Sporting a tattoo of the Bangladesh map has brought one man a flood of kudos and goodwill from people around the world.
Bangladeshi citizen Arif R Hossain described the reactions to his tattoo in a Facebook post which received 33,000 likes and 891 shares, including stories about the changed behaviour of officials at airports in New York and Dhaka and at the RAJUK office in Dhaka.
“I went to the RAJUK office to collect some documents for work which had been blocked for three months because I had refused to pay a bribe. Incredibly, when the officer saw the imprint of the country on my arm he said: 'Your file is ready. You can take it.'"
“Earlier, he had asked for money but after seeing the tattoo, he released my documents,” Arif said.
The tattoo had the same transformative effect at Dhaka airport after Arif returned from a trip to the United States.
He said the porter declined to ask for the customary but illegal tip, saying: "How can I take a tip from a hand adorned with the Bangladesh map?”
Arif, a co-founder of Aamrai Bangladesh and team leader of BUZZ at 3rd Bell, recenlty visited the US where he had the tattoo done.
The tattoo received a warm welcome in the US as well.
While waiting to board a flight in New York with an economy class ticket in hand, an official came over to him and exchanged a handshake.
When the official noticed the Bangladesh map on Arif's arm, he bumped him up to business class.
“Thrlled to see someone really proud of his country! Welcome on board,” Arif recalls the official as saying.
Arif went under the needle for the first time in a New York City tattoo shop.
“I asked the tattoo artist to tattoo the map onto my arm and he seemed very happy after seeing the finished product, which he photographed."
The tattoo artist later hung the photograph of my tatoo in a big frame in his shop, Arif said.
