Turning 18: Think Carefully About Your First Tattoo!

Star Tribune writer Kevyn Burger recently interviewed us at Northeast Tattoo and Laser Tattoo Removal regarding the impact of the 2010 Minnesota state law prohibiting tattooing before someone’s 18th birthday. Does forbidding an act encourage kids to go underground to get their tattoos prior to age 18? Does it result in a rush to tattoo shops upon reaching their 18th birthday? These questions are not fully answered in this article, but what we do know is that tattoos selected by a teenager often don’t stand the test of time. We perform many tattoo removal sessions on young people who didn’t think through the consequences of getting a tattoo.

Northeast Laser Tattoo Removal’s lead technician, was quoted in the article regarding the poor choices for first tattoos:

“A lot of times it’s a childhood nickname or a first love, something juvenile or dated,” he said. “I take off a lot of band logos or imagery from music they don’t listen to anymore.”

Unfortunately, some kids don’t want to wait until their eighteenth birthday to get a tattoo and they end up seeking underground tattoo “artists” who not only lack the talent to provide a good tattoo, but also put the health of our kids at risk by not complying with well-established safeguards and sterile practices exercised in professional tattoo studios:

“It’s an unfortunate consequence of a very good law,” he said. “We’ve seen a huge, huge, huge jump in underage people coming in with just awful work.”

We were honored to have been interviewed by the Star Tribune for our opinion regarding these issues.

Read Star Tribune writer Kevyn Burger’s full story entitled Eighteen and Inked

This young woman claims she “fell asleep” and a rogue tattoo artist covered her with unwanted stars.  Most people find the story hard to believe and think she made up the story after realizing she had made a terrible decision.