Welcome to a new year of Personalities in Brief and a newly expanded focus: the celebrity in us all.
Gossip. Tabloids. Blogs. It seems 15 minutes is not going to be enough in the digital age, Mr. Warhol. With 24/7 media providing a steady replenishing of the bad news buffet, it is striking how the flights of fancy perpetuated by our celebrity culture can still pale against regular folk. Take for instance the Georgia couple that was recently arrested for actually bestowing upon six of their seven children some homemade tattoos.
And the couple remains dead set that they did nothing wrong in the process.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution filed this report over the weekend, which featured the childrens' mother, Patty Jo Marsh, declaring the youngsters just wanted to be like mom and dad.
"I'm their mother," said the matriarch. "Shouldn't I be able to decide if they get one?"
Well, actually, no, mama Marsh. It appears that Georgia laws prohibits the inking of anyone unless done by a license pro. Oh, and children under 18 are actually not allowed to even get a tattoo.
Allegedly Marsh and husband, Jacob Bartels merely spruced up a tattoo machine given to them, using old guitar string as needles. Only their youngest child was not inked.
"They weren't hurt by them," Marsh added. "We would never do anything to hurt them."
The six children, aged between 10 and 17, all wanted small cross symbols, which their parents completed over the Thanksgiving holiday. When the kids' biological mother discovered the tats over the Christmas holiday, she immediately alerted the authorities.
The AJC reported that "at least 10 police officers searched the family's home on Dec. 28." Marsh (pictured left with Bartels) and her husband were arrested and charged with cruelty to children, reckless conduct and, of course, illegal tattooing.
"If we knew that, we wouldn't have done it," Marsh said.
The couple has since been bonded out of jail as of last week and now await a court date. Georgia's Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS) had taken custody of the children, but they have since returned home. Marsh thinks the entire scenario has been over-dramatized, stating that she and her husband are being vilified as child abusers.
“If I’m such a bad parent, then how come they brought the kids back right after I got out jail?" Marsh contends.
Wanting to follow a trend is one thing, but perhaps the Bartels would have been better off just getting their kids some Ed Hardy-wear?
Are the Bartels just victims of bad judgment or is the DFCS right in stepping in to protect the safety of the children? Your comments are welcome below.
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Comments
This is yet another fine example of why we should make people have a license before we let them breed. They are obviously ignorant, uneducated and have 7 children who will also grow up to be stupid like them and live off of the system. History repeating itself generation after generation. Not to mention it was unsanitary and against Georgia law.
My my mother took me to get my first tattoo when I was 15, and it did me no harm, I now have two more. I go to a good school, have good grades, and a have a weekend job. My parents work hard for a living. Many of my friends got thier first tattoos when they where under 18, the yongest being my friend Sophie who was 12. If the parents hadn't done the tattoos for the kids, the kids would have found another way, at least this way the parents where supervising the kids, rather than have the kids doing it in secret with a needle, thread and bottle of indian ink. The kids got one small tattoo each, not anything indecent or large. I don't see why this makes them bad parents, when they simply supported something the kids would have done in secret anyway, and probably wouldn't have steralised things properly/ made a mess of the tattoos. Is this any worse than jewish mothers' who let thier children be circumcised, despite the childs wishes and religious views?
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