The New Zealand National party said on Thursday that if its proposed ban on gang patches on clothing does not go through then it would consider making gang members apply foundation over their facial tattoos, or face arrest, Eva Corlett and Serena Solomon report for The Guardian. The National party’s police spokesperson, Mark Mitchell, referenced Western Australia’s ban of gang tattoos in 2021, which also allowed gang members to cover them with makeup, but critics questioned the effectiveness of the proposal, noting that no other state in the country had replicated Western Australia’s ban. In addition, the New Zealand police would have difficulty in differentiating between gang and cultural tattoos, especially for Māori, where the traditional facial tattoos called a moko have seen a resurgence in recent years. Gangs have existed for decades in New Zealand, with there currently being roughly 8,870 members across 33 gangs.
