BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Body Art The Age Limit Debate

I think what most youngsters fail to consider is that a tattoo is for life and something they like now they probably won't in 10 years time. I wanted a tattoo from the age of 14 but I waited until I was 22. Over the years I designed numerous tattoo designs all around the same theme until there was one that I just kept coming back to. If I'd have got the first design I had at 14 (which I bloody loved at the time) I would hate it now.

It's often hard for parents to prevent it. A teenager can just come home with it already done. I think the people who do them should check ID and refuse minors, but then that doesn't address the issue of all the people doing it "bootleg."

I think the number of states making firm laws and enforcing them is slowly working to put the "under the table" artists out of work. Especially when tattooing teens carries misdemeanor charges and fines.

I don't think it's really anyone's fault other than the piercer. I mean, they should verify how old someone is. Then again, I've been to places that allow you to get pierced as young as 16.. which is a bit strange to me.

If you are under 18, you need to provide a parent with proof not just some random adult you met off the street- that will sign consent for either a piercing or tats.

That's not a valid blanket statement, Maureen. Regulations are going to vary with the location where you are getting the body mod done (laws in the US are by state and sometimes county) and piercings above the neck are sometimes ruled differently.

While I mostly agree with the view that minors should wait until they're older to decide to get a tattoo, I find it a little bit of a generalisation. I'm seventeen and got my first tattoo when I was sixteen and a half. It's most likely the only tattoo i'm ever going to get, and I believe that I got it for good reason. In Australia the law is that if you are under 18, you need to get a form called a statutory declaration which needs to be signed by both a parent or guardian and a justice of the peace. Even then, if you take it to a parlor they're well within their rights to refuse you. I got my tattoo, which is a small ribbon and initials on my ankle because a close family member of mine passed away at a young age, and it was always something that he wanted to do. I believe it was the right decision for me and I don't regret it at all. That being said, there are people I know who are roughly the same age as me who have gotten tattoos that i'm sure they'll regret later on. I'm just putting my two cents in, but I guess what i'm trying to say is that while in general I don't believe that minors should be allowed to get tattoos whenever they choose, it should be decided on a case by case basis and there are other things to consider. (:

My 17-year-old son has wanted a tattoo since he was 13. I have always wanted one. On the day of his 17th birthday, myself, my son and my husband went to a very reputable tattoo shop and had a family tattoo done. I was 46 and my husband 57 - all of us were first timers. We did henna our tattoos first about a month prior to check the design, placement and just how we'd like a tattoo.

It has been a year and we are all planning for our next (and very different) tattoos. I believe in this situation my son was prepared for his tattoo. I can also see how some young adults may not yet truly be ready for this very permanent art.

Most important to me with my son's circumstance was to be sure he wanted the design; understood the permanency and that he did NOT go to an "under the table" shop.

don't think most people 18 really know what they want. A tattoo is a lifetime commitment