The New York Times reported on the story of a ten-year-old boy in New York who went to his school nurse for some Vaseline to soothe his new tattoo. Her response was to call the police, who promptly arrested both his mother and the tattoo artist. Apparently, this episode was “not unique,” and the Times report includes other examples, including in states such as Ohio and West Virginia where there is no minimum age for tattoos:

It is a situation that Dr. Cora Bruener [sic], a pediatrician and professor at the University of Washington Medical Center’s Seattle Children’s Hospital, and author of guidance on tattoos for pediatricians, issued by the American Academy of Pediatric Medicine, finds troubling.
“It is a permanent mark or a symbol you are putting on your body, and I don’t think kids under 18 have that kind of agency to make a decision,” Dr. Bruener said. “We need to look at these laws again.

Interestingly, when Dr. Breuner spoke to the Times in 2018 about the American Academy of Pediatrics guide on so-called “gender-affirming care,” she seemed to think that kids under 18 do have the agency to consent to medicalized gender transition:

But the research shows, he said, that if the children are accepted, they do much better. Dr. Breuner agreed: It’s the environment that endangers the child, she said, not the gender issues; if the child’s family and school and health care system are supportive, she said, the child should not be at higher risk than the general population.
Some worry that “gender-affirming care” may push children toward thinking they have gender issues, Dr. Breuner said, but in a much broader sense, “we just have to be as parents really open to whatever conversation our kids want to have with us.”

How does she reconcile those positions, I wonder?