James Leon Jackson was first arrested over the 1984 murder of Tammy Welch in 2013, but prosecutors only revealed the sickening piece of evidence during his ongoing murder trial.
According to The Washington Post, it reads “Tammy Welch, 1984”, which investigators reportedly regarded as a “confession written on skin”.
Jackson, 66, has tried to claim the inking is a prison prank, saying, according to ActionNewsJax.
He claimed the tattoo had been done while he was awaiting trial by other inmates while they were freshening up each other’s tattoos.
Jackson claims that once he realised what they had done, he had the name blotted out, saying: “I didn’t want nobody thinking I killed nobody or nothing like that.”
Tammy was slaughtered in the courtyard of her apartment complex in Jacksonville, Florida, after being allowed to stay off school so she could play with her sister Jennifer.
The girls had an argument, with Jennifer running back inside their home.
When her mother asked her to go get Tammy, she found the youngster lying on the ground with her shorts covered in blood.
The sight of her murdered sister so terrified Jennifer that she ripped out a a chunk of her hair.
Cops determined Tammy had been sexually assaulted and strangled, although her case went cold until 2010, when a $500,000 federal grant allowed Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to retest old evidence using the latest techniques.
That led to Jackson being arrested three years later, with officials announcing he had been living next to Tammy when she was killed.
He was interviewed at the time, but continues to insist he was visiting his estranged wife at the time the youngster was murdered.
Jackson’s murder trial is set to hear closing arguments Friday.
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