It remains to be seen whether Michael Smith regrets his tattoo or not. But Michael Smith’s tattoo has now nearly landed him in some hot water.

You see, Michael Smith’s tattoo is a handgun on his lower abdomen and upper thigh. It is quite realistic-looking, and if you see it from afar, it looks as though he has a real gun tucked into his belt or pants. In some environs, that might be a handy thing to have. But sometimes, that is not necessarily a good thing. In fact, it might be prudent to keep a shirt on.

Most recently, Smith, who lives in Norridgewock, Maine, ran outside his house to yell at some tree trimmers for Central Maine Power who woke him up with all their work noise. USA Today reports that Smith works nights and was visibly upset at being roused so early. He ran outside to yell at the workers, wearing only his pants. But his inked gun set up an alarm that brought police running. Not just police, but the SWAT team.

As the Morning Sentinel reports, Main State Trooper Scott Duff admits that it was a misunderstanding, but one that nobody really blames anybody for making.

“Obviously it was a misunderstanding and he didn’t have a weapon,” the Trooper said. “But we had to respond to the initial report as if he did. We take all precautions when we don’t have the details.”

The Trooper says that he doesn’t think that Smith even intended to make workers think that he had a real gun to intimidate them. He just ran outside in his pajama pants, yelled at workers not to cut his trees, and went back inside to bed.

No charges were filed against Smith, and no comment was available from Central Maine Power.

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