Hearing in tattooing case is postponed

STAFF REP0RT

SHARON, Pa. — A man charged with four counts of tattooing a minor had his preliminary hearing postponed Wednesday.

James Houser, 29, of South Oakland Avenue, appeared before Senior District Magistrate Henry Russo.

He is charged with tattooing a 9-year-old boy and his 14-year-old sister sometime in June or July at an apartment at Willow Village on Sterling Avenue. The charge, which police filed in January, is a third-degree misdemeanor.

Houser told police he tattooed the children without parental consent, using a homemade tattoo gun, police said. The boy has tattoos on each arm that read “100 percent dead,” and the girl had an indistinguishable tattoo on her back and a heart on her leg, police said.

Police said the children’s father, who doesn’t live with them, turned Houser in recently when he saw the tattoos.

Houser was released Wednesday on his own recognizance. The hearing was postponed so police and the district attorney’s office could research whether there are prior criminal complaints of a similar nature against Houser. A new hearing date was not set.