Tattoo artist criticised for permanently inking nine-year-old Trump fan
A tattooist has been criticised after he gave a permanent tattoo to a nine-year-old girl in a video that went viral online.
The video shows a tattoo artist at Black Onyx Empire drawing the stars and stripes of a US flag on a young girl’s upper arm.
Initially the girl, who was with her parents, ‘wanted a portrait of Donald Trump’ on her neck because she and the family view him as a hero, an Arizona artist known as Sosa said.
‘But I convinced her to do a more patriotic tattoo. Told her in a year if she still wanted the Trump then to get in but to think on it.
‘Client came back one year later saying, “I’m 10 now, can you touch up the red” unexpectedly and you know we got her right.
‘She also changed her mind on the Trump portrait.’
He added: ‘Btw tried to scare them away with saying $500 for this snap $80 tat but they jumped on that price instead.’
The footage, which appeared on the artist’s social media, included the sound of multiple Instagram notifications, a sign of what was to come.
Commenting on TikTok, one person wrote: ‘You are extremely unprofessional. Any artis with common sense would have refused her.’
Caiti commented: ‘When I was 19 I couldn’t get a hand tattoo without a sleeve so I knew I was “committed”. Now you dudes are out here tattooing nine-year-olds. Scummy sh*t.
Ava said: ‘This is actually crazy, you can refuse service to anyone. Trying to say you tried to turn them away with a high price is nothing. I was turned away at 16 with parent consent.’
The tattoo artist responded with ‘stfu’.
In his initial post, the artist said: ‘Here in Arizona it is legal to [tattoo a child] with parent consent and of course making sure it’s not forced and that the child loves the tattoo.’
‘It’s not like I tattoo nine-year-olds every day’, Sosa, who doesn’t tattoo his own kids, later told AZFamily.
‘[The girl’s family are] very grateful for being here in the United States, they saw Donald Trump as a hero.’
Arizona is one of the least regulated states, with no license required to be a practice, according to Ben Shaw, of the Alliance of Professional Tattooists.
While it may be legal, Mr Shaw doesn’t believe this makes it ethical, WBTV reports.
He said: ‘It can give us professionals a bad reputation. If you see a 10-year-old child with a professional tattoo and they say they got it at a tattoo shop, that degrades us as a whole.’
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