Old joke: What message are people with face tattoos trying to send? Answer: Don't ever hire me for a real job.
New version: I'm a racist idiot and probably guilty of everything I'm charged with, and then some:
John Allen Ditullio Jr., an avowed neo-Nazi whose face and neck are covered with tattoos -- including a swastika -- will appear at his murder trial this week minus the lurid markings thanks to a $125-a-day taxpayer-funded make-over.
Ditullio's attorney persuaded the judge that the "scary" tattoos would prejudice the Florida jury. The state is paying a cosmetologist to cover the tattoos every day during the trial because Ditullio is indigent.
I find myself agreeing with Alan Dershowitz, who says the tattoos are an extension of Ditullio's personality and masking the marks could be construed as misleading to a jury. He chooses to present himself to the world in a certain way, and the same neo-Nazi ideology that prompted the face and neck art, it could be argued, led him to kill who he did.
Comments
Dershowitz (and any other thinking person) is right. This yutz can change his appearance any way he likes at his own expense and of his own volition.
If he's afraid his tatoos will give the wrong impression, he can change them or cover them but we shouldn't be asked to pay for it.
Amen to that, Tim!
Old joke: What message are people with face tattoos trying to send?
New joke: What message are people with facebook accounts trying to send?