Radio Azatlyk reports that as privatelyowned stores and consumer services shops are being closed down, a campaign on identifying and detaining tattoo artists is underway in Ashgabat.
Police officers detain individuals with tattoos, take them to the police station to find out where they had their tattoos done and who the tattoo artist was.
According to the news outlet, tattoo artists in Turkmenistan have a semilegal status no official ban had been imposed but there were no tattoo studios, which offered this service.
� This has always been grey business and I doubt that licenses for such activities have ever been issued. The services were rendered semilegally, a correspondent of Azatlyk said.
The official Turkmen media outlets provide no comment about the newlyintroduced ban, but one of the progovernmental media outlet Arzuw news published an article on the damage caused by tattoos, which also runs that pursuant to Sharia law it is forbidden for faithful Muslims to make any body transformations, otherwise they will be cursed.
According to journalists of the media outlet, body transformations include not only tattoos, but piercing and hair extensions.
There are no tattoo studios in Muslim countries. It is quite selfexplanatory: a person, who decorates the holy body temple with drawings will be cursed. The money, which a person dares to charge for such services, is considered to be stolen. Pursuant to Sharia law, the action itself and the subsequent payment are cursed and any Muslim will fear this.
Not only tattoos, but any body changes are declared taboo in Islam. Faithful Muslim women do not have hair extensions. Neither men, nor women are allowed to have piercings. The body transformations, which are currently very popular in Europe, is an appalling sin for any Islam follower, Arzuw says.
Let us recall that the residents of Turkmenistan have been previously prevented from wearing beards, having hair extensions, bleaching hair or using nail polish.
The law enforcement officers are unable to provide any decrees or orders which ban beards, tattoos or hair dying. All bans like these are verbal, which contradicts the Constitution of Turkmenistan.
The Constitution of Turkmenistan as of 2016
Article 1
Turkmenistan shall be a democratic, legal and secular state in which the government shall take the form of presidential republic.
Article 8
The rule of law shall be established in Turkmenistan.
The state and all of its bodies and officials shall be linked by law and constitutional order.
The Constitution of Turkmenistan shall be the Basic Law of the state. Rules and regulations laid down in it shall be unswervingly applicable. The laws and other legal acts that contradict the Constitution shall be null and void.
The normative legal acts shall be promulgated in the state mass media or made public through other means, stipulated by law. The normative legal acts affecting the rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen, if not made public, shall be invalid from the time of their adoption.
Article 18
The state shall guarantee freedom of religion and belief, and equality before the law.
Religious organizations shall be separate from the state, their interference in the state affairs and carrying out the state functions shall be prohibited.
Article 19
An ideology of political parties, religious organizations, public associations and other entities shall not be binding for citizens.
Article 41
Each person shall independently determine his/her attitude toward religion, shallhave the right to, individually or jointly with others, profess any religion or none, to express and disseminate beliefs related to attitude toward religion, to participate in religious observances, rituals, and ceremonies.
Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan