Tattoo artists uphold the pointy end of the battle for free speech
18.05.12
Thirteen tattoos and you'd think he would have had enough.
But Lawrence Talento, a 24-year-old Filipino waiter in Dubai, is not even close to being done.
"Tattoos set me apart from others," he says. "I just love all the attention I get from them."
At the age of 14, Talento got his first tattoo - his name in Old English lettering - on his upper back. Today he has a Japanese koi (carp) and a lotus flower on his upper arms, a mummy on his chest and the words "respect" and "loyalty" on both arms. On his left forearm are the faces of his 70-year-old father Adolfo Talento, the Filipino national hero José Rizal, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Abraham Lincoln. Albert Einstein is on his neck, while Martin Luther King Jr is on his left forearm.
"They all inspire me," he says. "My father is my idol. He used to be a farmer, became a bus driver and decided to leave the country to work in Saudi Arabia and Japan."
Talento recently wanted to get a tattoo portrait of Sheikh Zayed, the founding president of the UAE, as a way to honour him. But he was worried people might find it offensive.
Source: The National