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Trace Cyrus, the older brother of Miley and frontman for Metro Station, announced on Friday that the band would not be taking the stage when the Vans Warped Tour rolls into Toronto. Metro Station had been scheduled to play the entire tour. The heavily tattooed Cyrus broke the news via Instagram as he cited anxiety over crossing the border as the reason for canceling the shows.
“Toronto I deeply apologize but I won’t be making it to the Warped Tour date today in Canada,” Cyrus posted. “Most every time I cross into Canada, border agents treat me like a criminal. Even though I’ve never been arrested, had a DUI, or any serious trouble with the law. With the image I have I become an immediate target.
“One of my last times going there I was put in a room for hours and interrogated and searched till after hours of them finding nothing they finally let me go,” the statement continues. “I suffer from severe anxiety and panic attacks and the idea of being detained in a room against my will is just something I can’t handle mentally right now. I’m embarrassed that I have to cancel this show.”
Considering that Cyrus is covered in tattoos, including ink on his face and head, it’s impossible not to wonder what role (if any) his ink has played in his past troubles with border guards. While there is no evidence that Cyrus was profiled because of his ink in the past it is clear from the tone of his statement that he believes his tattoos had something to do with being detained. Many Americans incorrectly believe that crossing into Canada is a simple process, at least when compared to going to Mexico. Despite our good relations with our northern neighbor one must remember that it still is a border between two sovereign nations; thus there is a certain amount of scrutiny paid that can lead to instances like the one described by Cyrus.
We will never be able to say for sure whether or not Cyrus’s tattoos were the reason that he was detained but there is another factor that needs to be considered—Cyrus is a touring musician. Until the passage of a law in 2014 eased the process, Canada was notorious among musicians for being difficult to tour in. Canadian authorities have been known in the past to be very strict about documenting every single item brought into the country by bands (both merch and equipment) to make sure that all proper taxes are paid in the end. Traveling musicians also used to have to have temporary work permits from the Canadian government in order to perform, although that law was also recently changed. Cyrus does not give much detail about why he was detained in the past but it is very likely that his status as a touring musician had a lot more to do with that incident than his tattoos.
Of course this is all just speculation, we won’t get a definitive answer about what caused Cyrus’s previous detention. That being said we hope that tattoos had nothing to do with Cyrus’s past problems, we’d like to think that our society has accepted ink to the point that the days of people being labeled criminals for being tattooed were in the past.
The post What Role Did Trace Cyrus’s Tattoos Play in Show Cancellations? appeared first on Inked Magazine.