“Mistah Metro,” a Brooklyn tattoo artist, has become the enemy of all animal-rights activists this week after he posted a photo on Instagram of his dog’s new ink. “One of the many reasons my dog is cooler than yours! She had her spleen removed today and the vet let me tattoo her while she was under,” he captioned the since-deleted picture. (Seriously, bro?) “Had to delete my account and make another, some people just don’t appreciate anything! It’s an ANIMAL with a TATTOO!” he added on a new account, which is now private. In a matter of days, the controversy has reached all the way to the state legislature.
According to Capital New York, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal has proposed a new bill that would make the practice illegal. “It seems crazy to us that it isn’t already illegal,” said Rosenthal’s spokesperson.
“If a person is weighing whether to get a tattoo, they will consider the amount of pain the procedure will cause both during and afterward against the benefits that they will receive from it,” the politician wrote in a press release. “As we all know, animals do not have the capacity to make these decisions, nor can they contextualize that the pain they feel might result in what some might consider beautiful body art; sadly, all they know is the pain.”
The bill, the spokesperson admitted, “hasn’t really gained any traction.” Yet.
For pet owners out there torn — you want your dog to look hip, unique, and hard, but don’t want to hurt it for superficial reasons — just remember that temporary tattoos are an option. For dogs. For only $100!
