The Weekend Sun editor Daniel Hutchinson investigates an airline's tattoo ban and other bizarre rules.

Straight out of the ‘totally useless gestures' category is Air New Zealand's lifting of a ban on tattoos this week. If you didn't actually know about the tattoo ban, there's a reason for that. It's because cabin crew wear clothes when they are working.

The most skin you're likely to see is a face or a cheeky bit of forearm.

The story is not really about how awesome the airline is for relaxing the ban, but how futile it was in the first place.

You certainly don't want to be handed a boiled sweet by someone with a bad word tattooed on their forehead, but I imagine you could weed those ones out at the interview process.

Think about all those people who had tried and failed to become cabin crew because of a forbidden mark on other parts of their body.

The shame at the interview process must have been unbearable - forced to drop your socks to reveal the smoking gun or the dolphin neatly etched behind an ankle.

Were they worried about the chaos at 10,000 metres when Minnie Mouse suddenly peeked out from behind a blouse?

How many crew were secretly carrying ink, living in fear of the day when someone would spot it, never able to lounge on the beach in case an eagle-eyed colleague dobbed them in?

Now that the rules have been relaxed, I expect we are going to see men in short-sleeved shirts and women without scarves.

Are we ready for that?

Other funky rules

There are plenty of other weird rules either consigned to history, in play at the moment or even under consideration so we thought we should take a look at some of them.

No nukes

You will be happy to know it is illegal to possess a nuclear weapon. Additional to that rule, if you happen to stumble across any uranium, you must report it within three months.

So please, please, don't leave the uranium lying around in the boot for years.

This isn't as bonkers as it sounds and follows the discovery of uranium in the Buller Gorge in the 1950s.

There were serious discussions for several decades, and plans drawn up for a nuclear power station in New Zealand.

Don't worry uranium hoarders, the ‘no nukes' rule of the 1980s doesn't specifically ban nuclear power generation in New Zealand.

Paint it black

John Henry Ford was ahead of his time with one of his more famous rules.

'Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black”.

We have come a long way since then and now you can choose from a whole range of interesting colours.

Everybody chooses silver.

Whale of a tale

Back in New Zealand, some people may not be aware that it is against the law to make a loud noise near a whale.

The Marine Mammals Protection Regulations state that 'no person shall make any loud or disturbing noise near whales”.

About this time last year, the Matariki fireworks were postponed in Wellington because of this. Fortunately the whale swam off anyway. The fireworks were detonated the following weekend, terrifying small children and every other non-human creature within 10km.

While we are on the subject of whales, it is worth noting that whaling is banned in Oklahoma. This sounds like a great idea — after all, whaling is banned in many places around the world to protect declining whale populations. But there hasn't been a naturally occurring whale in Oklahoma in... forever. The state is landlocked.

No togs in the pool please

Earlier this year, a woman was told to cover up at the Albany Stadium Pool after making the mistake of wearing a bikini.

That confused everyone, because if you can't wear your togs in the pool where are you supposed to wear them?

Taking the p!$$

Is the bikini rule the same as the ‘no peeing in a public place' rule? This is a bit of a catch-22 rule this one.

Basically you have a perfectly legitimate defence under New Zealand law if you have 'reasonable grounds for believing you would not be observed”.

So, it's only legal if nobody sees you.

That's not much different to the current cannabis laws, but don't worry, they're fixing that.

If you want to find more dignified legislation, you only have to head to Scotland.

Scots who really need to go are in luck: the country has an old law on the books saying that if a stranger knocks on your door asking to use the toilet you must let them in.

Cannabis reform

Cannabis is illegal, of course, but, once again, this is only effective if someone sees you.

A proposed law change will allow people to smoke it in private.

Is the Government giggling?

Is that the sweet smell of a tax rising up through the air?

Poor old Winnie

Winnie is banned in Tuszyn, Poland.

The cartoon character has been deemed an 'inappropriate hermaphrodite” because he is non-gender-specific. I guess that's what happens when you don't wear pants.