Outcry as Arizona tattoo shop inks girl, 9, who wanted picture of Trump on her neck

An Arizona tattoo artist has been criticized after he inked a nine-year-old girl who asked for a portrait of Donald Trump on her neck.

An artist from the Black Onyx Empire Tattoo Shop in Yuma shared on his Instagram that the girl had traveled to Arizona with her parents to get the president-elect’s ink.

But the artist, who shared a video of the inking process, said he convinced her to get a “more patriotic tattoo” instead — of an American flag on her arm, as first reported by Arizona’s family.

“Tell her in a year if she still wanted the trump card, then she should get it, but think about it,” says the artist, who goes by the name cutzsosa, wrote on Instagram.

‘Customer came back a year later and said “I’m 10, can you touch up the red?”

“She also changed her mind about the Trump portrait a year later,” the artist added.

The girl apparently traveled to Arizona for the tattoo, as the state allows children to ink themselves if they have their parents’ permission.

The artist said he even “tried to scare the girl’s parents away” by pricing the ink at $500, even though the tattoo was worth $80.

The artist said he convinced the girl to ink the American flag on her arm instead of Trump on her neck

The artist is being criticized online for giving the tattoo to the girl even though she had her parents’ permission

“But instead they jumped on that price…. I tried,” the artist said.

A video of the girl getting the tattoo shows her resting while the artist works on the American flag on her arm.

The story has sparked a debate online about whether children should be allowed to get tattoos — and whether artists should deny their requests even if it’s not illegal.

One YouTube comment read: “Trump tattoo on a 9 year old’s neck?

“These are the same people crying about giving puberty blockers to children. I say no to both.”

Another said: ‘No please. As an artist, be the bigger person and don’t do this to a 9 year old. Then call childcare.’

Ben Shaw of the Alliance of Professional Tattooists told the Arizona family that the state law when it comes to inking children is “frustrating.”

“It’s one of the most frustrating things in our career field and in Arizona, where there are no rules,” he said.

‘It can give us professionals a bad reputation. If you see a 10-year-old kid with a professional tattoo and he says he got it at a tattoo parlor, it degrades us as a whole.”

All fifty states have legal laws that prohibit tattoos under the age of 18. But some make an exception for children who get permission from their parents.

Others, like New York and New Jersey, have a blanket ban on minors getting inked, even if they have parental permission.