A tattoo artist was inaugurated into the regional council for Bali’s Tabanan regency this week, showing that you can still have ink and hold public office in Bali, despite certain prevailing stigmas.
Made Bugiarta is now serving for the Gerindra party, replacing Made Sudiarta, who died about five months ago from heart disease.
“I did not expect this, it’s like a fallen durian,” Bugiarta said, using a common Indonesian idiom for windfall.
The new councilman says he was inspired to enter politics, because his father was the village head for 32 years and he is not in it for the money.
“I am ready to become a DPRD Tabanan councilman, not for looking for money, for a high salary. I earn enough from my tattoo studio, sometimes more than a councilman would,” Suara Dewata quoted him as saying.
Bugiarta,who has a studio called Demon Tattoo on Jl. Arjuna, has plenty of his own tattoos, with artwork on his arms visible in a photo posted by Tribun Bali with his sleeves rolled up.
The 46-year-old says he got into tattoos all the way back in high school and that there are unfortunately negative stereotypes associated with people who have tattoos. Though the stigma couldn’t be further from the truth, according to Bugiarta.
“Tattoo doesn’t mean criminal. For tens of years, I’ve been doing tattoos. I feel that people with tattoos actually have friendlier spirits,” he said.
Bugiarta of course isn’t the first or even highest profile tattooed person to take public office in Indonesia. Trail blazing minister of maritime affairs and fisheries, Susi Pudjiastuti, in all her tattooed glory has earned the status of “ASEAN’s coolest minister.”
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