Couple Charged With Tattooing Kids

Crosses Inked On Hands Of Minors

POSTED: 8:21 am PST January 4, 2010

A mother and father in Georgia were charged with child cruelty after putting tattoos on all six of their children with a homemade device, police said.

WTVC-TV in Chattanooga, Tenn., said that Jo Jo Marsh and Jacob Edward Bartels put small crosses on the hands of a 10-year-old, two 11-year-olds, a 12-year-old a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old.

"I don't understand why this has gotten blown up so big," Marsh said. "I love my children. We'd never do anything to harm our kids."

Chattooga County Sheriff John Everett said the parents went too far.

"We've never seen anything, or heard of anything like this, in the surrounding counties or anywhere," he said.

He said the device connected to a normal outlet, and a guitar string was used as a needle. Everett said the same needle was used on all the children.

Marsh said that the children -- four from her previous relationship, three from his -- said they wanted tattoos.

The sheriff learned about the tattoos from the mother of Bartels' children.

"The mother picked the two children up and noticed the marks on their hand, and she brought it to our investigator's attention, and we did the investigation and found there was six children," he said.

The couple was charged with illegal tattooing, cruelty to children and reckless conduct.

"I don't think we did anything wrong, Marsh said. "The kids don't think we did anything wrong. This is crazy."

From: http://www.fox5vegas.com/family/22119215/detail.html