Well, they wanted it. That's the reason Jo-Jo Marsh gave for tattooing her own children (one as young as ten years old) with a home-made tattoo gun (with a guitar string as a needle, no less):
"We were making it look like it was a cross," said Jo-Jo Marsh, "so the kids could have something they could say it was."
Jo-Jo Marsh shows Eyewitness News the tattoo on her son's hand. The mark is a cross-like symbol left by a home-made tattoo gun with a guitar string as a needle.
"We didn't even break the skin barely," said Marsh, "they are very tiny, just through a few layers, on the top, they will fade away, that's how minuscule this is."
Marsh and her husband, Jacob Bartels, face child cruelty charges after detectives found the same mark on six of the couple's seven children. One of the children is just 10 years-old. [...]
Marsh defends her actions saying the kids were begging for tattoos like hers.
She told [WRCB TV] multiple times during our interview that she changed the needle each time.
Marsh believes as the children's guardian, she should have the right to tattoo them if she chooses. "Shouldn't I have say so over what goes on in my child's life," said Marsh, "I have custody of my child, I'm not going to hurt my child."
Child abuse or simply a mom with a cutting edge sense of style? http://www.wrcbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11756786
They should not be charged.
This is red neck stupidity at its finest but not child abuse.
I didn't know tattooing your kids was against the law either. Most of us have something called common sense which would dictate it isn't a good idea.
Send them to a parenting class and be done with it.
I'm sure our current 'regime' will just take the kids away, write up a restraining order and throw them in jail for a few months.
If the "tatooers" were actually using real sterile technique, if the tatoos WILL actually fade, and if the kids actually wanted them, than how is that worse than getting you young daughter's ears pierced? They certainly still do that at a much younger age than this. I wonder if every parent that gets their child's ears pierced should be thrown in jail... Try THAT one in court. HA. They should have a professional take an expert look at the whole thing and go with that. News agencies aren't exactly fair and certainly aren't experts.
Anyway, someone needs to introduce these people to henna.
Either way, def not child abuse, just idiots.
I do wonder if there will be a generational shift AWAY from tattooing in the same way there was a generational shift TOWARDS tatooing for those born after the mid seventies early eighties, because the kids see how ridiculous their parents look with tats.
Ear piercing of infants and young children is not performed by reputable, ethical body modification artists.
I wouldn't prosecute, though - I can't see that it'd be in anyone's interests. I would keep an eye on them, though. And suggest that they don't do it again.
There are cultures where piercings are acceptable.
While this may not be *abuse*, I suspect the tattooers aren't the best parents, given the line of reasoning.
And yet, they've propagated their genetics 7 times, (to my wife's and my 1).
Damn, I wish natural selection didn't mean promiscuity was a superior trait to intelligence.
I completely agree with all of you about this being really stupid, but certainly not worthy of pressing charges and removing the children from them.
also, I agree, piercings when done by a mall, or any place where they are using guns, especially reusable guns with earring cartridges should be considered cruelty, I had that done and it was horrible, and my ears are still a bit messed up to this day, but when I got my lips pierced, I barely felt any pain at all.
"Stay with your Xbox!!!!!!!!!!"