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http://www.france24.com/en/20120723-munich-opera-slams-bayreuth-over-nazi-tattoo-row
It has never been truer.
Be careful what you have tattooed on your body...as a carefree...or sullen and angry youth.
A 'tramp stamp'...well...always carries an unseemly sexual message.
A swastika...even worse!
Russian opera singer Yevgeny Nikitin, 38...has learned that painful lesson.
He had to quit his star performance in 'The Flying Dutchman' for Bayreuth's world famous Richard Wagner festival...because of disturbing body art.
The former heavy metal singer still sports a big swastika...and other Nazi symbols...on his chest.
Nikitin has not tried to hide them in the past.
But the festival is sensitive about Nazi symbolism because Wagner started the fest in 1876 and had a strong association with the Nazis quest for an Aryan race.
Reaction to the dismissal and change varies.
A Munich opera spokesman claims there was no problem with Nikitin's swastika...but that the issue is really Bayreuth's distasteful past.
