A Cuban identified on TikTok as @jesusdecuba captured the image of a man with the face of Fidel Castro tattooed on his calf and posted it on Saturday on that social media platform, triggering a wave of reactions among his followers.
The video lasting just 13 seconds showcases the back of an unknown person's leg, featuring a large, realistic portrait of the Cuban revolutionary dictator: dark beard, short hair, and a background of colorful elements in shades of yellow, red, and orange that create a manga-style design.
The reaction of the video's author summed up what many Cubans abroad feel about the omnipresence of Castro's figure: "I thought I had seen it all. I couldn't believe it, he still haunts us." Others, for their part, commented: "Tell me it's AI" or "People are very traumatized."
The clip was published just two days after the centenary of Castro's birth, celebrated on August 13, 2026, amid the fervor of the official events that the Cuban regime deployed throughout the year under the slogan "Year of the Centenary of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz."
Tattoos featuring Cuban political figures have their own viral history. In 2023, a Cuban named Pedro Miyares Vega tattooed Díaz-Canel's face and the logo of the Communist Party on his chest, which led to widespread mockery and subsequent public regret.
In the opposite direction, the Cuban tattoo artist Anyelo Ametller stated in 2024 that he refuses to tattoo communist symbols or the face of Che Guevara due to a moral decision. The singer Baby Lores also publicly declared that he had removed a tattoo of Castro after feeling deceived by the dictatorship.
Filed under: