Dad Turns In Mom For Tattooing Daughter

Ramona Cox doesn’t understand why she wound up in court for tattooing her daughter.

“It was a little, tiny, tiny, tiny cross on her ankle,” Cox said. “I can give her parental consent to get her ears - and any other part of her body - pierced, but I can’t give her a tattoo?”

No matter. A seldom-used Iowa law forbids a person younger than 18 from getting a tattoo, with or without a parent’s permission, and the father of 14-year-old girl refused to look the other way.

“To me, it’s just like child abuse,” Merlin Herold said Friday. “Tattooing like that is a permanent thing. You need to be an adult.”

Cox, 32, said her daughter Danielle Herold repeatedly asked for the tattoo. She let her ponder the decision for a week before drawing the cross using a sewing needle and black ink.

When Danielle showed it to her father, he reported it to authorities.

Cox claimed her ex-husband used the tattoo against her in divorce proceedings. He reported the tattoo in May; their divorce became final in August.

Cox’s lawyer said the case, scheduled for trial in October, is about more than a family squabble.

“It’s the youth’s right to rebel,” lawyer Bob Rigg said. “Does the government want to control that? And to what extent?”

Rigg plans to ask a judge to dismiss the misdemeanor charge, which carries up to a year in jail.