Midget_Angel writes, “I’m ten years old and this is the first tattoo I’ve done!” She’s apprenticing right now at Marked For Life Tattooz in Geary, New Brunswick, Canada (see also: six year old tattoo artist, which links to several other entries on children learning to tattoo under their parents’ guidance).
Comments
75 responses to “Starting Young”
i so hope that’s her father she’s tattooing on!
I think that this is very awesome. I understand why children should wait on getting tattoos because at a younger age they are not sure what they want on their bodies forever (although they could get covered up by others later…) There are just some kids who are amazing artists in all kinds of mediums and if a child is an excellent illustrator and wants to tattoo by all means get them started!!!
haha, only in NB
If she’s talented, and this is what she wants, then why not? You hear: “Better to start sooner than later” from time to time, and this is a perfect example of just that i think.
I think it’s fantastic that she’s learning a trade at such an early age, and if she gets serious about it theres no reason why she couldn’t become an incredible artist. Go Midget!
Cool!
HHAHHA this is great, really made me smile.Great little tat too
This is pretty cool. I hope she sticks with it! With that amoung of time and experience under her belt she could accomplish a lot.
Thats good for her age! Man I wouldnt of been able to do that so nicely
The best part is that the tattoo is actually pretty good!
I’ve seen much worse work done by adult artists!
sweeeet. things like this make me proud to be canadian.
i like hairy cocks…especially toddys cause he has a big ahiry ball sack tht has nice swaet drips cu min off it…ill lick em..yeah abgy YEAh
Hahaha of course it’s in Geary, NB. Where the hell else?
That’s so awesome.
That makes me happy. Ordinarily, in Western societies children aren’t allowed to DO anything – they can’t learn from their mistakes as they’re not allowed to make them. Here we have a 10 year old learning a real trade – it’s fantastic!
I don’t mean “send all the kids up chimneys” or anything! It’s just nice to see a parent willing to teach something that’s not in the increasingly useless education curriculum.
In fact, I think this should be in the curriculum. 10-year-old kids are treated like they’re all the same, with the same skills and interests, in school. I was one of those weird child prodigies academically, and had to sit through thousands of hours of irrelevant, boring schooling (imagine having to recite the alphabet when you’ve read most of Dickens!)
This girl will probably become a renowned tattooist. I look forward to coming to her for work when I’m rich! 😀
Because a 10 year old knows that they want to be a tattoo artist.
Hey I wanted to be a Rockstar/Moviestar at 10, am I that now? Some may state otherwise but no I am not.
I do TRULY hope this girl is working on her father, and NOBODY else. Because from what I’m looking at in the pic, that whole scenerio is unsafe.
Personally I think its hypocrtical for us to say its not alright for parents to force ear piercings via piercing guns at an early age, and yet its alright for a parent to force their modification views upon a child.
The fence swings both ways people…We need to remember that.
And for those who may not see the unsafe situations:
1) Working off of a wooden table, no drape sheets/dental bibs,etc.
2) Those might be vinyl gloves, that or if not they are just latex gloves far too big for her hands.
3) No Machine Bag
4) No Clip Cord Sleeve
5) Used Paper towel on wooden table.
Its great to see someone so young knowing what career that want already.
AND.. i like how the unsleeved clip cord is resting on her arm. Sexy.
quite impressive for a kid.
as for all the unsafe stuff, it looks to me like she is doing it at home.
if she’s doing it at home thats about a thousand times more disgusting.
Lindsay: Thanks for catchin the clipcord on the arm part, good catch 😀
#18: ÈMþRꧧ how do we KNOW for sure that this kid WANTS to be a tattoo artist?
And as I said you show me a majority of 10 year olds who are clear cut in what they want to be….Hell most 20 year olds still don’t know what they want to do with their lives.
I say what we’re seeing here is more or less a child interested in the fact that daddy likes getting drawn on, and drawing on people for a living…So niavely she asks to do it, as most children ask…But instead of saying: “Work on drawing now and when you’re older I’ll teach you” the parent simply set the machine up and said: “Go to town”
Don’t get me wrong its a nice way to bond with your kid…But again just like how we say its wrong for children to get their ears pierced via a piercing gun…the same can be said for this.
That’s ADORABLE!! I wish my parents were tattoo artists!
that’s extremely cute
I think potential contamination is an issue here too. I mean, what if accidentaly she gets contaminated with her “customer” blood? i wouldnt risk even my kid to tattoo me unless im not pretty sure she knows what shes doing.
Still, the picture is wicked.
Modification views? The parent isn’t forcing the kid to GET tattooed… the only view they’re forcing is that it’s OK to accept others’ harmless choices.
I live in a country that’s A LOT too tolerant of intolerance, paradoxically…
Haha does anyone else love the Roll up the Rim cup from Tim Hortans in the back table? Ohhh Canada…
Personally, I think that if at 10 she loves the idea of learning how to tattoo, it’s wonderful that she’s in an environment where that is acceptable. When you were little your mom let you tromp around in the backyard with a hose dressed as a fireman, right? (If she didn’t, man that sucks for you.) I don’t see how this is any different from a parent encouraging the dream of a young child. I doubt the parent is forcing anything upon her. This way she will understand a culture that is quickly becoming more and more relevant to the modern world, and won’t grow up to hold the same prejudice that permeates western world society.
This is wonderful.
i see a tim horton’s coffee cup!
aw, i wish i could start learning to tattoo.
i love how the gloves are like 3 times too big
She does a better job than Cere!!
That’s awesome 🙂
She did a really good job for that being her first.
This kind of makes me sick to my stomach. i doubt a ten year old understands bloodborne pathogens, cross contamination, and the health risks involved in tattooing. Plus if her parents are letting her do this out of her home, i doubt there is no health form being filled out to make sure the “client” has anything (hopefully they aren’t letting her tattoo the public). I’m just hoping the girl doesn’t get a case of the HIV
the parent simply set the machine up and said: “Go to town”
I doubt it was a “simple” decision to let her get going. Let’s give this family the benefit of the doubt people. The gloves really aren’t THAT big at all, if you look at her left hand she’s holding paper towel not extra length to her gloves, I doubt the client has anything that her parents are willing to expose their daughter too and her understanding of blood borne pathogens is probably enough to know that diseases are transmitted that way. Instead of hating on the environment why not sit back and think about how cool it is that she’s only ten and able to do a tattoo of decent quality. I’m pretty damn sure tattoos are being done with less sanitization.
Oh my god!! your my neighbour!!! :O
mod blog is my home page, and when I started reading this it was just…. wow. I get excited when I see anyone from atlantic Canada, never mind the person living across the street!
Ignoring the GLARING cross contamination issues…
I absolutely love the idea of apprenticing our children…at least until puberty when they most likely will decide to rebel for a few years.
If it were legal for me to do so I’d apprentice my daughter if she showed any interest at all. And I will provide her with all the knowledge she wants to have…we’ll see.
I think it’s important to allow children to do what their parents do because that’s what children WANT to do. Our culture is so bent on controlling children rather than letting children explore and copy and imitate us.
I only hope this particular young girl doesn’t suffer for her parents lack of knowledge.
I don’t think you should be tattooing until you can actually draw decently. Sure you could apprentice a kid this young, but she should be drawing her butt off instead of holding a machine.
Of course I could be wrong, she could be some sort of prodigy with a fanatstic paper profolio.
I don’t think you should be tattooing until you can actually draw decently. Sure you could apprentice a kid this young, but she should be drawing her butt off instead of holding a machine.
Of course I could be wrong, she could be some sort of prodigy with a fantastic paper profolio.
From the looks of the tattoo, she’s able to control the machine well enough to do some linework that actually looks pretty damn good. I really doubt there’s any reason to question her artistic ability.
I understand she’s working on her father at home in this picture, but I hope that at the shop she is apprenticing at is teaching her all the proper ways to tattoo safely that she is not showing in this picture. Other than that I think this is awesome.
She reminds me of the Jewish “verklempt” woman that Mike Myers used to play on Saturday Night Live.
Marked for Life Tattooz is run out of Jason’s house…
This is her first tattoo: if she is apprenticing, I’m going to guess it’s probably on repeat customers who think it’s cool and people who know that a 10-year-old is behind the needle. Nobody is getting suckered into it, I’m sure. Also, she obviously has good control with that thing – even if her drawing skills are not yet at professional quality, she can do simple, traced designs (which is all some people want, after all). I would hope that ANY studio and ANY parents would help educate her about potential health hazards, and if the studio is not keeping those things in check, they should get a little visit from the health board.
*shrugs* I interned at a vet clinic when I was 12, because I thought I might want to do that for a living. Turns out I changed my mind later on. There is nothing wrong with taking the opportunities that we can, especially when it comes to deciding who and what we want to be.
i think it’s cute. asides from cross contam. issues.
more credit needs to be given to young people. they have the ability to understand cross contamination. and draw. and think. and learn.
Why was my first comment not approved?
Marked for life tattooz is run out of a house, it’s Jason Mccaw that does the tattoos. He did my back, and thats his little girl. I can go get you a picture of the sign in front of his house if you don’t belive me.
Here’s a concept to consider.
So a kid wants to be a doctor/surgeon, there are a few options:
1) Allow them the free ability to point them in the direction of all the theory/educational MATERIALS/BOOKS/EDUCATION and go through the appropriate channels.
2) Find them animal/human corpses to work on and experiment with as well as all the tools required to disect said things
3) Allow them to locate a sweet/hot lookin nurse to “examine” behind closed doors.
What? C’mon people don’t tell me I was the ONLY one who was involved in doing #3! lol
But still I’d, personally/ethically, as a father would consider the Option 1 scenerio before any of the others…
She draws better than I do.
It amazes me how fast ModBloggers can jump to conclusions. She’s 10. There’s no way to know how much or how little she’s drawing. Kids like to doodle and draw and color, I would guess it’s pretty unlikely she asked her father out of the blue “Daddy, can I tattoo someone?” without having been interested in art and practising for a while. Possible but not likely. I also find it very unlikely that in response to “Daddy can I tattoo someone?” any parent would shrug and let her have at it. To result in a tattoo like that one, she probably had a fairly thorough lesson in how to use a tattoo machine. Nowhere does it say that she was apprenticing at a tattoo studio WHEN this tattoo was done. Think about how much first aid is applied to your child or yourself in the home. Of course there are cross contamination issues, but when need be, the home is a suitable place for such things. Even if one of her parents is a tattoo artist, most people can’t bring their 10 year old into their shop and let her work on a customer. It’s much more likely that in this situation, a ten year girl loves to draw, especially on people. After showing enough interest, it would appear as though perhaps her dad consented to giving her a shot as tattooing, probably on him, probably at home, probably as a test of her interest and ability. Learning a trade doesn’t mean you are locked into a career, and I don’t think her life dreams are relevant here. Perhaps as a result of a home-supervised trial, she’s helping around this shop. Most apprentices start by doing all sorts of things other than tattooing. Why should this one be different? She probably watches a lot, does chores like taking out trash, and maybe once in a while gets to “doodle” not on customers, but on family friends or shop people who understand the implications. I think if any of that is the case, it’s a good lesson in work ethic and pursuing what you love. But we have no ground from which to say what she’s being taught and what she’s not from one picture that basically shows one happy 10 year old girl. You can’t see the whole set up, it doesn’t convey who she’s working on or in what set-up. It’s just a picture.
Going to a public school is MUCH more dangerous than anything this child is doing with her tattoo-work.
A child living in an average neighborhood with the average number of (un)registered child-molesters sharing her world is MUCH more dangerous as well.
So would home-schooling your child in an isolated area be the only way to be an ethical parent?
Some parents choose to take their children with them to undeveloped countries in mission/charity work.
Unethical? (I guess in theory an HIV infected child in Africa could bite the kid…which is as miniscule in odds of happening as this little girl’s issue with blood and her too-big gloves.)