Michael Kosenko, a renowned tattooist, has lost his licence after being deemed a security risk under laws that have faced high-level criticism

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

One of Australia’s most prominent tattooists has been barred from the industry under anti-bikie regulations that one client, an Anglican bishop, has described as “abhorrent”.

Michael Kosenko has been stripped of his licence and ordered to close his Brisbane store under a tattoo licensing regime that, according to a review for the Queensland government, should be revamped.



Kosenko, the Queensland president of the Rebels motorcycle club, has been told by the Department of Justice licensing unit that he is not a “fit and proper person” and it is not in the public interest to let him continue tattooing.

But the Anglican bishop has spoken in defence of Kosenko, saying the tattooist – whose 30-year career also includes inking a string of international rock stars – was “an artist of significant proportions”.

“He tattooed me and my daughter,” the bishop, who asked not to be named, told Guardian Australia.



“I think this catch-all legislation, guilt by association, is abhorrent.”

While Kosenko has no criminal record, the department acted on an undisclosed ruling by the police commissioner that he is a security risk.

He is preparing to appeal the decision but neither he nor his lawyers will be given access to the “criminal intelligence” the commissioner has relied on nor the chance to contest those allegations.

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Kosenko’s local MP, Palaszczuk government backbencher Nikki Boyd, confirmed the department’s refusal in a phone call on Wednesday night after she contacted the police commissioner, Ian Stewart, and the attorney general, Yvette D’Ath.

Kosenko said Boyd had expressed some sympathy for his position after he wrote to her saying the closure of his Koolsville tattoo studio would put 14 people out of work. Boyd told Kosenko he was one of the last people assessed under the regime introduced by the former LNP government in 2013 – known as the VLAD Act. Kosenko joins 13 other tattooists who were refused licences out of almost 44,000 applicants as of the end of 2015.

Kosenko, as the head of the United Motorcycle Council, was the public face of bikies’ attempt to fight the former Newman government’s sweeping laws, which a review led by former judge Alan Wilson has recommended for wholesale changes.

A Crime and Corruption Commission report in 2014 said bikie gangs used tattoo parlours to “facilitate” drug dealing and money laundering. Some bikies threatened and extorted other tattoo operators, who did not go to police for fear of retribution, it said.

But the Wilson taskforce report recommended that under tattoo licensing, people should not be refused “solely on the basis that they are alleged to be a participant in a criminal organisation”.

It said the “criminal element within (gangs) is often difficult to isolate and identify [and] distinguishing between non-criminal and criminal members is, as a result, complex”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest As the head of the United Motorcycle Council, tattooist Michael Kosenko spearheaded a campaign against Queensland’s anti-bikie laws. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

“Licences etc should only be refused or cancelled on the basis that there is evidence specific to the individual which demonstrates that the individual (and not those with whom they associate) is not a suitable person to hold a licence etc,” it said.

The review said tattooists “must have the right to be given reasons for the decision and the opportunity to contest the allegation”, and called for the right to judicial review to be restored.

The recommendations were unanimous, indicating support from Queensland police and police unions. The government is considering its response.

“I’d be happy to sit it out and see what happens with the VLAD laws and sell a bike or something to survive but these guys [my employees] don’t deserve what’s happening to them,” Kosenko told Guardian Australia on Thursday.

“Even if I can’t work, I want everyone there to still make a living. You know, I got one guy needing an operation and two guys with new babies. These guys have got bookings at my shop for three months and all the work they’ve taken deposits for.”

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Kosenko said he would appeal the ruling in the Queensland civil and administrative tribunal. Police must give their reasons for the “adverse security determination” to the tribunal and withdraw them if they are found to be incorrectly classified as “criminal intelligence”. But they must not be disclosed to any other person and the tribunal’s power to overrule the decision is limited to cases of “jurisdictional error” by the justice department.

Kosenko told Boyd that his tattoo shop “supports 10 local businesses, all of which have offered personal and professional references”.

His rock star friends include Metallica frontman, James Hetfield, and Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx, who once rode Kosenko’s motorcycle on stage during a Brisbane concert.

Kosenko represented Australia at the Tattoo the Earth festival in the US, including as a judge. He also provided the Queensland government with advice on its first tattoo safety legislation.