Animal rights activists are livid after a story surfaced of a Russian tattoo artist anesthetizing and then tattooing his hairless cat. I guess we can call this a Cattoo.
The cat, a Sphynx named Demon, has at least four tattoos on his sides and chest. Tattoos which experts say are similar to images used by Russian gangsters.
The artist, known as Aleksandr (who has more than 10 tattoos of his own) says he feels a little bad about doing it, telling the UK Mirror:
"Of course I feel pity doing it to him. It's not like he wanted to do it himself. He has a different skin, so tattoos are applied differently. Usually he feels fine and recovers from the anesthesia pretty fast."
Animal activist Yelizaveta Skorynina says that there was no reason to put Demon through this ordeal.
She says Sphynx cats have very sensitive skin and putting the cat under anesthesia is an unnecessary risk for Aleksandr's own selfish reasons.
She says even though the cat is anesthetized, that just turns off the cat's movement, not the brain, and that the stress could cause problems for the cat in the future.
A fellow tattoo artist defended Aleksandr, saying what he's doing to Demon is 'not any different' than farmers branding their livestock.