- November 6, 2024
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A 16-year-old Matanzas High School student's parents checked their daughter's social media accounts April 19 and saw that the teen was showing off a new tattoo.
They confronted her, and the teen admitted where she'd gotten it: at Matanzas High School.
She wouldn't tell her parents who'd given her the "stick and poke" tattoo. But after her parents contacted the Flagler County Sheriff's Office, she told a deputy she'd gotten the tattoo, which was on her right hip and depicted a wave, from a fellow student.
That student was 15 years old, according to a deputy's case report.
The tattooing happened during the 15-year-old's third period art class, in a back room, when 16-year-old was supposed to be at lunch, the 16-year-old said.
The 16-year-old's parents told the deputy they wanted to pursue charges against the 15-year-old and have her pay for the tattoo's removal.
A deputy went to the school the following day and spoke to the school's deans, two of whom who said they'd been told about two teenage girls giving other kids tattoos in the art classroom.
Both of the girls had admitted to doing the tattooing, and there were pictures of them on social media tattooing other students, the deans said.
One of the deans, Sara Novak, said students had told her that the girls had been doing the tattooing in a back room of the art classroom using a needle and India ink, and that the kids had used the same needle on multiple people. Novak told the kids about the health risks associated with sharing a needle.
India ink, a black ink made from soot mixed with a binding agent, is used in drawing, but also in medical tattooing and the do-it-yourself tattooing method called stick and poke. The stick and poke tattoos are considered permanent.
The Sheriff's Office is forwarding charging affidavits to the State Attorney's Office on the 15-year-old who tattooed the 16-year-old, the deputy wrote in the case report. The proposed charge is tattooing without a license, a misdemeanor.
