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 united states, legal, status, united and/or states:

    Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada are the horns, the head, the neck, the shins, and the hoof of the ox, and the United States are the ribs, the sirloin, the kidneys, and the rest of the body.
    William Cobbett (1762–1835)

    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 influx of women into paid work and her increased power raise a woman’s aspirations and hopes for equal treatment at home. Her lower wage and status at work and the threat of divorce reduce what she presses for and actually expects.
    Arlie Hochschild (20th century)

    In the United States all business not transacted over the telephone is accomplished in conjunction with alcohol or food, often under conditions of advanced intoxication. This is a fact of the utmost importance for the visitor of limited funds ... for it means that the most expensive restaurants are, with rare exceptions, the worst.
    John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)

    That Cabot merely landed on the uninhabitable shore of Labrador gave the English no just title to New England, or to the United States generally, any more than to Patagonia.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)