A Royse City mother is claiming discrimination after being kicked out of the Grapevine Mills Mall Legoland for her body art, and she's using social media to win support from noted activists Travis Barker, Yelawolf and, of course, Busta Rhymes.
As Mr. Rhymes would say, here's the scenario: On Sunday, Lana Massey decided to surprise her 8-year-old son, a Lego fanatic, with a trip to Legoland. "He's overjoyed that such a place exists," Massey tells Unfair Park.
She paid $53 for access to Legoland Discover Center and the adjoining aquarium before proceeding to three separate playrooms. "The whole time we were in, we were followed" by a Legoland employee, the heavily tattooed Massey continues. "I was totally assuming that she was going to come up to me and ask me who my artist was."
Not quite.
The employee headed her off. "Ma'am, I need to give you your money back and ask you to leave," she said, according to Massey's account.
"Excuse me?"
"We've had some complaints about your tattoos. And this is a family-friendly environment."
Massey says she immediately felt discriminated against.
"So you're going to proceed with this unfair treatment against me because of the way I look?" she says she responded. "You're going to throw me out?"
According to Massey, that was that. The employee escorted her to the cashier's desk, gave her a refund, then escorted her out.
After hearing her story, we called Legoland, where officials say they didn't kick out Massey and her son because they didn't like her tattoos. They kicked her out because they didn't like one specific one.
"A guest at Legoland Discovery Center Dallas/Fort Worth was asked to leave due to customer complaints received about a visible offensive tattoo located on her lower leg," spokeswoman Kelle Jackson tells us by email. "As a family attraction geared to children three to 10 years old, our entrance policy guidelines allow our staff the absolute direction to refuse admission to guests wearing clothing or images on their person that are offensive in nature. The Duty Manager onsite acted in accordance to this policy, and offered the guest a refund or tickets to return another day with the graphic tattoo covered. Our offer to return to the attraction with complimentary tickets still stands with the understanding of our policy."
The tattoo in question, which is pictured above, is definitely attention-grabbing. But Massey says the ink is original artwork from the 1940s.
"No more offensive than zombie Jesus or guns promoting violence," she says. "Aside from any of that, there is nothing about tattoos in their policies, just inappropriate clothing. ... I could see if it was like a gaping vag or something like that, but I don't have anything like that." (Her friend does, apparently.)
Besides, the folks at Legoland never even mentioned her Tinker Bell tat. "That's not what they told me," Massey says. "She didn't specify any particular tattoo." She also claims that Legoland's employees never gave her the option of returning for free on a different day.
"The bottom line," she says, "is me and my son do thousands of things, and I've never been asked to leave."
