An Ohio mother who allowed her 10-year-old son to get a tattoo and filmed it for a distressing video which went viral on social media last week has been arrested.
Nikki Dickinson, 34, was arrested in Bellefontaine, Ohio, and taken into custody on Friday on charges of child endangering and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
In a horrifying video which emerged online last week, her young son was filmed receiving a tattoo from 16-year-old Kyle Richardson in unsanitary conditions in his home.
Nikki Dickinson, 34, was charged with child endangering and contributing to the delinquency of a child for letting her son, 10, get a tattoo and filming it for a social media video which went viral
Dickinson is not visible in the video. Her friend, Justice Oyer, was filmed comforting and distracting the young boy as he asked repeatedly whether the artist was finished. Oyer has not been charged.
Dickinson told police on Friday that the young boy had been pleading with her to get a tattoo and she gave into him because she was ‘tired’ of him constantly asking for one.
According to police, the teenage tattoo artist who gave him the inking has a history of malpractice and once gave a person MRSA from a dirty needle, ABC reports.
The video went viral last week. It showed Dickinson’s friend Justice Oyer (left) distracting him as a tattoo artist inked an S onto the young boy’s arm. Dickinson filmed the video. Oyer was not charged
The boy’s mother told police he had been begging her for the tattoo and she gave in because she was ‘tired’ of him asking. It remains unclear whose care he is in now and if Dickinson has any other children
He was charged with not following safety and sanitary guidelines. State law in Ohio means it is legal for minors to get tattoos with their parents consent but only if it is done in a business where health and safety standards are met.
Dickinson, in effect, was not charged for letting the boy get a tattoo but for the manner in which she allowed it to take place.
Her filming the incident and appearing to coerce him into it is why she was charged with contributing to juvenile delinquency.
The mother cried as she had her booking photograph taken on Friday.
Justice Oyer, the woman who was filmed in the video holding the boy (pictured in a social media photograph) has not been charged
She faces up to six months in jail if convicted of a first-degree misdemeanor endangering of a child. Contributing to the delinquency of a child is also a first-degree misdemeanor.
Richardson was charged with two delinquency counts of tattooing prohibitions. He is being charged as a minor.
The other woman in the video did not respond to DailyMail.com’s inquiries on Tuesday morning.
Last week, her mother said she regretted taking part.
‘Justice made a bad choice by being involved with it but she did nothing else wrong…but really this child is not abused nor neglected.
‘Does his mother make bad decisions? Yes.
‘But when you got people beating up old people and people actually abusing their kids no one says nothing,’ the woman wrote on Facebook.