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An Arizona tattoo artist is facing “hate comments” and “threats” for tattooing a 9-year-old girl with her parents’ permission.

According to Sosa, the co-owner of the Black Onyx Empire Tattoo, last May a 9-year-old girl entered his Yuma shop with her parents and sister and asked for a neck tattoo of President-elect Donald Trump.

Despite Arizona law permitting children to get tattooed, Sosa tried to “scare” the family away by overcharging them $500 for the otherwise $80 tattoo, but this strategy failed.

Sosa did, however, manage to convince the girl to go with an arm tattoo of the American flag instead of a neck tattoo of Trump, promising the girl that he’d go through with the Trump tattoo if she still wanted it once she turned 10. She agreed, and that was the end of the story.

Fast-forward to late last week, when the girl, now 10 years old, reappeared and asked for a touch-up of her American flag tattoo but also revealed that she’s no longer interested in a Trump tattoo.

Sosa complied with the request and then shared the entire story on Instagram, where it quickly went viral:

In going viral, the story attracted a massive amount of negative attention from those who felt as if he should have never complied with the girl’s requests because of her age, never mind Arizona law.

“Please no,” one commenter wrote, according to the New York Post. “As an artist, be the bigger person and don’t do this to a 9 year old. Then call child services.”

“I’m heavily tattooed and I believe anyone involved in this should be prosecuted and put in jail,” another added.

“You shoulda talked yourself out of even entertaining the thought,” a third complained. “You can’t control the parents but you can control your own actions and should have refused service.”

The third commenter also called Sosa “disgusting” and argued that the tattoo artist should be “ashamed” of himself.

But speaking with the Post, Sosa said he doesn’t regret what he did.

“She was going to get it done regardless,” he noted, adding that he was also afraid another tattoo artist would have eagerly gone with the Trump tattoo. “She said it didn’t matter if I did it or someone else did it, she was going to get it done.”

Plus, he continued, the family deserved to get what they wanted.

“They were from Turkey, and they came as refugees over here,” he said. “So they would really appreciate the opportunity that they got to be in the United States.”

He also drew attention to the cultural factors, noting that the now-10-year-old’s older sister also got tatted when she was nine.

“Would I do it again?” Sosa asked rhetorically. “Probably not. However, I was moved by the story they had. Do I think it’s right? No.”

Sosa for his part believes children should be banned from getting tattoos.

“I’m not tattooing kids every day, that was the first, it’s going to be the last,” he said. “I have three kids — one’s 12, one’s 7, and one’s 4. None of them have tattoos.”

“I don’t think tattoos on kids is the right thing to do. I think laws should be made. I think a ‘Sosa Law’ should be made, because I posted it. There should be an age limit,” he concluded.

The public seems to agree. In fact, even with it being legal in Arizona, many on Twitter/X still expressed a desire to see both Sosa and the girl’s parents jailed. No joke.

Look:

Others meanwhile turned the tables a bit by wondering why some are so worked up over a tattoo on a child but don’t care if a child decides to get their genitals removed.

Look:

Vivek Saxena
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