We at BME publish a lot of content that people don’t always agree with—we’re fine with that. Body modification, constantly increasing acceptance notwithstanding, can still be a bit of a touchy subject. Now, BME sometimes finds itself in a predicament, being that we want to promote body modification and see it flourish (and therefore showcase the best the community has to offer), but we are also an archive, and that role sees us documenting content that can cast body modification in an unfavorable light in the public sphere. Such is the duality of a Web site that seeks, simultaneously, to be the voice of a community as well a news outlet covering it.
So, when we got this picture, it gave us the cold sweats. What was more important? Should we keep a lid on it because of the negative light in which it could surely cast tattooing, or should we publish it because that’s what we’ve made a commitment to do? In the end, we decided to run it, albeit with any distinguishing features obscured, as you can see above. Hopefully, if nothing else, it’ll spark some intelligent discussion and we won’t be proven foolish for posting it.
Says the artist:
Okay okay we know people will probably FREAK about this but you have to accept you don’t know all the details!.. The boy grows up around tattoos, he loves them, always loved them, always wants his own – hey I know what that’s like! I did a small one his leg and he took it pretty good, strong kid, so what the hell? Made sure he got a good long sleep and had a big breakfast, and had a big bottle of warm milk to relax him before laying down for the tattoo (and some during too). He’s a champ!!! It’s something to grow up with and remember, and if dont “approve” then that’s your problem I guess.
… discuss.
Comments
109 responses to “How Young is Too Young For Tattoos?”
i was all ready to go mad, then realised what day it was!
i was like :0 but then a lol’ed
Shat a brick… realized it was april fools day…. wow….. does look fake now that the shok is over.
hahaha, oh man. that is a good good prank. i skimmed by it this morning and thought, whoa there are ganna be some seriously pissed of people.
god damn you April Fools.
🙂
imagine if this was real! I nearly shit.
I WAS going to say, Hes going to be fucked when hes older. Its going to cover half his body. Till i realized it was april fools day.
Jeez this is weak, is that the best you could do Jordan considering the phenomenal “April Fools” posts your predecessor did? Step it up a bit next year pal. I can’t believe that any of you were fooled by this.
I call shenanigans.
Definitely a ‘shop. The pixels on the artist’s face are ALL wrong… Tattoo on the-
HOLY SHIT THAT’S A BABY!!!!
What are you people doing to children here? I can’t wait to tell my pastor about this- he always loves talking about how tattoos are destroying the world’s population, and now here you people go putting tattoos on small, innocent children that cannot make coherent decisions for themselves!!!
You are all sick, sick people. I look forward to seeing you all burn in Hell for eternity for this abomination.
hahah it’s my bday today…you can’t fool me.
i like how the baby was checkin it out..hahaha good one
goddamn fell for it.
😀 you totally got me… damn… i am ashamed…
Well, I fell for that.
Dammit.
I fell for it too till I saw the comments! I didn’t really look at the picture just read the discription for the deets! LOL
Very good!
It’s my parents 38th wedding anniversary today!
Next time photoshop a photo of an actual tattooed child (there are a few from the early 1900′s – tattooed families that appeared with circuses) to make it look modern and really fool / piss off people.
I saw this on another site a week ago… :/
lmaoooo ja you got me too. i was like “wow i wonder what the comments for this post will be like”
hahaha WOW sure got me, i was horrified until i opened the comments
Sorry, but (1) not enough redness/swelling/ink smears (which would be present with a REAL ‘in progress’ tattoo) to be realistic, and (2) for a child that age to be THAT relaxed during a tattoo (these things hurt a bit, y’know?) would be pretty damn near impossible. If I was getting MY chest tattooed, I’d be tied up in knots and begging for mercy, not lying there all calm and happy.
LOL definitely april fools. Did anyone really believe that?
Oh yeah I sooo fell for it. I actually sat here and my heart started pounding, I was PRAYING it wasn’t real. I knew something was fishy though by the kids face. I mean, tattoos don’t tickle. I wouldn’t KNOW, but so I’ve heard :]
People are saying they weren’t fooled by this picture at all, i’m suprised and I guess gullible and stupid, because I feel for this until I read the comments, and I still think it looks real haha.
Let’s talk about how long it took me to remember that today is April 1st.
go me.
Last night, I happened to remember a few of the April Fool’s jokes I’ve seen here in previous years, and thought, “Not gonna get me this time. I remember what date it is!”
…lo and behold, by the time today rolled around, I’d forgotten about the date completely.
Totally got me. :/
OMG that poor kid has no left nipple!
i loved it..
Damn, I knew it was an obvious shoop before I remembered what day it was. 😉
A big bottle of warm milk to relax him!! XD
haha, I expected it after last year!
nice try 😛
I honestly believed this until I saw the comments, although in hindsight, his nipple is quite out of place.
So I went through a few change overs
First I was like thats not real, its too bright
Then I read it and thought wow maybe
Then I was trying to make sense that a child that old could talk, because I would have been a little ok if the kid had really asked for it, but I’ve worked with kids my whole life and that baby looks too young to talk
Then I saw the comments and remembered it had been april 1st
yall got me, well done
So harhar?
where’s Shannon again?
This looks shooped.
lulz. If I were a little kid getting a tattoo, I’d get something more little kid-ish. Like, a cartoon character or a super hero I thought was the shit.
I can’t belive anyone would fall of that, its terrible!
I’m sorry but if you couldn’t keep up to the standards set by Shanon then maybe you shouldn’t have bothered at all.
Its was obvious from the pic that it was photoshopped, so before even reading the text anyone with common sense knows its fake.
The amount of time and effort Shanon used to put into the April fools pranks to make them believable has almost been
haha nice :] can someone please post last years april fools?
nicely done
I’m slightly amazed that this image was published, and that the response has been so timid. This site is public and anyone can see this – including the police in the UK who love prosecuting anyone who has anything to do with abusing children. The law here does not distinguish between real images and created images that portray that sort of stuff, nor does it cease to be applied outside UK borders. I think it would take a jury of UK citizens less than 5 minutes to decide that publication of this image constitutes a criminal offence here. Personally I’m sad at what has happened to this media outlet. It is indeed the role of the news media to try to clarify the boundaries by pushing on them all the time. But basic journalistic competence requires a basic understanding of the difference between pushing the boundaries and knowing what is definitely on the other side of them and not part of the debate. The April 1st thing is no excuse. The world is not flat, and just because it is pre-midday on April Fools where the modblog editor might happen to be, it almost certainly isn’t everywhere else.
If this signals the tone of the new BME, then my hope is that it also signals the beginning of its end.
I had some rage built up in me! I left the site to do other things, my friend and I started getting in a discussion over it. Analyzing every detail. Then finally after thinking and talking about it for about an hour, I realized it was April 1st.
Rage.
lol.
Shannon was better at Photoshop. :p
Good one anyway…. not that my comment will make it through ‘moderation’.
Not funny…
sorry, but april fools or not, this is just sick….
good try, though, I guess…
I bet a bunch of BMEers were ready to grab their kids for the new trend.
My favorite April 1st post was the people with alien faces. that had me going for quite some time
This image was posted on the site last week when they uploaded photos….. Nothing will ever compare to Love at First Bite, so don’t even try.
jesus christ, i fall for these every year!
I luld 🙂
Yeah, thanks to all the people who had to piss on the parade and ruin the fun.
We all get that it was a hoax, no need to rub noses in it.
Fuck you guys, I did not recognize it for the april 1st joke and I was believing it.
You wasted my dream.
…this is worse than kim kardashians “OMG I got a tattoo” april fools joke….lame sauce!
and it’s a shop – I can tell from the pixels and having seen a lot of shops in my time. lol.