Sadie Hennessy outside the children’s tattoo parlour in Oxford Street, Whitstable (Picture: SWNS)

A woman who set up ‘the world’s first tattoo parlour for children’ was surprised to receive genuine enquiries from parents keen to ink up their kids.

Sadie Hennessy created the thought-provoking art project by placing an ad outside a high street shop in Whitstable, Kent.

Her aim was to incite discussion about the sexualisation of children, but the controversial ‘business’ actually had ten genuine requests.

Surprisingly, Ms Hennessy said the reaction had been split 50/50, with some outraged at the idea of the business and others ready to put their young under the needle.


The artist has had ten genuine calls from parents looking to ink up their children

‘I’m not doing it to make a fool out of people,’ she explained. ‘I’m just trying to get people thinking about these issues about our children growing up too quickly.



‘I was worried by children wearing t-shirts saying Future Porn Star and thongs for young girls and the shifting morality about what is acceptable for our kids.

‘Children should be children for as long as they can be.’

Sadie wanted to provoke a debate about children growing up too quickly (Picture: SWNS)

On her ‘promotional material’, Ms Hennessy included the line ‘a gift for life at pocket money prices’ as well as a 20 per cent off discount code for first-time customers.

But many didn’t find it that funny…

Horror of horrors, seen in Whitstable; opening soon – world's first tattoo parlour for kids. is this legal? http://t.co/pA6c9pLPUS — John Viner (@adept_education) June 2, 2014

@TimesWhitstable a kids tattoo parlour in Whitstable? It's a joke right? — Deborah Roberts (@robertsontwit) June 3, 2014