That’s a really cool parent.
Mason Smith is married and has two children. People on social media are cheering for him as “parent of the year” because he gave his 5-year-old daughter a full “sleeve” tattoo down her left arm.
“Am I turning into that parent that her school hates?” asked Smith, from Oregon, in the on-screen text of his trending TikTok post.
“Do you think the school is [going to] call me tomorrow?” he joked in the caption of the video, adding a string of nervous emojis for an extra boost of humor.
In the video that is going viral, Mason unwinds a roll of paper. The video has been watched more than 4.3 million times on the dad’s profile, @ToddlerTok. The paper showed the pretty artwork of a temporary tattoo in black and pink. The dad said he bought the novelty imprint on Amazon. Usually, it only stays visible for a few days at a time.
Then, his daughter Berkeley gave her enthusiastic approval to the design, which has a black background, a sea of pink flowers, and a bird sitting on a branch.
“We’re gonna put this on here,” Mason said, explaining to his tot that the scenic sketch would soon grace the length of her limb. “Yeah,” Berkeley cheered.
Mason put the fake tattoo on the girl’s skin and wiped the back of the drawing with a wet cloth. This made the art move from the paper to her body. He did this by first cutting out the print and then making it the right size for the girl’s arm.
“I love it,” exclaimed the beaming girl as she marveled at the masterpiece.
People on the internet loved it too, praising Mason for going against the dress code and code of conduct at Berkeley’s school to make her happy.
“Dad of the year award,” penned a commentator.
“Oh my god the way her face lit up at the end! I would go through that same exact process just to see anybody smile like that,” chimed another.
“I love it when my pre-k students show me their temporary tattoos!! It helps them feel more open to expressing themselves too!!” said another fan of the father’s work.
“If the school complains ask them how it affects her ability to learn the curriculum,” urged a follower.
But recent studies have shown that temporary tattoos may be bad for a child’s skin, even though most of the more than 3,000 people who commented on the post like the piece of art. The thin layer of skin that protects it is called the epidermis.
“Skin to which transfer tattoos had been applied presented lower temperatures, poorer hydration of the stratum corneum [epidermis], and worse overall anti-oxidant capacity, compared to nontattooed skin controls,” said lead researcher José-Pablo Serrano, of the University of Granada in Spain, in a 2021 study.
Also, the specialist said that people with skin conditions like psoriasis or dermatitis should be very careful when using temporary transfer tattoos because they can make the symptoms of these conditions worse.
Serrano said in a press release that anyone thinking about getting a tattoo, whether permanent or temporary, should look into the ingredients of the inking materials to make sure they are safe.
“It would also be helpful to know which type of pigments they intend to use for your tattoos and any allergenic potential that these might have,” he said.
