A TV presenter with a traditional Māori face tattoo has responded to troll comments from a viewer.
Facial tattoos are always guaranteed to spark an online debate.
Many feel that ink should be reserved solely for the body, with facial tattoos often criticised online.
However, one TV presenter with a traditional Māori face tattoo has hit back at the haters.
After one viewer complained it was a ‘bad look’, she offered a truly inspirational response…
Oriini Kaipara, 41, made history when she joined New Zealand’s Newshub as a newsreader.
She became the first primetime TV news bulletin presenter with a moko kauae, a cultural marking worn by Māori women.
Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand
As per NewZealand.com, moko kauae are received by women on their lips and chins.
It represents a woman’s whānau and leadership within her community, while also recognising her whakapapa, status, and abilities.
One disrespectful Newshub viewer – known only as David – took issue with Kaipara’s moko kauae.
“We continue to object strongly to you using a Māori newsreader with a moku (moko) which is offensive and aggressive looking,” he wrote in an email to the channel.
“A bad look. She also bursts into the Māori language which we do not understand. Stop it now.”
However, Kaipara decided not to take this comment lying down.
Instead, she posted screenshots of the messages to her Instagram story, offering her own (brilliant) response.
She joked that David was the ‘gift that keeps giving’.
“Today I had enough. I responded. I never do that. I broke my own code and hit the send button,” the newsreader added.
Kaipara also shared screenshots of the emails she’d sent to David in response to his rude comments.
She claimed she finds his complaints ‘difficult’ to take seriously ‘given there is no breach of broadcast standards’.
“I gather your complaints stem from a place of preference on how one must look on-screen according to you,” she continued.
“Moko and people with them are not threatening nor do they deserve such discrimination, harassment and prejudice.
“We mean no harm or ill intent nor do we/I deserve to be treated with such disregard.
“Please refrain from complaining further, and restrain your cultural ignorance and bias for another lifetime, preferably in the 1800s.”