Did Mom Deserve Jail Time for Ten-Year-Old's Memorial Tattoo?

Tattoo artist.
Tattoo artist.


Grief is a horrible thing, especially when you have lost a child. But parenting duties don't stop. So what are we to make of reports via ABC News that a mother was recently jailed for letting her ten-year-old get a memorial tattoo for his deceased brother? SheKnows has posted a discussion on the rights and wrongs of the ten-year-old's tattoo case, with some folks arguing that the law-is-the-law and authorities had little option but to impost a custodial sentence. Others, however, felt that it was the tattoo artist, not the mother, who should be held to account:

"If there was a law in place against tattooing minors, then consent was not hers to give," she said. "So I fail to see why she was arrested rather than the person that gave the kid the tattoo. She isn't the one that committed a crime. A bad parenting choice? Yes. A crime? I don't really think so."

Matters were complicated, however, by the fact that the mother refused to name the tattoo artist responsible. Either way, it seems like a better understanding of children and grief could have served everyone well in an undeniably horrible situation.

This post was written by Sami Grover.

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