Chuntera Napier said her 10-year-old son, Gaquan Napier, wanted to honor his older brother with a tattoo after he died two years ago.
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Not thinking it was a big deal, Ms. Napier abided by her son’s wishes and got him his tat, even though she had no idea it was illegal for him to get one.
Napier was later arrested and charged with misdemeanor cruelty and being a party to a crime.
“How can somebody else say that it’s not OK? He’s my child, and I have the right to say what I want for a child. I can’t go tell anybody else what I want for their child,” Napier told Action News 2.
“It made me feel good to know that he wanted his brother on him.”
Napier thought as long as she gave her consent it was all good, but according to a Georgia 2010 law:
“It shall be unlawful for any person to tattoo the body of any person under the age of 18, except a physician or osteopath.”
Napier said her family is still grieving over the death of her 12-year-old son, Malik, who was hit and killed by a teenage driver in Macon two years ago. She has her own tattoos in Malik’s honor.
“My son came to me and said, ‘Mom, I want to get a tattoo with Malik on it, rest in peace.”
Ms. Napier went on to say:
“What do I say to a child who wants to remember his brother? It’s not like he was asking me, ‘Can I get Sponge Bob? Like people getting all kinds of things on them. He asked me something that’s in remembrance of his brother. How can I say no?”
At times it may be the right thing to do to say no. Do you think the mother was right to give her son permission to get a tat of their dead brother?
