Articles Celebrations Obituaries

Sammy Jackson Green & Robert Shaun Hicks

Two Carter prisoners charged with forcing jailmate into bad tattoo

By John Thompson
Elizabethton Bureau Chief
jthompson@johnsoncitypress.com

 Printer-friendly version

 Email Article

ELIZABETHTON – Two prisoners of the Carter County Jail face new charges after they allegedly tattooed an image of a male organ on the back of another prisoner’s neck.

Sammy Jackson Green, 20, 202 Old Lacy Hollow Road, and Robert Shaun Hicks, 27, 2134 Gap Creek Road, were each charged July 1 with tattooing without a license. In addition to the charges, the cell block in which they resided had its television, telephone and radio privileges revoked for a week.

Jailers discovered the tattoo June 6 when they noticed inmate Johnny Calhoun had a fresh tattoo on the back of his neck. When the jailers asked Calhoun about the tattoo he told them a couple of his fellow inmates had done the work.

At that point, the jailers ordered Calhoun to gather his possessions and move to a different cell block for his safety. Once he had been settled into a different cell block, the jailers questioned Calhoun again about the tattoo on the back of his neck.

Calhoun said Hicks and Green had placed the tattoo on his neck. Calhoun was then asked if he knew what had been drawn on his neck. He told them he was not aware of what they had drawn.

When he was told the tattoo resembled a male organ, with the name “Lee” below it, he became highly upset and he told the jailers Green and Hicks had forced him to submit to the tattooing. He said he told them if he had to get a tattoo, he wanted them to put “Sheila” on his neck, which was the name of his girlfriend.

Following the interrogation, Calhoun was taken to the medical station to examine the fresh tattoo for signs of infection. He was then cleared to go back to his cell block.

Green and Hicks were both placed in lock down in a different cell block, while their old cell block lost many of its privileges.

Green and Hicks are scheduled to answer the charges against them Tuesday.