Would you let your kid get tattooed before 18?

[TattooedHiker]

I don't have a kid.

[Matthew Thomas]

Personally, this is how I feel. If I ever have kids, I will let them get tattooed before 18, but there will be restrictions. They must be 16 at least, they must have good grades and be responsible (coming home at a decent time, pass their driver's test, participate in an after-school activity or part time job, so on) and my wife and I must both approve of the design and location of the tattoo. However, my wife does not currently feel the same. She feels that they must wait until they are 18. Either way, I do want to be with them when they get it. Depending what it is, I may even match it.

[Elision]

I think this situation divers from person to person. Now granted, I am only 19 years old so I can't really speak of having kids yadayada, but here's my two cents.

Some kids are mature enough to decide on a tattoo when they are 16, whereas others are 20 and still have the mindset of a 12 year old.

I personally consider myself mature for my age, and I honestly always have, which is probably why I was patient enough to over think my own decision of getting a tattoo and neatly waiting until I was old enough.

I think the best thing we (and by we I mean both admirers and artists) can do is to be open and advising to whomever wants to get a tattoo.

There is no real way to say if you should allow tattooing of under aged kids because each kid has a different level of maturity and common sense.

I see a lot of people comment about kids choosing things (bongs, cartoon characters, weed plants, whatever) and then later regretting it.

However, I have also heard more than enough stories of proper adults choosing a design for a tattoo and later regretting their decision, thus covering the tattoo up with something else or removing it completely. (My partners mother being one of them)

I believe you can never truly make a proper judgement of someone's choice because we all have different reasons for our choices.

When/if my child shows an interest in tattoos I want to just be open about them with it rather than risking them going into some back alley to get some sloppy job done risking infections and the likes.

[RoryQ]

I'm not going to weigh in on this too heavily. I don't have any kids (but our first is on the way!).

When I look back, I started to think about getting relatively heavily tattooed when I was 20. I was on the fence between a japanese half sleeve and going for the kind of spiky black tribal that George Clooney had in 'Dusk till Dawn'. When I read lately in a tattooist interview about people turning up in tattoo shops saying they wanted 'tribal like Clooney in 'Dusk till Dawn' ' I laugh, because I was that kid.

The thing is, after a few years breathing space I'm really glad I didn't get that full tribal sleeve. I didn't go below the elbow in the end until I was 30, and I had reached a position in my career where it wasn't a problem. If I'd gotten that tribal sleeve when I was just turning 21 then maybe things wouldn't have turned out as well for me in terms of my working life.

Everyone is an individual, and maybe some people get wisdom earlier than I did, but when I look back I'm pretty pleased that the mistakes I made early in my tattoo-collecting career are small ones. If I had been able to get tattooed in my teens, before I was 18, I really dread to think what I would have opted for. I probably would have ended up with a black and grey tribute to Arnold Schwartzenegger action movies or something.

My wife and I joke about whether we will live vicariously through our child when it's old enough to get tattooed. It'll probably rebel against having heavily tattooed parents by finding tattoos ridiculous or old-fashioned. But if not, and if it wants to get tattooed young, I think the angle I would go is to try to encourage them to wait until they're 18-20 at least. And then I'd promise to help them out with the money needed to get tattooed by a legit artist of their choice. I'd don't know how realistic that is, but there you go.

[Riyko]

I'd let my daughter get a tattoo if she's under 18, but she'd have to be 16 or 17 and there'd be some rules, like it's something you've thought a lot about and wanted for the past 4 years (my mom did the same with me and my first tattoo was a graduation gift and something I wanted since I was 11) otherwise you have to wait until you're 18 to get it. I'll also inform her about where not to get tattoo'd so she can work any job she wants to.

[temporarytattoo]

Well my thinking is so that after 18 or at the age of 20 you could get tattoo that probably good .