In this article i would like to explain the following: the minimum age of getting a tattoo. The law is: starting at 12 till 16 years old you can get tattooed with parental guidance. Older than 16 years means you can walk in without parents.

Maybe you already saw that we start at the age of 18 with tattoo’s (in some rare cases 16, like in the case a relative passed away). We’ve talked to a lot of parents that came in with their 14 or 15 year old child with the following words: “my son/daughter wants a tattoo and we approve.” Every time i have to disappoint them that we don’t do it. And every time i get the same question, why? And after i explained why, the reaction is always, really?! nobody ever told me that.

Why is it that we don’t do it? for starters, it is the choice of the artist/shop if they want to do it or not.  Not only the age but also racist or hateful tattoo’s. Second, and this is the most important part. Your skin is developing your entire life, but the time that your skin is most busy is when you’re about 17/18 years. After this your skin is still developing but in a different way. There is a high chance that the tattoo will not stay nice or fade out. This is because your skin is still stretching and growing. So it is not only a waste of your skin and tattoo but also your money. Fixing the tattoo is usually not an option when you’re older because it usually becomes a big black spot.

We are one of the oldest shops in Europe (and the oldest in the Netherlands). We achieved this by choose quality before quantity. We only want to deliver the best tattoo’s and thats why we only do the tattoo if we are sure it’s going to turn out good.

I hope this article helps a lot of parents (or young readers!) to think about this.

-Mitchell Looijer

http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/bescherming-van-consumenten/vraag-en-antwoord/welke-regels-gelden-er-bij-het-laten-zetten-van-een-piercing-of-tatoeage.html

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