While the all-knowing Snopes.com is still silent on the question, all signs are pointing to the story of the stripper mom allowing her boyfriend to tattoo her 9-month old being FAKE! If you haven’t seen the story, you must have been dead, but here it is again: “December 14, 2011 – Albany New York – A local New York State resident, Franny Trokerns was arrested early this morning after being turned in by her babysitter. She works as a dancer at a local strip bar and apparently during a night of heavy drinking she allowed her on-and-off-again boyfriend Derrek Honsteads (a tattoo artist) to tattoo her 9 month old baby!”

Here are five (good) reasons to NOT believe the story:

  • Albany PD
    Albany PD
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    Reason No. 1

    Police said so

    The story leads you to believe it occurred in Albany, New York. The Albany Police Department confirmed to me on Dec. 28 that no such incident occurred in their jurisdiction.

  • allweirdnews.com
    allweirdnews.com
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    Reason No. 2

    No source

    There is no “original story.” All media sources spreading this story – and there are DOZENS – link back to the same two sites. One of those no longer exists and was never a “news” site. The other is allweirdnews.com, which does not attribute the story to any author or news source.

  • news.google.com
    news.google.com
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    Reason No. 3

    You can't find it on a real news site

    The story only exists in the “blogosphere.” Try a multitude of search terms in Google News and you’ll come up with ZILCH. That means no legitimate news sources are taking credit for the story or sharing the story with their audience.

  • Jason Clay Lewis
    Jason Clay Lewis
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    Reason No. 4

    Photo is fake -- not a real baby

    The photograph is fake. Most sites are using the same image, which was provided by allweirdnews.com, but the site got it from an artist’s website. It’s not a real baby in the photo; it’s a piece of sculpture by Jason Clay Lewis protesting the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It is titled, “Drill Baby.” Look at the tattoos closely and you’ll see they are all blackened wildlife. The tat on allweirdnews.com is a koi fish swimming in oily waters. The woman on the baby’s breast is the Virgin Mary holding a gasoline hose. The baby is made of vinyl rubber, mohair, oil, paint, plaster and aluminum armature.

  • Fox News
    Fox News
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    Reason No. 5

    A similar -- and real -- story did not go viral.

    There is a true story from a legitimate news source of a 20-year-old man who tattooed a letter “A” on the back of a one-year-old baby who was the daughter of a friend (apparently without permission of either parent) using a home-made tattoo gun. This story did not go viral despite being true. Were the story in question true, wouldn’t it have made an even bigger splash among traditional news outlets that would want to report the story?

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