(Image Credit: Pamlico County Sheriff's Department)

A North Carolina mother was arrested after she gave her 11-year-old daughter a small heart-shaped tattoo near her shoulder, authorities said.

Odessa Clay, 30, of Greensboro, N.C., faces one count of tattooing a person under age 18.

It is illegal to tattoo a minor in North Carolina, regardless of parental consent.

The Havelock Police Department charged Clay, who has a few tattoos of her own, with the offense in late September.

In her defense, Clay said she did not know tattooing a minor, especially her own daughter, was illegal.

"She asked me to do it," Clay told ABC News affiliate WCTI-TV, adding that she only drew a heart outline and did not fill in the shape.

Clay said she believes an ex in-law turned her in after she filed a report against her 11-year-old daughter's paternal grandfather.