At the end of last year, Xiao Miaomiao from Foshan, Guangdong Province, became a "flower-legged" girl - it was her 16th birthday, and friends said that she had grown up at the age of 16 and should do a cool thing on her birthday to commemorate it, and then encouraged her to get a tattoo.
She distinctly remembers that the tattoo shop was hidden in a small local alley, with glowing LED signs hanging in front of the shop that read tattoos and laser washing tattoos. Push the door in, and the walls are full of large areas of human tattoos**.
The store didn't ask me for my age and didn't ask for ID. When I heard that I wanted a tattoo, I took out a stack of tattoo patterns to choose from. Xiao Miaomiao recalled that those patterns were all large-area patterns, and there were also colored ones. She chose a Japanese singer's pattern, and a few hours later, the pattern "made a home" on her calf, and the color is still bright.
In fact, tattoo parlors are not allowed to tattoo minors. In June 2022, the Office of the Leading Group for the Protection of Minors issued the Measures for the Management of Tattoos for Minors (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures"), which clearly stipulates that no enterprise, organization or individual shall provide tattoo services to minors, and shall not coerce, entice, or instigate minors to get tattoos. Professional tattoo establishments, as well as medical and health establishments (including medical cosmetology establishments), beauty salons, and social organizations that provide tattoo services, shall indicate in a conspicuous position that they do not provide tattoo services to minors, and where it is difficult to determine whether they are minors, they shall be required to present their identification documents.
However, a recent investigation by a reporter from the "Rule of Law" found that people like Xiao Miaomiao are not alone, and these minors still received tattoo services in tattoo shops after the "Measures" were introduced. During the visit, although some tattoo shops posted signs in prominent places with the slogan "Do not provide tattoo services for minors", they did not actually check the identity and age of customers, and some tattoo artists even bluntly said that "age is not a problem".
Tattoo parlors accept minors, and some people regret it before they finish it.
Not long after the tattoo, Xiao Miaomiao regretted it. In life, friends often joke about her tattoos, and she posted tattoos to the "circle of friends", and some people left messages jokingly calling her "bad girl" and "female hooligan". This summer, she wore a skirt to the streets, and passers-by cast strange glances;I went to eat at a food stall at night and was accosted by some unfriendly people.
I later learned that tattoo parlors are not allowed to provide tattoo services to minors. When we got tattooed that day, we were all students, but the store didn't care about our age. Xiao Miaomiao told reporters that she couldn't resist the gossip later, and she went to the tattoo shop to ask if she could wash off the tattoo, "At this time, the door of the store was posted with the slogan 'Do not provide tattoo services to minors', but when the underage friend who was traveling with me proposed that he also wanted to get a tattoo, the store immediately began to recommend various tattoo patterns."
This tattoo shop is really irresponsible!Xiao Miaomiao said.
Li Nan from Tianjin and Xiao Miaomiao have similar experiences. A few days ago, in a café, the reporter met Li Nan, who had a slightly immature face, and the 17-year-old showed the reporter his tattoo in August last year - a dragon with a majestic posture over the shoulder.
Li Nan said that he was hiding his tattoo from his family. On his 16th birthday last year, he passed by a tattoo shop on his way home from school, and on a whim, he pushed the door and entered the store and said "come to the shop" directly. "A discerning person saw that I was a student, not to mention that I was still carrying a schoolbag at the time, but the owner of the tattoo shop did not refuse to give me a tattoo. ”
Before the article was finished, Li Nan regretted it: What should I do when I go home?Something even worse happened, and the day after returning home, the location of Li Nan's tattoo was infected. "I couldn't take a shower during this time of infection, and I didn't dare to let my parents know, I really regretted it, it was too stupid for me to get a tattoo at this age. ”
The reporter interviewed and found that most of the tattoo shops that provide tattoo services to minors are located in remote places in the alleys, and to this day, some tattoo shops still do not take the initiative to ask for age and other information when they encounter people who look like minors consult tattoo services.
In the past few days, the reporter followed Xiao Liu, a 15-year-old high school student, to visit 10 tattoo shops hidden in small alleys in Beijing and Tianjin. As a result, none of the tattoo shops took the initiative to ask Xiao Liu's age. When the reporter asked if minors could get tattoos, most of the tattoo shop owners did not give a clear answer, and even showed impatience. A shopkeeper in Beijing said: "Tattoos are a thing that can be written if you want to, and age is not important." ”
The reporter also consulted more than a dozen tattoo shops through the online platform**, and the reply given by the other party was that it was impossible to provide tattoo services for minors, but did not mention how to verify identity information after arriving at the store. Many stores have a message saying "Minors are not allowed to purchase tattoo services", but users can choose to turn off the reminder.
The owner of a tattoo shop in Beijing told reporters: "Whether to refuse to tattoo minors is based on the professional ethics of the shopkeeper." Some tattoo shops ostensibly refuse to provide tattoo services for minors, but in fact, they turn a blind eye and pretend that the other party is not a minor without asking their age, and they can be fooled by the other party by lying about their age. Some tattoo shops do not use means such as checking ID cards, as long as customers do not shout loudly that they are minors, they can provide tattoo services with peace of mind, which is actually 'taking advantage of loopholes', which is very immoral. ”
Tattoos for minors are harmful and may affect their future career choices.
Mr. Li, a tattoo artist from Tianjin, said bluntly: "As a tattoo artist, not giving tattoos to minors is the most basic professional ethics, and there is no room for discussion. Put yourself in your shoes, if it were your child, would you be willing to have a tattoo shop provide him with tattoo services?”
Mr. Li said that now on some short ** platforms, you can often brush tattoos about "big flower arms", "left-handed tiger and right-hand dragon" and "full back flowers", some are tattoo shops for publicity, and some tattoo masters are to attract traffic, and some of them will be labeled as "tattoo beauty", "tattoo girl" and "flower leg girl", which is very large-scale and will have bad guidance for minors.
It is worth noting that most of these ** are not marked with the sign of 'not providing tattoo services to minors', which may bury the hidden danger of trying tattoos for minors who use social **. Mr. Li said worriedly.
Following Mr. Lai's prompts, the reporter found these on multiple online platforms. For example, among the plurality**, a lady with a fancy pattern on her entire arm poses in a variety of ** and bewitching poses in front of the camera, and there are many comments such as "so cool" and "I really want to write one" in the comment area below.
The Measures stipulate that books, newspapers and periodicals, films, radio and television programs, stage art works, audio-visual products, electronic publications or online information published, published or disseminated by any enterprise, organization or individual shall not contain content that induces minors to get tattoos.
In the interview, the reporter found that minors have various reasons for tattooing, some regard tattooing as a very "cool" behavior, some want to express their growth and mood through tattooing, and some are attracted by the Chinese image of film and television dramas.
The owner of a tattoo shop in Beijing told reporters: "There is a child who impresses me deeply, at first glance he is a minor, the child said that his mother died, and he wanted to tattoo his mother's name on himself as a way to commemorate his mother, but even in this case, we can't give him a tattoo." I explained the rules to him and told him that his mother would not approve of his tattoo at a young age. ”
Most of the minors who come to our store to consult tattoo services are for fun, want to express the friendship between friends, or want to tattoo the name of their idol or love object on their body. The owner of the tattoo shop told reporters that he refused them all.
A number of tattoo shop owners said that tattoos for minors have multiple harms.
During the interview, many minors with tattoos expressed regret that tattoos had caused them a lot of inconvenience, and they were subjected to a lot of strange eyes and even ridicule. There are also interviewees who were minors at the time of tattooing, and now adults said that their employment was frustrated because of tattooing in a naked position, and it was almost impossible to completely remove tattoos.
Previously, it was reported that a 14-year-old girl wrote a "flower arm", and her mother was heartbroken and cried that "300 yuan ruined her daughter's future".
In the view of Jiang Xiaoxian, an associate professor at the Law School of Xiamen University, tattooing is a personalized expression symbol and way, but it will cause damage to the human body and even cause many diseases, so it itself needs to be regulated. In China's social culture, tattoos are mostly related to the image of illegal crimes, deviance, etc., and are often given negative evaluations. This kind of negative evaluation can cause minors to internalize the negative labels that tattoos may represent, such as "Crazy Boys", as an identity with themselves. Under the influence of this identity, minors are often more likely to have related negative behaviors.
It can be seen that tattoos will seriously affect the socialization of minors, and even change their future career development, limiting their choices of civil servants, joining the army and other directions. Therefore, it is legally necessary to prohibit tattoo shops from providing tattoo services to minors, and it is also in line with the 'principle of the best interests of minors' stipulated in the protection of minors**. Kang Hyo-hyun said.
Today's technology does not completely remove tattoos, and even if they do, they will leave scars, and all the claims of 'removing tattoos without leaving a trace' are deceptive. The owner of a tattoo shop in Beijing said that four conditions need to be met to remove tattoos: the master who removes the tattoo must be of good quality;The technical equipment should be good, some tattoo shops in small alleys do not have such equipment at all;The ** to be cleaned up is in a good state;There was no major damage during the tattoo, and there were no symptoms such as inflammation. "All of them are indispensable, otherwise they will cause large scars. ”
The owner of a tattoo shop in Tianjin told reporters: "Now the tattoo is washed with a laser, the principle is to smash the tattoo pigment through the laser into the **, the pain level is doubled compared with the tattoo, and it will take up to two months of recovery (because it is a burn after being hit by the laser), before it can be cleaned for the second time, generally more than three times, in order to roughly cover the original pattern." ”
Jiang Xiaoxian said that because minors' rational cognition and control ability have not yet been fully developed, they often make behavioral choices based on direct or short-term physical or emotional needs, and cannot take into account the long-term impact of specific behavioral choices. Therefore, in the process of socialization of minors, paternalistic legal intervention is very necessary, which is also an important reason why the law establishes a guardianship system for minors and makes special provisions on legal capacity and responsibility capacity.
Improve legislation and law enforcement standards, and strictly supervise medical cosmetology with reference.
The reporter visited and found that most tattoo shops have posted slogans in conspicuous places with the slogan "Do not provide tattoo services to minors", and many tattoo shops will also ask customers whether they are adults before providing tattoo services. However, some shopkeepers bluntly said that it is not possible to ensure that minors are kept out, and it is difficult to find out if a tattoo artist takes a job privately.
In order to avoid the situation of minors falsifying their age to get tattoos, the owner of a tattoo shop in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, pasted signs saying "no tattoo services for minors" in many places in his shop, and checked the customer's identity documents to confirm whether the customer was an adult. Chino, the store manager, explained to reporters the reason for the strict management of the store: "Watching the news, some tattoo shops have been punished for receiving minors. ”
Jiang Xiaoxian said that the mainstream view is that tattoos endanger individual minors and groups, run counter to the "principle of the best interests of minors" in the protection of minors, and belong to the category of "bad behavior" of minors in the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, so it is necessary to regulate them.
In order to solve the problem of providing tattoo services to minors, the "Measures" have been promulgated at the national level, and local regulations and rules have been issued in Hainan, Shuyang, Jiangsu Province and other places, which explicitly prohibit the provision of tattoo services to minors and stipulate corresponding legal responsibilities. Many localities have actively carried out special rectification of the provision of tattoo services to minors in violation of regulations, and many local procuratorates have filed public interest lawsuits for this purpose.
However, under the explicit prohibition, why are tattoo parlors still violating laws and regulations?And how to govern?
Jiang Xiaoxian's analysis believes that the direct cause is driven by interests, which leads some tattoo service operators to ignore relevant regulatory provisions and allow or even induce and instigate minors to get tattoos. In addition, national laws and administrative regulations such as the protection of minors do not explicitly prohibit the provision of tattoo services to minors, and some localities have different legislative and law enforcement standards for providing tattoo services to minorsIn many places, the lack of relevant legislation has led to a lack of specific administrative measures such as warnings, suspension of business for rectification, revocation of business licenses, or fines and finesThe positioning of tattoo agencies is vague, there is a lack of unified industry standards, and the qualifications and practice rules of tattoo personnel are in a regulatory vacuum.
Zhang Jinghui, director of Beijing Junyong Law Firm, said: "The governance method has been clarified in the Measures, and the focus is on formulating implementation rules. Families and society have obligations to guardianship and education of minors, and should be 'unblocked' and 'blocked' to protect minors' physical and psychological health. ”
Jiang Xiaoxian suggested that it is necessary to explicitly prohibit the provision of tattoo services to minors in relevant laws such as the protection of minors, and stipulate corresponding legal responsibilities, so as to unify the basis for law enforcement agencies and prevent the possibility of instigating, enticing, and coercing tattoos in other places, and then evading legal sanctions. At the same time, promote the supervision of the tattoo industry with reference to the medical beauty industry, and establish a system of norms and standards for the health management, professional skill qualifications, product quality, and device safety of practitioners in the tattoo industry. In addition, strengthen family education, strengthen the guardianship responsibilities of minors' guardians, and create a good, harmonious, and civilized family environment for minors' growth.
During the interview, the reporter found that many tattooed minors are often accompanied by nasal nails, lip nails, and various rings. Some respondents said that tattoos are addictive and always like to be more differentSome people also say that it is mainly because it is interesting, and there are also recommendations from friends, and some businesses will also recommend nose nails when tattooing.
In this regard, Jiang Xiaoxian said that from the perspective of objective behavior, lip nails, tongue nails and other behaviors are similar to tattoo behaviors, and the society also has a wide range of negative evaluations of them, which belongs to the "bad behavior" in the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, so the behavior of lip nails and tongue nails and tattoos should be included in the scope of governance, and active measures should be taken to protect the healthy development of minors.
The names of the minors in this article have been changed).
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