Mum Arrested After Her 10-Year-Old Gets His Name Tattooed on His Arm

A New York mum has been arrested after allowing her ten-year-old son to get a 20cm tattoo on his forearm. The tattoo artist was also detained and charged with dealing unlawfully with a child.

Crystal Thomas, 33, faces being charged with endangering the welfare of a child after she allowed her “juvenile child to get a large permanent ink tattoo on his body.”

The boy was alleged to be staying in a motel with his mother and older sibling when he discovered that a man in a neighbouring motel room could give him a tattoo.

In what could only be described as a moment of distraction, Thomas claimed that she thought her son was asking her to get a temporary tattoo. She said that she supports age restrictions, saying that “No little child should get tattooed.”

Police said Thomas allowed her son to go next door and get the tattoo without supervision. “It’s not a professional job,” said Lloyd Police Chief James Janso.

Authorities caught wind of the child’s tattoo after he paid a visit to the school nurse to request Vaseline for the tattoo, The New York Times reported. When the nurse saw the tattoo, which is of the boy’s name in crudely etched block letters on the inside of his forearm, she immediately notified the police.

It has been reported that the unlicensed tattoo artist, 20-year-old Austin Smith, was arrested when pictures of the boy’s tattoo circulated on the news and online. He was charged with dealing unlawfully with a child, a misdemeanour that can carry a prison sentence of up to one year.

“It’s the worst mistake I’ve made in my life,” Smith said. “At the time, I thought if you got your parents’ permission, you could get a tattoo.”

In New York, tattooing anyone under the age of 18, even with parental consent, is against the law.

Thomas’s son and his sibling were taken in by child protective services.

Although she has been released from police custody it is not known whether she has custody of the children again.