Aussie mum told to hide offensive tattoo
February 08, 2006
SHE claimed that no one had ever found her tattoo offensive before.
It never bothered people at her workplace, in public or even at her daughter's school where Ms Peta Bull sometimes helped out.
The cleaner and mother of two from Mackay, Queensland, was even wearing a singlet which partially hid her tattoo of a naked man and woman embracing when she boarded a Jetstar flight to Brisbane on 26 Jan.
So the 36-year-old was understandably shocked when airline crew told her that she would have to cover up - or get off the plane.
They handed her a jacket and said that there were children on board and that some passengers might be offended by the tattoo, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.
She was told to wear the jacket until she reached the terminal.
Ms Bull said she was too shocked to argue.
'It was humiliating,' she said. 'I couldn't see the problem. (Because of the straps of my singlet) nobody could have worked out what the picture was. I was very embarrassed.'
Ms Bull said that cabin crew didn't seem to notice another passenger who had a four letter word on his T-shirt and that he hadn't been asked to cover up.
'I felt like I had been singled out,' said Ms Bull 'I have never experienced anything like that before.'
The tattoo shows a man sitting behind a woman, who is lying back and propped up on her elbows. He holds one arm across her breasts and another over her private parts.
'It's not sexual,' she said.
Ms Bull tried to call the airline to complain but was told to make a written complaint.
She said she has sent a registered letter.
Mr Cameron Murphy, president of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, said it was a censorship issue.
'I think the operators of Jetstar should be more sensible,' he said. 'It's really an issue of freedom of expression. There's no particular reason why something like that could cause any problem for people.'
A Jetstar spokesman, Mr Simon Westaway, said that the company would look into the issue when it received the letter.
'Our cabin crew aren't the social police,' he said. 'At the end of the day the comfort of all the passengers needs to be taken into consideration.
'Our cabin crew clearly felt that they needed to ask her to cover up a little bit.'