'Heavily Tattooed' Parents Get Visit From CPS After Kids Go To School With Their Own Tattoos

Is it art or is it harmful?

By Alexandra Blogier — Written on Mar 18, 2023

Photo: Kampus Productions and Mizuno K / Pexels

One of the many challenges of parenthood comes when you compare your parenting style to someone else’s. Many parents wonder if they’re raising their kids in the right way, or if they’re causing any harm to their children due to how they’re choosing to parent.

One mom wrote into the "r/Parenting" subreddit to ask if she was "causing detriment" to her 6-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son because of one of their chosen activities and the attention they brought with it.

CPS caseworkers came to their home after her kids went to school with fake tattoos drawn on their arms.

Case workers from the Department of Children and Family Services were called to their home after their students had gone to school with fake tattoos. The mom explained the situation, and the case workers replied that while “they didn't think there was an issue, [they] still had to do an investigation to satisfy the report.”

“Our rule has been [that] they can put any age-appropriate artwork they want on their bodies as long as they aren't doing it when they're supposed to be doing something else,” she wrote.

She made sure to check the school handbook to see if there were any rules against it. She didn’t find any guidelines against faux tattoos, so she told her kids they could wear them to school, as long as the drawings were school appropriate.

While neither the school administrators nor the teachers seemed to have a problem with her kids' drawn-on tattoos, other parents did.

A 2019 poll from Ipsos stated that 30% of Americans have at least one tattoo. As more people get tattoos, the cultural conversation around them has shifted into one of more acceptance.

The mom noted that she and her husband are "quite heavily tattooed," a choice that other parents seemed to have an issue with. “We both have approximately 80% of our bodies covered with them,” she stated.

Another mom complained that because of her kids’ fake tattoos, her own child is now intrigued by tattoos. She reported that the mom was upset with them for “introducing that to their child at an ‘inappropriate age.’”

While the mom has been able to field other parents’ complaints, those complaints escalated when “someone anonymously reported us for allowing a 6 and 9-year-old to get tattoos” and the caseworkers showed up.

The mom asked Reddit if she was doing something wrong by letting her kids draw the 'skin-safe, washable, age-appropriate' tattoos.

The majority of parental responses she received were positive and supportive of her decision to let her kids tattoo themselves.

“I let my kid put standard temporary tattoos on,” noted one parent. “I don’t see how this is any different other than being more creative and requiring much better fine motor skills.”

Someone else stated that the experience is “a great learning opportunity” to “teach them about acceptance and bias.”

“They’re getting older and will have friends who won’t be accepted for their lifestyle choices — it will give your children an advantage to know that adults aren’t always right nor kind.”

“There will always be another parent that thinks ‘you're parenting wrong,’” came another supportive comment from a parent.

She's letting her kids express themselves artistically in a safe way, despite what other parents think.

Kids look up to their parents, and her kids are no different. Her kids have always been “very enamored” with their tattoos. “Whether we meant to or not, I think we just inadvertently taught them that skin is for art,” she explained.

Her tattoos became a focus of how the kids related to her and their dad. She said that her kids “sit and trace [the tattoos], as they got old enough to talk they started picking out ones they liked on us and asking us to draw it on them, which we always did.”