Legal Status of Tattooing in The United States

Legal Status Of Tattooing In The United States

In the United States, there is no federal law stating a required age to be tattooed. In most states, when a person reaches the age of 18 in the U.S., they are legally considered an adult. Many states require that the person being tattooed is an adult over 18, but some states do allow minors (17 or less) to be tattooed with parental consent.

In all jurisdictions, even those having no law dictating a minimum age, individual tattooists may choose to set age restrictions for their business as a precaution against lawsuits. This is partially based on the legal principle that a minor cannot enter into a legal contract or otherwise render informed consent for a procedure. Most such tattooists will allow a parent or guardian to give written or oral consent in person. The artist may also choose to place additional restrictions based on his or her own moral feelings, such as refusing any clients under a specific age even with parental consent, or limiting the type and/or location of where they are willing to tattoo a minor (such as refusing any work around intimate parts of the body). Artists sometimes claim their personal business restrictions are a matter of law even when it is not true (i.e. tattooing the hands or face is frequently said to be illegal, even though no U.S. state currently has such a ban.), so as to avoid arguments with clients.

Read more about Legal Status Of Tattooing In The United States:  Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Famous quotes containing the words legal status, united states, legal, status, united and/or states:

    In the course of the actual attainment of selfish ends—an attainment conditioned in this way by universality—there is formed a system of complete interdependence, wherein the livelihood, happiness, and legal status of one man is interwoven with the livelihood, happiness, and rights of all. On this system, individual happiness, etc. depend, and only in this connected system are they actualized and secured.
    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

    I thought it altogether proper that I should take a brief furlough from official duties at Washington to mingle with you here to-day as a comrade, because every President of the United States must realize that the strength of the Government, its defence in war, the army that is to muster under its banner when our Nation is assailed, is to be found here in the masses of our people.
    Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)

    Lawyers are necessary in a community. Some of you ... take a different view; but as I am a member of that legal profession, or was at one time, and have only lost standing in it to become a politician, I still retain the pride of the profession. And I still insist that it is the law and the lawyer that make popular government under a written constitution and written statutes possible.
    William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    The censorship method ... is that of handing the job over to some frail and erring mortal man, and making him omnipotent on the assumption that his official status will make him infallible and omniscient.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    United Fruit... United Thieves Company... it’s a monopoly ... if you won’t take their prices they let your limes rot on the wharf; it’s a monopoly. You boys are working for a bunch of thieves, but I know it ain’t your fault.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    I would like to be the first ambassador to the United States from the United States.
    Barbara Mikulski (b. 1936)