A tattoo artist in Arizona has sparked a debate after posting about tattooing a 9-year-old girl.
The online discussion began after the tattooist, who goes by the name Sosa and is part owner of the Black Onyx Empire Tattoo, recapped the experience in an Instagram post on Tuesday, Jan 7.
In the description, he explains that he tattooed the child with an American flag on her arm last year when she was 9 years old after initially wanting to get a Donald Trump tattoo on her neck.
“Told her in a year if she still wanted the trump then to get it but to think on it,” he wrote, noting that he tried to “scare” the girl away by giving her family a different price for the tattoo.
Sosa said that while it is legal for minors to get a tattoo if the minor’s parent or guardian is physically present in Arizona, he made sure the process was “not forced” and something she “loved.”
The girl, now 10 years old, visited the shop recently, but Sosa said she “changed her mind” about the Trump portrait and asked for a touch-up instead, and included a photo from the experience in his post.
Backlash from the procedure has caused him to disable the comments on the Instagram post.
“I’m getting a lot of hate from it,” Sosa told AZFamily. “My employees are getting hate from it. My business, I’m getting so many bad reviews on Google.”
The tattoo shop is also receiving backlash on its Facebook page.
Sosa, however, stands by his decision as he told AZFamily and Fox 10 Phoenix that the girl and her family are from Turkey, and he wanted to respect where they come from and their beliefs.
“They were just very grateful to be here in the United States. They were just being grateful. They said they saw Donald Trump as a hero,” Sosa told AZFamily.
He told the outlet that his cut-off age for tattooing is normally 15, with parental consent, he is glad to have made the exception for the young girl.
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“I don’t tattoo my kids. I’m not promoting kids to come and get tattoos,” he said. Sosa also told Fox 10 Phoenix that he does believe “there should be laws and regulations of limiting the ages in order to do these procedures.”
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