Aussie travelling in India says men threatened to 'skin him' over Indian goddess tattoo.

Matthew Gordon was one month into his six-month trip through India with his girlfriend when a group of men threatened to skin him.

The reason? The tattoo of the Hindu Goddess Yellamma on his lower leg that “offended their religious sentiments”.

According to reports, the 21-year-old law student from Melbourne was confronted by the men in a restaurant in Bangaluru on Saturday.

When he walked outside, he was met by a further 25 men and a policeman.

This from the ABC:

“A policeman arrived and said this is India and one couldn’t sport such a tattoo on the leg,” Mr Gordon told local media.

“I was relieved to see a policeman, but much to my shock he started to blame me, and said this is India and we are insulting Hindus.”

The pair were reportedly taken to the Ashok Nagar police station “for their own protection”.

“He then took me to the station… We were forced to sit there for three hours. They let me go only after I gave an apology saying I will cover this tattoo,” Mr Gordon said.

Gordon was released only after he wrote a letter of apology which he then uploaded to his Facebook page.

The letter reads:

Dear sir,

My name is Matthew, visiting from Melbourne, Australia. I am very sorry for offending Hindu religious beliefs by my tattoo. I did not know of this auspicious custom in regard to tattoo placement. I will make sure to cover it up while I am in India. Thank you for educating me in what is appropriate in regard to body art on my body. I am also extremely sorry for using inappropriate language.

Kind Regards,

Matthew

However, in the caption to the image Gordon wrote:

“My forced letter of apology that I had to write before I could leave the police station at Ashok Nagar. I should not have to apologise for what is on my skin and be put in a traumatising situation where it is apparently acceptable to be harassed, threatened and mobbed. Tolerance, understanding and equality is what we we live by I respect India and Hinduism completely. That’s why I spent 35 hours getting a massive Ganesha put on my back and 4 hours getting the Goddess of the lowest rung of Indian society (Yellamma) on the only bit of space I had left on my body. Because my spiritual journey is my decision, as are the markings on my body. I do not deserve to be victimised and have to physically defend myself and my girlfriend every day. She does not deserve sexual abuse both physical and verbal. We support equality for all, tolerance of everyone and especially for the women in this country. Please support us as we try to bring awareness to crimes of injustice.”

Gordon’s girlfriend also shared her own thoughts on the incident.

Writing on her own Facebook page, she spoke of the sexual assault she experienced while at a concert in India.

She then continued, “Yesterday, Matt and I found ourselves sitting in Ashoknagar Police station accused of ‘intentionally spreading hatred’. We repeatedly asked to leave, but were detained, although we were told we had not violated any criminal law.”

Kassianou also wrote on her Facebook post that the men who assaulted Gordon had affiliations with the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party who have ideological links with a Hindu nationalist organisation.

She noted that the men from this party are held in “high esteem” in Karnataka, with police “bending backwards to please them.”

One of the men accused told the Deccan Chronicle that they’d only asked Gordon to wear jeans and he “responded with profanity, which is why we called the police.”

This seems at odds with Gordon’s relationship with India however.

Speaking to Mamamia, employees at Lucky 13 Tattoo in Melbourne where Gordon had the tattoo done said that he only had it out of “respect and love for India.”

They continued that Matt had lived in India “for years” and also went to school there.

They noted that his “entire back is devoted to Ganesha”.