Mostly it has to do with comfort for the customers and artists . You are lying on a table with part of your body exposed getting needles drilled into your skin for hours . Or you are the artist doing it and you ' ve got to concentrate and it ' s kind of stressful because this is someone ' s body you don ' t want to fuck up . It is grating to have children running around , screaming , crying , coming over and poking at you or whatever in that situation . There are things that are just inappropriate for kids erotic flash that ' s out in full view all over the shop , people getting their butts and boobs tattooed . Maybe genitals , but that ' s not terribly common . There is a degree of vulgarity within tattoo culture . It ' s not inherent to every tattoo of course , but it ' s a part of it that frankly , most tattooists and collectors have an appreciation for and it shouldn ' t have to be censored in a tattoo parlor . There ' s also a degree of courtesy and maturity required when going into a tattoo shop you don ' t gawk at stranger ' s bodies while they are being tattooed and offer your opinion , you don ' t flip through a portfolio and make shitty comments about people ' s bodies or work , you don ' t touch people without their permission because they are tattooed . It ' s harder to get kids to understand these things . Granted , there are many adults who don ' t get it either , but it ' s easier to tell a grownup to fuck off than someone else ' s child . Finally , a tattoo shop is a place that I expect to be an adult space , much like a bar . Sometimes I want to go somewhere were I can be away from kids . Getting tattooed is a time I reasonably expect to be in an adults only environment . Whatever , that ' s just me . I get tattooed in shops that do not allow children . I ' d never get tattooed in that shop that welcomed them .