{"id":50557,"date":"2025-09-29T18:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/50557\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T18:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:36:11","slug":"maori-man-says-gold-coast-restaurant-barred-him-entry-over-ta-moko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/50557\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u0101ori man says Gold Coast restaurant barred him entry over t\u0101 moko"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pokai said he could understand why a bar or restaurant might refuse entry to someone with gang-related or threatening tattoos, but his is \u201ccultural art\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was dressed nice, I was presentable, polite and wasn\u2019t intoxicated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of my culture, my t\u0101 moko represents myself, my family, where I\u2019ve come from and what I\u2019ve been through.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the incident, Burleigh Pavilion didn\u2019t comment on the matter directly but referred to its dress code, which said \u201cintimidating, aggressive or offensive tattoos aren\u2019t permitted\u201d.<\/p>\n

Its website also states \u201cmanagement reserves the right to refuse entry to any person with head, face or neck tattoos. Discretion may be used dependant on size and nature\u201d.<\/p>\n

Others have also faced issues attempting to enter the Burleigh Pavilion thanks to their tattoos, including mum of two Katie Hally, who had Chinese lettering starting at the nape of her neck and running down the centre of her back.<\/p>\n

The lettering, when translated to English, says \u201cfamily, love happiness\u201d and she hoped to explain this to the manager, but instead she said she was told to leave. <\/p>\n

Reality TV star Jaden Laing tried to bypass the rules in a video posted to his TikTok.<\/p>\n

Laing, who has tattoos on his upper body and neck, wore a black turtleneck to cover the ink and said he\u2019ll be \u201cthe first Islander in Burleigh Pav, with neck tattoos, in history\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite covering the tattoos, he was unable to enter because he refused to show security his neck.<\/p>\n

A former professional rugby league player was also denied entry to a pub<\/a> in Wollongong because of its face tattoo policy. <\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer professional rugby league winger Brian Gardiner. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Brian Gardiner has a facial t\u0101 moko and deemed the incident an insult to his mana.<\/p>\n

He tried to enter the pub at 11pm on a Saturday but was turned away. However, when he returned to the same venue a few days later, he was allowed entry and served a beer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pokai said he could understand why a bar or restaurant might refuse entry to someone with gang-related or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9092,43769,17517,2562,11586,43771,34074,71,4241,42,16718,5158,43770,2720,43,1523,2539,312,37147,1361,40,38,41,39,3593],"class_list":["post-50557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-against","tag-barred","tag-because","tag-claims","tag-coast","tag-discriminated","tag-entry","tag-from","tag-gold","tag-headlines","tag-him","tag-man","tag-moko","tag-mori","tag-news","tag-over","tag-restaurant","tag-says","tag-t","tag-that","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-venue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}