HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO ERASE OR CHANGE A TATTOO?

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             The level of my concern about tattoos is, at best, curious interest.  I occasionally wonder what aberration or mental set makes an individual want to have this or that figure needled into his or her epidermis.  In some cases, it is easy enough because the answers are obvious: undying love in a heart shape with a name and pierced by Cupid's arrow; profession of religiosity in the form of a crucifix or other holy images; pretension to masculine toughness in the form of lethal objects or sinister figures; and so on and so forth.  But it gets to be difficult when you see all those symbols in one individual or when it's a masculine name that you see in the heart shape tattoo on the chest of another man.  That challenges you to go into the realm of psychiatry or mental health but I would be digressing from from the subject of my new-found interest in one particular tattoo and what it means to the whole country.

               At one Senate hearing on drug smuggling, the son of President Duterte was invited to testify on the allegation of Sen. Trillanes that he is part of the group, the Davao group, responsible for the wholesale drug smuggling under investigation.  To start his questioning, Sen. Trillanes asked the young Duterte if he had a tattoo on his back.  Duterte confirmed that he has a tattoo on his back (or had at that time).  Trillanes then proceeded to inform Filipinos and foreigners alike on national television that the tattoo was a brand and emblematic of Duterte's membership in the dreaded criminal syndicate, the Chinese Triad, which is into international criminal activities to include drug smuggling.  Trillanes went on to describe in detail the unseen tattoo on Duterte's back and dared him to show it or have a photo of  it taken to prove that Trillanes was just bluffing and not telling the truth.

            It was an anxious moment for me for the sake of Trillanes.  All the young Duterte had to do was to show or have a picture taken of the tattoo on his none-too private back and if it was not like what Trillanes described in detail, whatever crusade Trillanes is on would have been destroyed; his credibility would have been damaged beyond rehabilitation and the most credible critic of Rodrigo Duterte would have become the national joke.  Then the younger Duterte, visibly shaken but with what seemed like a smirk, spewed into the microphone: " No way!"

            My feeling of relief for Trillanes' sake was just a flash as I instantly realized the inescapable implications and conclusions that a person with minimum intelligence can get from this episode. WHY DID NOT MR. DUTERTE WANT TO SHOW THE TATTOO ON HIS BACK?  The only reason given is that it was not relevant and they did not want to please Sen. Trillanes.  It will be shown in due time, they say.  Don't you feel insulted by this answer?

            Yes, in due time, we might still see that Presidential son's tattoo and what Sen. Trillanes described as a dragon might turn out to be just a bouquet of red roses.  But yes, my concern with tattoos has widened: HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO ERASE OR CHANGE A TATTOO?

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