Hey, how did I get stuck in the middle of this?!?
Well, ok, as long as I'm here...
To me this highlights a very interesting problem about the NFHS rules. I've been under the impression that old interps and case plays do, in fact, continue to be valid, even though they might not be currently printed in the book and they have not been overruled by a new rule or case play. That's why Nevada's posts on previous year's interps has been very useful. But I also think JRut has a point, in that there are interps that are no longer valid, even though there has been nothing issued in writing stating so.
A few years back there was a big emphasis against pre-game taunting, to the point where teams had to stay on their own end of the court during warmups, couldn't come out of the locker room and run around the other team, couldn't go past center court during intoductions, etc. I had a situation last season where, during pregame warmups, one team went back to the locker room, so the other team started full-court layup drills. I told that team they had to stay on their end, and they looked at me like I had two heads. (Sometimes I do, but I didn't at that particular moment.) I explained the ruling to the coach, and he had never heard of it. He was a young guy, only been coaching for a few years, so he probably wasn't around when the ruling was first issued. When I checked with the state office a few days later, I was told that wasn't in effect any more. But they also admitted there was nothing put out in writing stating it was no longer in effect. This may be the exact same situation with the tattoo issue - it was there before, but somehow went away without anything written as such.
So, I still stand by my statement that it's always best to follow the rules. But sometimes there's confusion as to what rules are actually in effect.