Tretchikoff and the Tattoohen I began my career as a prison doctor, I soon observed that almost all white British prisoners were tattooed. In one academic book on the subject, I read that the author herself was a member of what she called “the tattooed community”. There has developed a reverse fashion for tattoo removal. Alas for them, they have to wait three months before a tattoo can be removed; if it is more urgent, all that can be done is to ink out the name with a tattoo consisting of a dark block. Anyone old enough can remember the popularity of a painter called Vladimir Tretchikoff (who rather surprisingly died as late as 2006).