BAY CITY, MI — Starting a Facebook account is a big no-no if you're a sex offender, especially if you're on parole and are running an illegal tattoo parlor out of your house. A Bay County man found out how serious the offense is in getting sent to prison for up to the next four years.

Bay County Chief Circuit Judge Kenneth W. Schmidt on Monday, July 7, sentenced Steven D. Young, 40, to 18 months to four years in prison on a charge of failure to comply with the Sexual Offenders Registration Act. The judge did not give Young credit for time served, as his new sentence is consecutive to the one for which he was on parole — first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person younger than 13.

Schmidt also sentenced Young to 90 days in jail on a misdemeanor count of general violations of a body art facility, giving him credit on that count of 118 days already served.

Young pleaded guilty to both charges in May.

His attorney, Jeff Martin, said Young made a horrible choice in starting a Facebook account, as his status as a sex offender prohibits him from owning a computer or device capable of accessing the Internet. Martin said his client was looking for work on the Internet.

"I'm responsible for all my actions," Young told Schmidt. "I did what I did. I can't say nothing more than that. I just got the phone that day, too."

Police began investigating Young on March 11 when a Bay City police officer contacted a Sex Offender Registry Coordinator at the Michigan State Police Tri-City Post regarding a tip the Bay City Public Safety Department had received via its Facebook page about Young. The tipster told police he believed Young was operating a Facebook page under the alias of Steve Wolcott and was befriending single mothers with young children, court records show.

The tipster also attached a photo from the Wolcott Facebook page showing a man giving another man a tattoo in a kitchen. The tipster told police he believed Young and Wolcott to be the same person, and included a mug shot of Young as well.

Police soon determined the tattoo artist in the Facebook photo was indeed Young, court records show.

That day, police visited Young's Bangor Township home. Young denied having a Facebook page, and when police confronted him with the photos on the page, he said he did not set it up, court records show.

Police asked to see Young's smartphone, which he said was his mother's, but he let them see it anyway. When an officer touched it, it opened to the web address of Wolcott's Facebook page, court records show.

Young then told officers he uses Facebook to keep in touch with his girlfriend in Australia, but that his sister created the account, court records show.

Officers also asked Young about the tattooing. He said he learned the trade in prison, where he earned an art degree and taught classes. He said he only tattoos friends and family, court records show.

Police arrested Young on charges of violating his parole. At the Bay County Jail, Young blew into a Breathalyzer, which indicated his blood alcohol level was 0.21.

As a condition of his parole, Young was not to possess or consume alcohol.

Police seized numerous tattoo-related items from Young's home, including four tattoo guns and 46 bottles of ink.

Later that same day, officers attempted to view Wolcott/Young's Facebook page again, but discovered it had been deleted, court records show.

The Michigan Department of Corrections paroled Young on May 9, 2012. After Young pleaded no contest to the sexual misconduct charge, a Bay County judge sentenced him to eight to 30 years in prison on Feb. 24, 1997. Had he complied with his parole's terms, he would have been discharged from parole on Aug. 9, 2014. Even if that had occurred, he would have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Before his sex crime conviction, Young was convicted in 1993 of larceny in a building and in 1995 of breaking and entering with intent and another larceny in a building count.