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da "www.news.com.au", "Dad faces life sentence over son's tattoo" By staff writers Reuters October 02, 2009

A californian man who etched a tattoo on his seven-year-old son faces life in prison.

Enrique Gonzalez, 26, was charged with aggravated mayhem after he tattooed a paw print onto his son’s hip.

The 26-year-old is a member of a local gang called the Bulldogs, and the paw print is considered a symbol of membership.

A judge is set to decide whether Mr Gonzalez should go to trial over the incident.

Mr Gonzalez could be jailed for life if convicted.

Investigators allege Mr Gonzalez held his son down while a fellow gang member tattooed the artwork on the child’s hip.

But at a preliminary hearing overnight, lawyers for Mr Gonzalez and tattoo artist Travis Gorman argued that a tattoo does not meet the statute’s standards of permanent disfigurement.

The defence lawyers also told the court the boy had begged his father for the tattoo.