Tattoos tell story of their own

THEIR tattoos are as ambiguous as they are elaborate.

Names of murdered friends are indelibly inked on their skin along with graphic gun drawings that make it hard to discern whether they are driven more by the grief of personal loss or the glorification of violence.

Religious imagery and angel wings are intricately drawn yet they are inspired by events in a place where the streets have their own set of commandments.

One bears the legend “Thug Angel”, the tag of controversial rapper Tupac Shakur, who was both celebrated street poet and reviled sex abuser before succumbing to the second attempt on his life in 1996.

But while the artwork in these startling pictures of associates of Limerick’s feared McCarthy-Dundon gang may be hard to fathom, photographer Justin Kernoghan, found the human canvases less so. “They just wanted to tell their story,” said Kernoghan, a member of the Photopress agency in Belfast, who happened upon his subjects by chance while on assignment in Limerick’s Weston estate.

“The guards came up and said don’t go in there — these guys have weapons. But I was sent down to do a job so I had to at least try,” Kernoghan said.

“Then these two guys, one in a flak jacket and the other with a hurley, approached me in a manner that, let’s say, got me a bit frightened but they just asked me who I was and what I was doing. I had a bit of banter with them and they opened up and said they wanted to tell their side of the story.

“They wanted to show their tributes to their fallen comrades and started showing me their tattoos there and then. I asked if I could take a few pictures and they invited me into the house. At no time did I feel intimidated or frightened, because all they wanted from me was a chance to tell their story but these guys are ready to die at any minute. They kept on saying: ‘We are walking targets’.”

Kernoghan has been invited back to spend more time chronicling life in the estate and has no hesitations about going. “As a photographer, when you’re invited into somebody’s home and life, it’s a privilege. You don’t say no.”