Moko Halloween tattoo pulled from US webstore

A fake Maori moko tattoo being sold on an American halloween website appears to have been pulled from the website after complaints from Maori it was insulting.

Halloween Town's website says it is a "one-stop Halloween and horror headquarters".

It was selling "Maori face" tattoo kits in its shop and on-line for US$9.99 ($16), with a picture of a full-facial moko accompanying the on-line advertisement.

Ngahihi o te ra Bidois, head of Te Pakaro A Ihenga school at the Waiariki Institute of Technology, emailed Halloween Town asking for the kits to be withdrawn from sale.

"It is insulting... what they are doing is not portraying Maori correctly," he told the Rotorua Post.

And his request seems to have been heeded, a search on the store's website today shows no sign of the tattoo.

- NZPA