We're on record as being pretty open-minded about different parenting styles. Attachment parenting? Great - been there, done that! Free-range parenting? Also great! Helicopter parenting, hyper-parenting, set-them-free-in-the-woods parenting - whatever works!
Tattoos? We've got 'em! For the kids? Well, the rub-on kind are cool... No, wait, what? REAL tattoos? On kids?
Um...
A Georgia couple were recently arrested for tattooing their kids, aged 10 - 17. Five of the kids received crosses on their hands, one had 'Mom and Dad' tattooed on his arm. The couple was reported when the biological mother of two of the kids tried, unsuccessfully, to wash off what she thought were rub-on tattoos.
Okay, so the kids in question are older, but not much. Tattoos are permanent, people. So is ear-piercing, but pin-prick holes in one's ears are more or less innocuous. Tatts? Much less so. I can state with some certainty that any tattoo that I might have gotten between the ages of ten and seventeen would have been lasered off by now. Smurfs, unicorns and Simon LeBon's head just don't translate to the thirty-something post-partum body, you know?
Here's the kicker: the couple did the tattoos themselves. DIY. With guitar strings. And ink. Which, you know, is not the recommended way for anybody to get tattoos, never mind children. In any case, tattooing children by any means, DIY or otherwise, is illegal, so.
I'm calling this one a parenting fail. What do you think?
WTF! Major parenting fail!
Posted by: Michelle | 01/05/2010 at 01:45 PM
It's stories like this that make me feel better when I can't stop laughing that my one year old ran face first into the door.
Posted by: Jessi | 01/05/2010 at 01:58 PM
Wow, I feel like SUCH a great parent right now. Thanks! People are caaaarazy.
Posted by: Tasha | 01/05/2010 at 04:13 PM
Guitar strings and ink? Man, I'm going to have to try that. It will wipe off, right? More to the point, wouldn't that hurt like a mofo? Could you really feel OK about inflicting pain on your kid? I cringe when I have to brush her teeth for chrissake.
Fail. Definitely.
Posted by: Stephanie | 01/05/2010 at 04:14 PM
OK, maybe the 17 year-old but a 10 year-old?? I'm still on the fence about letting my daughters get their ears pierced when they hit that age (not because I think it's wrong but because I remember how badly I took care of my pierced ears at that age and the amounts of hydrogen peroxide my mother had to buy. Ouch.)
Posted by: Major Bedhead | 01/05/2010 at 04:18 PM
As someone with one relatively large tat, and who has a fantasy of the mother/daughter tattoo we could get together one day, I'm ringing in for major fail here. And that was before I got to the DIY part; DIY just brings it to a whole 'nuther level of FAIL. Dang.
Posted by: KYouell | 01/05/2010 at 04:24 PM
Not only are those going to look AWFUL when the kids and their skin grow, and because prison-style homemade tats rarely turn out well, but I'm curious about who this couple is and why they had the kids, when the biomom ws trying to rub the tats off? I need more info, but not because it would excuse any of this major fail, just because it's confusing and I'm curious.
Posted by: kittenpie | 01/05/2010 at 04:47 PM
The biggest fail of this story was how the mother tried to justify giving her kids the tattoos. I saw a bit of this on the news and was moderately horrified by the way she brushed the whole thing off.
Just for the record - I'm all for tattoos, but on adults. Not children.
Posted by: mamatulip | 01/06/2010 at 09:25 AM