Legality? I don't know.

But if the tattoos were mostly covered up with a hat during the crimes, putting the suspect out there full of visible face tats would be distracting.
The witnesses would immediately rule him out. Not because it doesn't look like him, but because face tattoos are a very distinctive feature that they never saw during the robbery.

I would hope that there is more evidence than a couple of people picking him out of a lineup though

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