Singer quits Wagner festival over Nazi tattoos

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Russian opera singer has pulled out of the Bayreuth opera festival over Nazi tattoos on his chest days before the start of the celebration of Richard Wagner's works that was once popular with Third Reich leaders. Evgeny Nikitin was meant to play the Flying Dutchman in Wagner's opera of the same name but German newspaper and TV images have shown him bare chested with tattoos that resemble symbols used by the Nazis. One looks like a swastika, which appears to be covered by a new tattoo in more recent pictures. "I had these tattoos done in my youth. ...