14 year old make-up tattoo

The NSPCC is has accused a mother of sexualising her daughter, following the controversial move to allow her to undergo cosmetic treatments to have her eyebrows and features enhanced. 14-year-old Sophie Watson from County Durham insists: "I am happy. I just look better."

Her mother, who works as a beauty therapist, defends the decision. "It's done to enhance her features," she insists, "it's not done to change her, to make her look like somebody else. It's not done to change the way she looks."

The NSPCC remains unconvinced, and this case brings up a startling trend in the current generation where children are given the freedom to act independently of the influence of their parents and seniors, whilst remaining trapped inside the increasingly materialistic ideals of the Western world.

Watson has 22 beauty pageant titles to her name and has musical ambitions as well. You might think that that would be enough to allay any aesthetic insecurities she may hold about herself.

It's a distressing concept that a 14-year-old girl would crave semi-permanent altering of her features simply to fit into her own ideal of a 'beautiful' image, and Sophie says she'd also like to have her freckles lazered off in the future. On top of this, her still-maturing body also harbours two illegal tattoos: one of her name on her wrist, and one of flowers on her stomach.

The legal age for tattoos is 18 and she apparently acquired these without her mother's consent. No doubt at 14 she is fully aware of the consequences of her actions and understands her own physical vulnerability better than the government who introduced the age-restriction for tattoos.

When prompted about the headlines on social networking site Facebook, Watson was praised by her peers for appearing in popular culture periodicals 'Closer', and 'the daily star', as well on the 'This morning' show, as Watson herself brags. One comment reads " :) well done, bet you got paid lots for doing these like haha."

Evidence, then, that the youths value the media coverage and sensationalist headlines as a kind of social-status gauge. The NSPCC leaves us with a compelling message:

"The danger is that a growing climate of sexualisation encourages a view of girls as sex objects. All children should be valued for their abilities and talents - they should be free to grow up as children. Sadly, we have reached a point where many children get distress because they think they dont look good."