A shocking new video is making rounds across the internet and has caused quite a stir online. The video shows a young boy, believed to be about 9 or 10 years old, getting a tattoo by a 16-year-old tattoo artist in a home in Bellefontaine, Ohio. At one point the boy pulls away and asks if the tattoo is finished, but he is urged on by the woman whose lap he sits in. Since being published online, the video has caused outrage from the public, who wonder how the child could have been allowed to get something so permanent.
The video showed a young boy sitting on an older woman's lap, who seemed to be encouraging him to be patient while he was getting inked.
According to the video, which was posted on Facebook on Monday, the boy seems to be keeping himself preoccupied while the 16-year-old tattoo artist inks the letter 'S' into his shoulder. He is sitting on the lap of a woman (who was later identified as not being the boy's mother) and tells them about different games he and his friends play at school.
Many have noted that the tattoo artist is not wearing gloves as he gives the boy the tattoo and that they appear to be in a family home — not in a tattoo shop, which is illegal in the state of Ohio.
At some point the boy pulls away and tells the artist "Okay, that's good enough," but the woman steadies him and says "No, he's not done."
"Hey! Look at me. He's not done," she said. And at one point the tattoo artist told the boy that he's "red lining" him, which caused the boy to exclaim, "You're what?!" and pull away.
Concern for the boy online heightened even more so after one viewer noticed what looked like hypodermic needles lying on the dining room table.
The video was posted online by Storm Harrington, who angrily wrote that the boy's mother was "a worthless parent for this," and added that the boy "is not old enough to know what he wants or to make any kind of decision like this." Viewers online reported the video to the Bellefontaine Police Department, which took quick action and investigated the home where the boy was tattooed.
According to Lieutenant Rick Herring, who spoke to Fox 28, when police arrived on the scene the boy seemed to not be in distress and his mother had given her approval for the body art. "The child had actually said he asked for the tattoo," he told reporters.
And although giving a child a tattoo may go against some people's sense of right and wrong, it is not technically illegal in Ohio. Anyone younger than 18 may get a tattoo if they have the parent's consent.
In a separate report made by WKPO, police also discovered that there were no signs of needles or drug use when they made their investigation. Instead, they say that what looked like needles actually might have been two ink pens — which can sometimes be used to draw designs before a more permanent tattoo is done.
The police told Fox 28 that as of now, they aren't sure what crimes have been committed or who to charge for what happened. The investigation is still open, but they will turn the case over to the Logan County Prosecutor.
But in the court of public opinion, it seems like this parent is guilty as charged.
"Everyone in this video should be in trouble. What the hell is wrong with them?" wrote one user on the Facebook post.
"That's so f***ed up," wrote another.
The mother of the woman who is holding the boy even wrote in, clarifying that her daughter is not the boy's mother — the person taking the video is. She "made a bad choice by being involved with it, but she did nothing else wrong," the woman wrote. "But really this child is not abused nor neglected.
"Everyone acts like they have never made a bad choice in life," she added. "All you perfect people need to look in a mirror because I bet none of you would want your bad choices [p]ut out like this."
But someone else shot the mom down, writing that, "Yes bad choices were made" but argued that "she is at just as much fault as anyone in this video; she should have been a voice of reason for this child and stood up for him."
