Creepy: Tattoo Foretells Death

This is one of the creepiest news stories I've read in a long, long time:



Eerie inking foretold fate




A Brooklyn father getting a tattoo called "Last Rites" inked into his flesh passed out and crashed headfirst into a glass counter yesterday, killing himself, police and witnesses said.

Joaquin Laguer, 27, nearly was decapitated during the horrific accident inside Buzz Tattoo, an unlicensed parlor in East Williamsburg.

"There was nothing I could do," said shaken tattoo artist Julio Ramos, 36. "I was kneeling next to him, praying to God. My assistant said, 'He's gone.'"

Laguer, an aspiring model and rapper, felt faint soon after Ramos finished inking the outline of an abstract, wizardlike tattoo onto his right forearm.

Saying he was hungry, Laguer walked over to a glass counter where he'd placed a Spanish takeout meal of half a chicken, fried plantains and rice.

But before he could reach the food, he passed out and slammed into the front of the counter at 2 p.m. The shattering glass sliced deeply into his neck, Ramos said.

"There was no saving him," said Ramos' assistant, Wilson Fernandez, 24.

Laguer, who had a 2-year-old daughter, was rushed to Woodhull Hospital, where he was declared dead at 2:22 p.m.

His grieving girlfriend, Shanequa Neal, said Laguer had eight tattoos and wanted another featuring a picture of their daughter, J'lynn. When he couldn't afford it, he chose another tattoo out of a catalog.

Neal was stunned by the irony of the name of the "Last Rites" image he had selected. "It was like it was his time," she said.