After quitting his job, losing his power base and reputation, and seeing his industrial/political complex crumble before his very eyes, what did former union powerbroker-turned-national pariah John Setka do next? Readers, he inked up. Former CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka has inked up. Credit: Instagram The fallen former CFMEU Victorian secretary has acquired a new collar tattoo and the message couldn’t be more defiant: GOD FORGIVES THE CFMEU DOESN’T.
Grammarians might quibble with the lack of a central comma, but there’s no mistaking the defiance behind the slogan in its thick black modern gothic font. Or indeed, the expression of defiance on shirtless Setka’s face as he stares into the camera and proudly displays his new ink, still red-raw from the tattooist’s needle. Don’t slip! Tattooist apprentice Josh tends to his famous client.
Credit: Instagram His expression says he means business. But the simple fact is, after he jumped ship and resigned – hours before The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald’s Building Bad expose was published and rewrote the industrial landscape – Setka has no business left. The world has turned and left him in its wake.
So what was going through the big man’s mind? We can only make an educated guess. As The Cultural Heritage of Tattooing: A Brief History (Karger Publishing) states: “For millennia, peoples around the world have tattooed human skin to communicate various ontological, psychosocial, and sociocultural concepts.