Tourist's Buddha Tattoo Gets Her Arrested

Sri Lanka will deport her over 'disrespectful' tattoo
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2014 8:17 AM CDT
Tourist's Buddha Tattoo Gets Her Arrested
Not the Buddha tattoo in question.   (©)

A British woman learned the hard way that it's not a good idea to visit Sri Lanka if you have a visible Buddha tattoo. Tourist Naomi Michelle Coleman, 37, was arrested after arriving from India at Sri Lanka's main international airport yesterday; she was taken before a judge, who ordered her to be deported. The tattoo, on her right arm, shows the Buddha sitting on a lotus flower, AFP reports. Sri Lanka has a Buddhist majority, and a police spokesperson says she was detained for "hurting others' religious feelings," the Independent notes. She's expected to be deported within days; the same thing happened to a male tourist last year. (More Sri Lanka stories.)

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