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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, June 30, 2008

At Guantanamo, tattoos become the latest rage

By Carol Rosenberg
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — Tired of guarding terror suspects in the scorching Caribbean sun? Looking for a change from the routine of squiring dignitaries around this remote Navy base that's been in the news lately?

Get a tattoo.

Four tattoo artists recently opened a 10-day body art parlor above an Irish bar near the base bowling alley, open day and night to U.S. service members and Department of Defense contractors willing to pay on the spot.

"I'm kind of addicted to this right now," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Tameka Jones as she winced her way through inked "tribal lines" — just above her tush. Jones, a Navy cop on the base, said it was her seventh tattoo.

It was applied by Rich Green, 44, of Worcester, Mass., who arrived a day earlier to set up shop with three fellow tattoo artists and sported his own advertisement — a blue-inked GTMO INK — just above his elbow. GTMO is the military's acronym for this offshore outpost that is home to 7,500 sailors, other U.S. forces, Defense Department contractors, families and, of course, 270 suspected terrorists.

Officially, Green's kid brother Tyler, 38, got the contract to bring the staff of five aboard a military charter — his fourth such pilgrimage here.

The off-duty distraction is the latest recreational offering brought to this 45-square-mile base.

On Memorial Day weekend, the alternative rock band Everclear played a concert for the troops on the ferry landing near the desalination plant, then took a tour of the prison camps.

Next, the first-run movie "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo" is due to arrive for screening at an outdoor cinema.

Tyler Green, owner of the Port of Worcester tattoo parlor, predicted his team would ink up to 300 paying customers.

"It seems like there's an almost endless supply of people who want to get tattoos," he said, reporting brisk business that in the past has stretched from 8:30 a.m. until past midnight.