Thai border town becomes hub for tattoo removal

Following a crackdown on gangsterism in Malaysia, gang members are making a beeline for this town to get tattoo artists to either modify or to have the images removed.

The gang members will typically spend a week in the border gown, and party from dusk to dawn before heading back to Malaysia after their bodies are sufficiently “cleansed”.

A survey by The Star found that there are six tattoo parlours in dark corners of the town that comes under the Songkhla province.

“Usually, the gang members emerge in the evenings after consuming lots of alcohol,” said tattooist Osman Rusof. “They need to be ‘infused’ with courage as the procedure is quite painful. For those with signs that are obvious, we need to redesign it.” Osman, however, refused to be photographed, saying his clients were “intimidating types”.

The parlours are frequented mostly by Malaysian tourists, some of whom are gang members.

Security at these parlours is tight, with some operators installing CCTV cameras. Workers sometimes turn away potential clients if they suspect them to be law enforcers.

That gangsters are hurrying to rid themselves of tattoos is no surprise given that Malaysian police is looking out for these markings, some of which are clearly gang symbols.

“We believe the gang members mostly remove their tattoos in Kuala Lumpur, but some also go over to Thailand,” said a police intelligence operative based at the border area. “It depends on the capabilities of the tattoo artists.”

He added that the police had stepped up intelligence work.

It is also learnt that Malaysian police are negotiating with their Thai counterparts on the possibility of conducting a joint operation in the area to flush out suspects who have links to the underworld in both nations.