A St. Petersburg tattoo artist has been charged with offending religious believers with her tattoos of Jesus Christ and other Christian symbols deemed “blasphemous,” the Fontanka news website has reported.
Daria Krichker, 24, whose tattoos depict cats and anime characters alongside religious imagery, was detained at Pulkovo Airport on Saturday as she was attempting to flee to Armenia to escape a harassment campaign organized by influential conservative religious activists.
Fontanka said, without citing its sources, that Krichker was on Sunday banned from leaving Russia pending her trial.
Krichker faces up to one year in prison if found guilty of offending the feelings of religious believers.
“Don’t worry about me, there’s no point,” Krichker wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
According to Fontanka, the conservative Orthodox group Sorok Sorokov (Forty Forties) had sent a request to law enforcement authorities to probe Krichker for photos of “sacrilegious” tattoos portraying Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the Orthodox Church.