Tattooer and Mom Arrested After 10-Year-Old Gets Tattooed

This shouldn’t need to be said, but don’t tattoo children. 

Seriously, DO. NOT. TATTOO. CHILDREN.

An incredibly irresponsible mother and an equally irresponsible tattoo artist were arrested earlier this month in Lloyd, New York, a town about two hours north of New York City, after a 10-year-old had their arm tattooed. 

The mother, Crystal Thomas, was charged with one count of endangering a child, a misdemeanor. The tattoo artist, identified as Austin L. Smith by police, was charged with two misdemeanors—unlawfully dealing with a child and endangering the welfare of a child. In the state of New York it is illegal tattoo anybody under the age of 18, even with the consent of a parent or guardian. 

Instances like this boil our blood here at Inked. Every single time some imbecile goes out and tattoos a child or tattoos their pit bull or does some other irresponsible acts, it invalidates all of the work that has been put in to show that tattooing isn’t something only enjoyed by degenerates and ruffians. Countless people have dedicated their lives to prove that the tattoo industry is not only safe, but a thriving industry filled with phenomenal artists and some of the most creative minds in the world. And then some absolute morons go and do this nonsense. 

Tattooing a child is child abuse. Period. End of sentence. 

I don’t give a shit if that child is “really mature for their age” or so fixated on Marvel movies that they “really, really know they’ll always love Iron Man,” it’s just flat-out wrong. There aren’t a lot of times in this life where we can say that there is no grey area but this is certainly one of them. 

I recoil in horror thinking back to the kinds of things I would have gotten tattooed when I was 10—portrait of the Micro Machines man, a ring-tailed lemur, my favorite quote from Johnny Tremaine, a Chicago Bulls logo. Are some of those things cool? Maybe. But my life changed tremendously in the next couple of decades, I don’t want to be looking down at an insanely faded (and stretched from all the growing up) token of those years. 

It’s easy to laugh about that scenario, but this is a very serious issue. Children, especially children at that rambunctious age, cannot give consent to something that will forever alter their life. Tattoos are permanent and to be taken seriously. A 10-year-old just isn’t mature enough to make that choice on their own. This is an age where you look at your 26-year-old teacher and think they are unfathomably old. Your parents may as well have been born before indoor plumbing was invented. A 10-year-old has no concept of who they’re going to be in a month, let alone a year or a decade later. Letting a child get a tattoo is an idea on par with letting them take the wheel and drive home, and no sane person would ever do the latter so why the hell would someone do the former.  

To reiterate, letting a child get a tattoo is reprehensible. We shouldn’t ever have to write an article like this, but there are people out there who keep doing repugnant shit, so here we are. Sigh.