Right in front of the Law Courts, or in the vicinity, there are tattoo artists plying their trade in silence.

Along with the other street artists who used to ply their trade at City Gate, they were moved from that location and have found their space around here, where many tourists, especially children, waiting to enter St John’s Co-Cathedral are a ready market.

Yet what they have on offer may be in infringement of the regulations and even downright dangerous.

For all their claims that they are street artists, what they do is just trace a pre-made design on a piece of paper.

Then, they say they use black henna but its real colour, hence the name henna, is dark brown. They turn it into ‘black’ henna by adding hydrogen peroxide to the mixture.

But hydrogen peroxide, which is normally used by hairdressers, can burn the skin, sometimes permanently, and can even be dangerous.

As anybody entering Valletta through City Gate can see at all times, the entrance to the country’s capital city is still as chaotic as ever, albeit minus the street artists, and there are many instances of people openly flaunting the law, from ‘temporary’ , but permanent, kiosks and pizzerias to the sale of fake CDs. The only people against whom some sort of legal action was taken were the street artists.