On June 6, the Office of the Leading Group for the Protection of Minors under the State Council issued the "Measures for the Personal Governance of Minors" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures").

　　The "Measures" clearly stipulate that no enterprise, organization or individual shall provide tattoo services to minors, and shall not coerce, induce or instigate minors to tattoo.

All relevant departments should perform their responsibilities, give full play to their advantages, strengthen support and cooperation for minors' personal governance, and form an overall synergy.

　　Today, the topic of "Do minors have the freedom to tattoo?" has finally come to a conclusion.

　　According to Liu Housheng, director of the Medical Cosmetology Department of Shuyang County Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, the principle of tattooing is to use a tattoo needle to puncture the skin, implant the pigment into the dermis layer under the epidermis, draw patterns and display them on the skin, which may lead to Risk of infection, allergy.

In the process of tattooing, acupuncture causes damage to human tissues, and the pigment used penetrates into the dermis layer to form permanent pigmentation.

These pigments contain heavy metals and other chemicals, which are potentially harmful to the human body, and are also one of the incentives to induce skin diseases and skin cancer.

The most important thing is that tattoos are almost irreversible. Tattoos are not only painful, time-consuming, but also likely to be washed out.

Tattoos and Juvenile Delinquency

　　In April 2020, there was a case of minors gathering and fighting on the streets of Shuyang County, Jiangsu Province.

A group of fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds started to fight each other.

　　During the arraignment process, Ye Mei, the prosecutor handling the case at the Shuyang County People's Procuratorate, suddenly discovered such a detail: one of the juvenile criminal suspects, Xiao Li, kept pulling down his sleeves, as if trying to cover something.

　　Ye Mei lifted Xiao Li's sleeves, and then a large tattoo came into view.

Xiao Li told Ye Mei: "Since I have these tattoos, I feel that I am not a good person, and I really don't want to show it to others."

　　"Then why did you get a tattoo?" Ye Mei was curious.

Xiao Li told Ye Mei that he learned it from a friend, but he soon regretted it after the impulsive tattoo.

I felt embarrassed because of the eyes of my relatives, friends and classmates. After I went to the tattoo shop and asked about it, I found out that cleaning tattoos is expensive and painful, so I had to hide it.

　　After combing through juvenile criminal cases over the past three years, Ye Mei found that about 70% of the juveniles involved had tattoos on their bodies, and most of them were violent designs.

　　Are tattoos causing juvenile delinquency?

Or do criminal minors get tattoos?

　　After preliminary investigation, Ye Mei found that although there is no direct causal relationship between minors' tattoos and crimes, tattoos do have an impact on minors' mental health during their growth.

　　Ye Mei said that when minors choose tattoos for reasons such as curiosity or worship, especially after some violent patterns in the text, the "social" complex caused by this impulsive and blind obedience will create a kind of "social" complex for minors. ideological bondage.

　　In reality, many minors still have tattoos that are difficult to remove after undergoing extremely painful cleaning. When they return to school and work, tattoos cause them great trouble.

　　Xiaolin, who lives in the countryside, has made inquiries from various sources and learned that the price of the tattoo on his body is more than 150,000 yuan, and the effect is not guaranteed.

　　On the pedestrian street in Shuyang County, Jiangsu Province, there are more than a dozen tattoo parlors, large and small.

Zhang's tattoo shop is located on the pedestrian street.

Because of the small storefront and low fees, the tattoo shop has been doing well since it opened on June 1, 2017.

　　According to Zhang's account, in a few years, a total of hundreds of people have been tattooed, and 70 to 80 percent are children, usually 15 or 16 years old.

　　At that time, there were different opinions in the society on the phenomenon of minors' personalities.

Some people think that minors' personal life is a private matter, as long as the child is willing; some people think that minors' personal life is a family matter, as long as the parents approve and agree.

The legal blind spot behind the chaos management of tattoo parlors

　　In 2020, the Shuyang County People's Procuratorate established a case-handling team to investigate and found that tattoo parlors are chaotic and disorderly and industry failures are more common.

Many tattoo parlors do not have any licenses, and the sources of the purchased paints, equipment, supplies, etc. are unknown; the awareness of disinfection is not strong, which can easily lead to the risk of tattoo wound infection and the spread of infectious diseases; damage to the physical and mental health of minors.

　　The Shuyang County People's Procuratorate believes that the Shuyang County Health and Health Bureau and the Market Supervision Administration, as the competent departments for cleaning tattoos and tattoo operators, failed to perform their supervisory duties, resulting in the long-term operation of tattoo parlors without a license and a license, infringing social and public interests.

　　Subsequently, they issued public interest litigation pre-litigation procuratorial recommendations to the two administrative units.

This procuratorial suggestion gave birth to a special rectification of the tattoo industry in the county. A total of 20 tattoo parlors were investigated and two were ordered to close.

　　It is worth noting that there was no clear prohibition in the law at that time, that is, there was no express provision that "you must not be a minor."

　　According to Ye Mei, before the promulgation of the Measures, administrative public interest litigation was used to promote the governance of tattoo industry issues.

It is difficult to achieve the effect of individual punishment and public welfare protection only by administrative means.

　　According to the law, where the lack of industry norms makes it difficult to supervise the infringement, the procuratorial organ can protect the legitimate rights and interests of minors through civil public interest litigation.

On December 25, 2020, the procuratorial organ initiated a civil public interest lawsuit against Zhang, the owner of the tattoo shop, opened the case and carried out investigation and evidence collection.

　　On May 6, 2021, the Suqian City People's Procuratorate filed a civil public interest lawsuit with the Suqian City Intermediate People's Court against Zhang for personally infringing upon the minors' physical rights and health rights.

On May 24, a public hearing was held in the Suqian Intermediate People's Court.

　　On June 1, 2021, the day the newly revised Minor Protection Law came into effect, the Suqian Intermediate People's Court made a judgment, ruling that the defendant Zhang Mou should immediately stop providing tattoo services to minors, and publicize it to the public on the national-level public media. The public apologized.

After the first-instance judgment was pronounced, Zhang said in court that he would not appeal and was willing to actively perform the obligations determined by the judgment.

Say no to tattoo freedom for minors

　　Judgment is not the end.

On July 14 last year, the "Resolution on Strengthening the Personal Governance of Minors" was discussed and adopted at the 40th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 17th People's Congress of Shuyang County.

　　On September 8, the Shuyang County Health and Health Bureau and the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau focused on whether the tattoo parlors should not post tattoo signs for minors, the registration and filing of tattoo customer information, business licenses, the handling of employees' health certificates, disinfection and sanitation measures and related Law enforcement inspections were carried out on issues such as product origin.

　　A few days ago, after a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily searched for words such as "tattoo" on the Meituan app, dozens of stores were displayed on the software page.

The app shows that tattoo prices at a tattoo chain store near Xinjiekou in Nanjing range from 1.9 yuan to more than 600 yuan.

Among them, 1.9 yuan is "5 cm English alphabet tattoo".

The store is extremely popular, with nearly a thousand comments.

　　On June 7, a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily visited the store unannounced.

According to the shop's tattooist, the price of a tattoo mainly depends on the location and size of the tattoo.

He said that the tattoo price of the entire forearm is about 3,000 yuan.

　　When the reporter asked if a 16- or 17-year-old child could get a tattoo, the other party seemed more alert and asked directly, "Is it a minor?" He then emphasized that the store cannot give tattoos to minors, but parents can agree.

　　The reporter learned that the "Measures" clearly stipulate that the parents or other guardians of minors shall perform guardianship duties in accordance with the law, educate and guide minors to carry out activities that are beneficial to their physical and mental health, and should promptly discourage minors who have tattoo motives and behaviors. , shall not allow minors to be incarcerated.

　　In this regard, Zhou Hao, a lawyer from Beijing Yingke Law Firm, said that the "Measures" have clearly stipulated that no enterprise, organization or individual shall provide tattoo services to minors, and shall not coerce, induce or abet minors to tattoo.

Therefore, the "parental consent is OK" advertised by the store does not comply with the law and is an illegal act.

　　The "Measures" also stipulate that tattoo service providers should clearly indicate that they do not provide tattoo services to minors.

For those who are difficult to determine whether they are minors, they should be required to show their identity documents.

A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily visited three tattoo shops in the Xinjiekou area of ​​Nanjing on June 7. At present, there are no relevant signs in a prominent position indicating that they do not provide tattoo services to minors.

　　Zhou Hao emphasized that if a tattoo business provides or induces minors to carry out tattoo services, relevant local departments such as market supervision departments may impose relevant penalties such as revocation of business licenses for the store.

　　Zhou Hao suggested that after the promulgation of the "Measures", all localities should actively follow their relevant regulations to develop mechanisms for supervision and punishment of illegal acts of providing tattoo services to minors.

Relevant departments should carry out extensive publicity activities to encourage businesses to operate in compliance with laws and regulations, and let the whole society work together to create a pure land for minors to be physically and mentally healthy.

　　China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Li Chao correspondent Chen Ying Ye Ting You Qiang Source: China Youth Daily