Tag Archives: tattoos

Politics, US

Food Stamps Used To Pay For Tattoos In North Carolina

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A tattoo parlor in Raleigh, North Carolina reportedly took food stamps as payment for tattoos.

The shop is called Addiction Tattooz. Its owner, Clifford Craig Tittle, was arrested after police discovered that he was accepting Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards as payment. EBT cards look and function like a debit card but actually store “food stamp” subsidies. The cards are only supposed to be used to purchase food.

Tittle accepted EBT cards at least four separate times, revealed the  Agriculture Department.

As reported by The Daily Caller, “On Sept. 4 two people charged $421 and $417.61 to EBT cards (in addition to cash) for work at Ink Addiction Tattooz.  On Sept. 6 another person charged $413 to their EBT card plus $175 in cash for tattoo work from Tittle. Also on Sept. 6, another person sold Tittle an EBT card worth $570 to Tittle for $215.”

One man who was familiar with Addiction Tattooz worked with police officers to catch Tittle. The informant “sold” Tittle food stamps two times in September. In exchange for the food stamps, Tittle gave the informant $600 worth of tattoos.

Thankfully, The Agriculture Department was able to stop the trafficking at this tattoo parlor. But the problem may expand far beyond Addiction Tattooz.

Food stamps are valuable because they can easily be traded for money using the “cash back” option at many convenience stores.

How can our government prevent welfare benefits, intended to put food on the table, from being used to pay for luxuries like tattoos?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Opinion, Politics, US

DC Bureaucrats’ Latest Assault On Freedom: Mandatory 24-Hour “Waiting Period” For Tattoos

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The United States is nearly 17 trillion dollars in debt, the national unemployment rate is more than 7%, and one in seven Americans is on food stamps. But fixing those problems is just so darn hard! So several politicians in Washington DC have decided to spend their time creating tattoo regulations.

DC’s Health Department is aggressively pushing to instate a mandatory 24-hour waiting period for all individuals looking to get a tattoo in the District. The waiting period would mandate that “no tattoo artist applies any tattoo to a customer until after twenty-four hours have passed since the customer first requested the tattoo.”

Officials from the Department say the regulation would prevent “serious health risks.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health, Najma Roberts, thinks that the new rules would prevent individuals from making stupid decisions while they are intoxicated.

She said, “They can’t be responsible for themselves, as well as the person doing the work on them. We’re making sure when that decision is made that you’re in the right frame of mind, and you don’t wake up in the morning . . . saying, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’”

Tattoo shop owners, however, say the proposed regulations unfairly target their industry and would hurt business.

Paul Roe, a tattoo parlor owner in DC, said “Why not 24 hours’ waiting time before shaving your head?” The new rules are “honestly ridiculous” he claimed.

Gilda Acosta, a tattoo artist, said, “It would definitely be a direct hit to my income if I couldn’t tattoo people who come in and want work done on the same day.”

Good grief.

America is supposed to be the Land of the Free. If people want to make poor choices regarding their own bodies, they should be allowed to. In a free country, government cannot dictate lifestyle choices, nor can it become the overprotective mommy and daddy of its citizens. Freedom means having the right to make bad choices and then deal with the consequences ourselves.