cannot opt out, and courts have upheld the restriction.
Reason
Arkansas's Sunday closing laws originated as 19th-century Sabbath-observance legislation. Most states repealed similar rules decades ago. The auto dealer provision survived legal challenges and remains active.

Weird Laws in Arkansas We Couldn't Verify

Weird Arkansas Laws Still on the Books is the wrong framing for either of these two claims. Neither appears in any city code, county ordinance, or state statute that has been located.

It's illegal to honk your car horn near a sandwich shop after 9 PM in Little Rock

Claim
A Little Rock ordinance prohibits honking a vehicle horn near any sandwich shop or refreshment stand after 9 PM.
Why We Couldn't Verify It
Little Rock's municipal code contains noise regulations, but none referencing sandwich shops or refreshment stands specifically. The claim appears across many weird-law lists without an ordinance number, a date, or a single enforcement case.

Women who walk alone on the street after midnight in Fort Smith can be arrested

Claim
Fort Smith, Arkansas, has an ordinance allowing police to arrest women walking unaccompanied on public streets after midnight.
Why We Couldn't Verify It
Fort Smith's municipal records contain no such ordinance. The claim follows a pattern of 19th-century vagrancy rules attributed to specific cities without supporting text, and it appears alongside other unverified entries on the same lists.

Strange Arkansas Laws That Are Myths

Real Arkansas Laws You Won't Believe is a fair label for the verified entries above. These two claims do not qualify. Each one has a clear, documentable reason it was never actually a law.

Mispronouncing 'Arkansas' as 'Ar-KAN-sas' is a criminal offense

Myth
Saying "Ar-KAN-sas" out loud is an actual crime in Arkansas, with fines or penalties for getting the pronunciation wrong.
Reality
The 1881 pronunciation law declares the official pronunciation but creates no penalty. No Arkansas statute or ordinance has ever fined, cited, or charged anyone for mispronouncing the state name.

A Fayetteville ordinance specifically protects catfish from being killed by dynamite

Myth
Fayetteville, Arkansas, passed a specific ordinance making it illegal to kill catfish by dynamiting the water.
Reality
Using explosives in water is prohibited under Arkansas's general fish and wildlife laws and under federal regulations — no special provision for catfish exists. No Fayetteville ordinance targeting catfish specifically has ever been located. The claim takes a general prohibition and adds a colorful species and a city name to make it sound like a specific weird law.

Why Arkansas's 60-Day Sessions Leave No Time to Clean Up the Books

Arkansas courthouse or state civic building associated with lawmaking and legal administration
Arkansas's short biennial sessions leave little room for cleaning up obscure statutes once budgets and major policy fights take over the calendar.

Arkansas holds regular legislative sessions only in odd-numbered years, with a hard cap of 60 calendar days. Even-numbered years are limited to fiscal sessions covering the budget alone — no policy bills allowed. That structure leaves the legislature roughly 60 days out of every 730 to address all pending state business, including the entire state code. Repealing a Sunday car sales restriction or auditing outdated licensing rules simply does not compete for floor time when constitutional amendments, appropriations, and contested legislation are already in line. The result is a statute book that accumulates old law without a scheduled opportunity to clear it.

Key Facts

1 When Arkansas repealed its tattoo ban in 2003, it became the last state in the country to do so. Oklahoma dropped a similar ban years earlier — both were holdovers from early 20th-century public health campaigns.
2 Before 1881, Arkansas newspapers and editors used inconsistent spellings and phonetic renderings of the state name. 'Arkansaw' appeared in print as early as 1812, drawn from French explorers' phonetic records of the Quapaw name.
3 Hot Springs, Arkansas, operated openly illegal gambling houses from the 1880s through the 1960s with tacit approval from local and state officials. Governor Winthrop Rockefeller shut them down in 1967.
4 Arkansas's Constitution dates to 1874. Every amendment requires approval by a statewide popular referendum, making large-scale statutory cleanup through constitutional change unusually slow.
5 Arkansas is one of a small group of states that limit regular legislative sessions to every two years under their state constitution. Montana, Nevada, Texas, and North Dakota operate under similar structural constraints.

Quick Answers

Is it really illegal to get a tattoo in Arkansas?
Arkansas maintained a statewide ban on tattooing for most of the 20th century under its professional licensing code. The legislature repealed the prohibition in 2003, making Arkansas the last U.S. state to lift such a restriction.
Is mispronouncing 'Arkansas' actually illegal?
No. Arkansas law officially declares the correct pronunciation to be 'Arkansaw,' but no penalty has ever been attached to saying it differently. Calling it 'Ar-KAN-sas' is wrong by statute, not criminal.
Can you buy a car on Sunday in Arkansas?
No. Arkansas Sabbath laws prohibit licensed auto dealers from selling vehicles on Sunday. The restriction is statewide, applies to all franchised dealerships, and has been upheld by courts.
What is the weirdest law still on the books in Arkansas?
The Sunday car sales ban is the most actively enforced oddity. Every licensed dealership in the state is closed by law on Sundays — not by choice, and not by store policy.
Why does Arkansas have so many old laws still in effect?
Arkansas's legislature meets for only 60 days in odd-numbered years. That limited calendar leaves almost no time for reviewing and repealing outdated statutes. Most survive simply because they never reach the agenda.

Sources

Information is cross-referenced with official state archives.
Found an error? Report it here.

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