Around a week ago, an Arizona tattoo artist shared a video of himself tattooing a child to Instagram. Since then, he’s made headlines and received backlash from the public.
However, the artist – who goes by the name Sosa – expected the response.
“How my phone is going to sound like after I post this,” he said in a caption on the video.
Sosa said that the girl first came in – with her family – when she was 9 years old and asked for a portrait of now President-elect Donald Trump on her neck. Even though minors are allowed to get tattooed in Arizona with parental consent, he declined. He also said he tried to “scare” the family away with an exorbitant price of $500, but that they were very willing to pay.
“I convinced her to do a more patriotic tattoo. Told her in a year if she still wanted the Trump then to get it but to think on it,” the tattoo artist said. Eventually, the child was tattooed with an American flag on her arm. She then came in a year later to have red in the tattoo touched up, Sosa said.
According to Arizona state law, it is unlawful for a person to “intentionally brand, scarify, implant, mutilate, tattoo or pierce the body of a person who is under eighteen years of age without the physical presence of the parent or legal guardian of the person requesting the brand, scar, tattoo, implant, mutilation or piercing.”
“Just because it’s technically legal doesn’t make it right,” said an Instagram user named Jessica Valentine, who identifies herself as a tattoo artist in New York, in a comment on Sosa’s post. “Shame on the person who did this. So unethical.”
While state and local authorities oversee the practice of tattooing, ink and pigments used in tattoos are subject to U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversight. However, that doesn’t mean that all tattoo ink is safe. A study published last spring in the journal Analytical Chemistry found that about 90% of tattoo inks in the U.S. contain ingredients not listed on their labels.
Additionally, tattooing can be associated with transmission of some bacterial infections and viral infections including Hepatitis B and C, HIV, and they have been linked to some skin cancers, per Johns Hopkins Medicine.
It also said that, while tattoos can be removed, it can take dozens of sessions to fully remove them. Still, Johns Hopkins noted that tattoos are becoming more popular and that an estimated 10% to 23% of adolescents have one. According to the FDA, 40% of Americans aged 18 to 34 have a tattoo.
“Although tattoos, body piercings and body modification is becoming much more popular among adolescents and young adults, it is important for families and teens to understand health risks that could be associated and what potential complications could exist,” said Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Another complication associated with tattoos can pop up in the workplace, where employers, clients and customers might have negative opinions about them. Johns Hopkins said survey data indicates having a tattoo was one of the top three things that people felt was limiting their career potential and employment options. Indeed, a career guide website, said some managers might not allow tattoos to be displayed in the workplace.
“In more relaxed company atmospheres, employers may accept tattoos at work as a sign of individuality,” said Indeed.
Even though Sosa agreed to tattoo the child, he told FOX 10 in Phoenix, Ariz., that he thinks there should be a law establishing a minimum age to get tattooed in Arizona.
“There should be laws and regulations of limiting the ages in order to do these procedures. I think there is a law that should be created. Like everybody’s opinion, a lot of people think it’s wrong. I agree,” he said, according to the outlet.
FOX 10 said Sosa tattooed the girl at Black Onyx Empire Tattoo in Yuma, Ariz. Sosa said the girl and her family are refugees from Turkey and the family brought her to the shop from out-of-state to get the tattoo.