Branded For Life..and death
Nearly every morning after I get everyone off to work and school I take my morning coffee into my little office/work room, sit at my computer, and turn on my local talk radio channel. It is a great way to start the brain turning in an effort to tackle the day, or in some cases get the blood flowing to the point that you want to grab someone by the shoulders and shake them really hard. That was the way I started my day today...
I should qualify my following comments by stating that I don't not label myself a conservative person or a liberal either. I believe what I believe and hold on to the values that I have and rarely do I ever try and force them onto anyone else. In other words, I make a concerted effort not to judge others least I be judged, but there are some things that I hear or read that enrage me to no end, especially stories about ill done to children and the stupidity of some people who become "parents". There are times when I hear about things that go on in this country when I begin to think that perhaps before you can conceive a child you should be able to pass a common sense test, if the test results states "it's a wonder you have lived this long", then perhaps you should rethink this whole procreating thing. The reason for my tirade is simple. On the radio this morning there was a story about a woman from the Atlanta area of Georgia who was arrested because she took her 10 year old son to get a tattoo to memorialize her 12 year old son, his brother who was murdered. The mother was upset about being arrested because she said her son wanted the tattoo and after all its her kid so she should be able to do what she wanted to with him (I am quoting what she said in an interview, I swear). When he was asked why he wanted it he said so he could remember his brother.
I am not against tattoo's. Before it was cool, in, the quasi-norm that it is today my mother had a small tattoo of her initials above one of her knees. When I asked her about it she told me that, like many things she did before she married my father, she was "young and stupid" when she had it done. I thought it was cool, but she would go through great pains to hide it, placing a small band-aid over it even when she wore hose, so that people would think she had had a leg shaving accident. Many members of my family have tattoos, but I have never gotten one, even though there have been several times in my life that I have wanted to get one. It's not that I am afraid of getting one, it's just that I probably have just enough medical knowledge to remind me of the dangers and a general mistrust of mankind to allow anyone to permanently draw something on my body even in a discrete location in case of spelling errors or lack of artistic skill. I know that there are the majority of people that don't think the way that I do, however there are laws in place for a reason here in the good old USA. In the state of Georgia, you can not get a tattoo until the age of 18. Simple, and I will say that the radio host playing devils advocate asked his listeners if this was a case of too much government in people's business, and many on the station's Facebook page said yes. But there are occasions such as this, where the laws are in place to prevent illness or even death. Every year 10,000 people in America die from a disease called Hepatitis C. This is a blood born disease, the Center for Disease Control is tracking the fact that the leading cause of this epidemic in this country right now is from people getting tattoos at shops that do not take proper precautions to prevent it. You are twice as likely to get Hep C or it's relative Hep B from getting inked than a IV injecting drug user says the CDC's report. Other not so fun diseases they are tracking from the ink shops are AIDS, Tetanus, Tuberculosis, and MRSA also know as the flesh eating bacterial disease to name a few. MY question is what kind of parent would willing take the chance that his/her child could contract one of these life threatening illnesses in the first place? Is it not the job of a parent to at least attempt to prevent harm coming to their offspring? To me this is like handing them a gun allowing them to play Russian Roulette.
My child has come to me with some wacky requests in her nearly 16 years of life. When she was 10, the same age as the boy who got this tattoo, she wanted a pet tiger cub (don't laugh, in my family it is actually possible) and when asked where we would keep it because we had at that time 4 dogs and 2 cats she said it would live in her room. Besides the fact that like the dogs, cats, subsequent fish and gerbils I would be the one that would end up taking care of the tiger cub, but tigers are a dangerous thing. I would never put her life and limb in such danger even if she cried herself to sleep nightly for wanting one, it wasn't happening. She has also asked as she has seen her sisters and cousins getting tattoos when she may get one as well. We've pointed out the diseases that she could get, we've explained that like all the rest of the pop culture "fads" that have come and gone (belly button piercing for one) that this too shall pass and one day in the future all these tattooed people may find it difficult to get employment, and finally we told her that when you turn 18, don't live in our house and can pay for it your self, if you still want a tattoo, go for it, in hopes that the knowledge we have shared will probably take that long to reach her brain because there is a back up of hormones right now slowing the knowledge flow. By the way, she now understands that tiger cubs belong on game preserves and not bedrooms. But that just goes to show that what we want at 10 changes at 16, 18, and 48.
As to the woman's statement that it was her kid and she should be able to do whatever she wanted to with him I say, in the old days children where considered property, which led to children working and expiring in sweat shops, children are not property to do with what you want, they are people who must follow the laws as well as are protected by laws. You, madam have failed the common sense test, it is a wonder you have survived this long yourself. It is a shame that she may very well loose another child, this time not to death but her own ignorance because it is obvious to me that she either thought it would be cool if her son was walking around with a memorial to the one she lost or she lacked the parenting skills to say no come back when you are 18 and ask. May the Georgia judicial system be swift.
Until Next Time..ME
