Tattoos and piercings: How young is too young?

Tattoos and piercings: How young is too young?
Article by: SlingerVille Staff
August 18, 2012

How young is too young to get a tattoo or piercing? Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s daughter Willow is 11-years-old and she just received a handful of opinions when she posted her new tongue piercing on Instagram.

asapniceee: "She is too young for such a provocative piercing. Why would her parents let her pierce her tongue?"

tiffaneybabeyy : "At your age, Willow, I don't think a piercing should be on you, especially there."

mariajx91: "Maybe you should stop rushing to grow up Willow. It looks trashy. You're 11, and that doesn't look good at any age to be honest. Hope it's fake."

Willow revealed that the tongue piercing was in fact not real and that it was a magnetic ring. By that time, people had already been going back and forth with their take on whether young kids are mature enough to make a decision that may be with them forever. According to CNN, the issue is, what is classified as “too young”?

This may be a decision between child and parent, but it has become a conversation among the state legislatures as well.

CNN posts an example about a 10-year-old getting a tattoo:

“In June, Jerry Garrison, a Florida grandfather, lost custody of his 10-year-old grandson after allowing him to get a tattoo of his initials on his right leg. A ‘Family tradition,’ according to Garrison.”

Under Florida law, anyone under the age of 16 cannot be tattooed unless it is for “medical or dental reasons,” and any person 16 to 18 years old can only be tattooed with the consent of a parent or guardian.

In January 2012, that law changed. Currently, you can get tattooed if you are under the age of 16, so long as you have parental consent.

Most states will allow under age kids to get tattoos or body piercings with parental consent. Although, a few states have become more strict on the topic.

In Idaho, "No person shall knowingly tattoo, brand or perform body piercing on any minor under the age of fourteen (14) years."

In South Carolina, “Anyone under the age of 21 is prohibited from being tattooed. If a person is 18, a parent can give consent, but anyone under 18 is prohibited from ink of any type.”

And in Minnesota, “It is unlawful for anyone under age 18 to receive a tattoo without written parental consent.”

CNN reported that child development experts agree with this age of majority for tattoos and piercings on minors, but also specify that age is but a number and that maturity level is a better factor to go by.

Psychiatrist Daniel Bober, an assistant clinical professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University, states that it is a good idea to view how the child is getting by in other areas of life, school and friendships for example.

"The brain of a young person is still developing and they are less risk averse, more impulsive, and more likely to engage in risky behaviors," says Bober.

It's permanent as well, adds Victoria Pitts-Taylor, a professor of sociology at the City University of New York and author of "In the Flesh: the Cultural Politics of Body Modification."

"Tattoos, for example, have some style credibility because they reflect a willingness to 'trade in skin.' They are thus a Catch-22 for young people," says Pitts-Taylor.

"The aesthetic commitment they require probably extends too far into a young person's future -- how will they know they will be the sort of person to like it when they are 30, 40 or 50? But that risk is exactly what makes them appealing."

When Hillary Kevilus got her first tattoo at 15-years-old, she may not have realized the life long commitment at the time.

"I had just broken up with my boyfriend, 'the love of my life,' and it's a heart with a dagger through it on my right calf. It's huge and it's a horrible reminder of a painful childhood and bad teenage decisions," Kevilus shares on CNN's Facebook page.

However, other people like John A. Haynes like their tattoos for those reminders. He said he doesn’t regret his tattoo he received when he was just 17-years-old.

"I don't regret my tattoos. Each one reminds me of where I was at certain stages off my life, and my mindset. It's like keeping a scrapbook, only on my body and not collecting dust on a shelf somewhere taking up space," he says via Facebook.

Getting your ears pierced is common among young women, while getting your earlobes stretched or piercing your tongue is not.

"Children's bodies are especially susceptible to this kind of social policing. We allow them to modify their bodies to some degree so long as they do not step outside the norm; we see it as our jobs to bring them up as social ideals," she says.

The double standard drives kids to want to do it even more, according to Pitts-Taylor.

"Children are very good at detecting this kind of hypocrisy."

According to Dr. Timothy M. Jochen, of Contour Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery Center, people are coming in as early as there twenties to get tattoo removal. The top three reasons are relationships, work and motherhood.

"I don't see laser tattoo removal as a body-changing procedure; I see it as restoring a person," says Jochen. Unless it is a quality-of-life procedure like gastric bypass, he, like Bober and Pitts-Taylor, also feels it is best for minors to wait to have any body-changing procedures until they're of legal age.

In the end, it is not what these young people are doing, but rather why they are doing it.

"It is important for young people to develop what is on the inside and then what other people see will not matter as much," says Bober. "At the end of the day, you have to feel good about who you are and often a cosmetic change will not fix what is underneath."

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/06/living/too-young-tattoo/index.html?hpt=hp_bn11

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