BRIEF: The tattoo kidnappings

Big thought, small step, deep breath — for March 28, 2025

BIG THOUGHT

Inked

Could you be kidnapped and renditioned for one of your tattoos?

Nearly a third of Americans overall — and almost half of those 30-49 — have at least one tattoo, according to Pew Research. And if you’ve watched hoops or football lately, it should be very clear to you that getting inked isn’t just for bikers, pirates, or gangsters. Yet here we are, with the U.S. government disappearing people solely because of their body art — and we’re talking about an autism awareness ribbon. A Real Madrid logo. As Karla Ostolaza of the legal nonprofit The Bronx Defenders put it:

The tattoos set off no alarm bells in a suburban U.S. gym, but “worn by someone of that nationality, it becomes a sign of criminality, danger and gang affiliation,” she said.

The fashion critics at ICE seem to have decided that any tattoos, so long as they’re on a Venezuelan migrant, are enough to condemn a person to a lifetime of hard labor in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center. That may be in keeping with the Trumpian recipe for “common sense” (a dash of racism, a dollop of excessive force, a wave of the hand at the law, and a few dozen viewings of Dirty Harry), but it is exactly what the rule of law is meant to prevent. And considering that border czar Tom Homan has even admitted ICE is sweeping up plenty of innocent “collaterals” in their attempt to sow terror, it’s pretty clear his front-line troops have no idea what they’re seeing, let alone know it when they see it. Whatever it is.