Matching tattoos could indicate 'clique' problem in Calif. sheriff's department

Author: Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D. By Maya Lau Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES — The image on the deputy’s calf depicted a skeleton in an officer’s uniform, wearing a cowboy hat and clutching a smoking rifle. Jason Zabala said he was inked by an artist who worked at a Sunset Beach tattoo shop and was the 140th person to get the same design. The tattoo, he said, was a proud mark of camaraderie among his fellow peace officers. But years later, a judge would order Zabala and another...