A 14-year-old girl named Danielle decided she wanted a tattoo. Nothing fancy, mind you. Just a cross.

Danielle thought it would be cool to have a little cross tattoo on her ankle, but she knew minors can’t get tattoos in tattoo parlors in Iowa. She didn’t want to break the law, so she had her mom give her the tattoo.

What’s wrong with the scenario? It’s still against the law.

Danielle showed the tattoo to her father, who was embroiled with Danielle’s mother, Ramona Cox, in a bitter divorce. He reported it to police, comparing it to child abuse. Cox was arrested and convicted of tattooing a minor.

For tattooing her daughter, Cox received a punishment of six months probation and 20 hours community service.

Does this sound sensible to anyone? In order to avoid breaking the law by taking Lisa to a tattoo parlor, Lisa’s mom did it herself, something she assumed would be okay since it was her own daughter.

True, ignorance about the law is no excuse for breaking it. But the fact remains that the law goes way overboard in taking the responsibility for protecting children out of the hands of parents and putting it into the hands of the government.

The law, which prohibits minors from receiving tattoos, with or without parental consent, is actually a good idea in most circumstances, since it prevents overzealous 10-year-olds from running into a tattoo parlor and decorating their arms with shrines to Leonardo DiCaprio.

But there is a point where parents, and only parents, should have control over their children.

If a minor wants to get a tattoo, who better to know if he or she is mature enough to make a rational decision than the parents?

In Iowa and the rest of the country, it is perfectly legal for parents to give their children alcohol in the safety of their homes. The parents have the right to decide whether their children are able to handle alcohol, and they then take ultimate responsibility for their children. So what poses a greater danger to society as a whole, tattooed kids or drunk kids?

A better way to deal with kids who want tattoos would be to require parents to accompany minors to state-licensed parlors. That way, responsibility for children rests on the parents, who do, in fact, know best.