Viral videos have the ability to tantalize, impress, amaze, boggle, and sometimes infuriate us. With one posted this weekend, people around the world are infuriated to see what appears to be a three year old screaming and flailing while his mother holds him down and forces him to get a tattoo.
As the video shows, the toddler is none too happy about the procedure that is being forced upon him. As hardcore dance music plays in the background, the mother pins the child against her chest and holds his arm in place. She says “mira, mira” to the child, which means “look, look,” but he is never calmed.
This apparently happened in Havana, Cuba. There is no law against tattooing children in Cuba. Nevertheless, those who watch the painful video can’t but wish some sort of justice would punish the mother for hurting her child in this way.
The tattoo artist apparently had no qualms about coming at a toddler with his needle, though if the skin tore he could have become infected.
Neither the child nor the mother have been identified at this time, which is characteristic of some of these viral videos, which tease us with little context or explanation for what is happening, leaving us with the unsatisfying sense that justice can’t be done.