Debate over 9-year-old girl getting tattooed in southwestern Arizona

YUMA, AZ (AZFamily) — There’s a big debate online about whether a 9-year-old girl should have been allowed to get a tattoo.

That’s what happened at Black Onyx Empire Tattoo in Yuma.

According to a social media post posted by the artist, he tattooed an American flag on the girl who was accompanied by her parents.

A video posted by the artist shows the young girl getting tattooed at the shop.

The Instagram video states that her parents brought the girl to Yuma from out of state.

The girl originally wanted a tattoo of Donald Trump on her neck, but the artist said in the post that he convinced her to get something more patriotic, like an image of an American flag.

A year later, the girl came back for a touch-up of the tattoo.

The video sparked a debate online from people criticizing the tattoo shop.

According to Arizona law, it’s legal to tattoo a child with the parent’s permission.

Ben Shaw with the Alliance of Professional Tattooists said Arizona is one of the least regulated states for tattoo artists, where no license is required to practice.

“It is one of the most frustrating things about our career field and in Arizona where it has no regulations,” he said.

He said just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s ethical.

“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,” said Shaw.

Shaw said in these cases, where it’s legal to tattoo a child in the presence of a parent, it’s really up to the individual tattoo artist to make the call.

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