An apartment complex in San Antonio that turned away a married couple because of their tattoos defends its policy banning large tattoos and other body art can legally do that, Texas housing officials said.

Gilbert Carrillo is proud of his tattoos, which regularly draw compliments. One of his tattoos was featured in a magazine.

"Ever since I was 18, to now, 25, is little bit by bit, just covering up here, covering up there," Carrillo said.

But last month, Carrillo's tattoos kept him and his wife, Melissa, from moving into The Villas apartment complex.

"We liked the apartment, we brought them a check for the deposit and a check for the application fee," Carrillo said.

But one day after Carrillo went to see the apartment wearing a short-sleeve shirt, he was told he didn't qualify to live there. The management said his tattoos violated the complex's policy on personal appearance.

"For them to be so judgmental upon a person's appearance, and for them to judge somebody based upon them having a tattoo is just ridiculous, you know," Carrillo said.

Not only do the Carrillos feel that the policy is discriminatory, they were also upset that the manager refused to refund the couple's full $70 application fee.

The manager of the complex, Daisy Salazar, told a reporter with WOAI-TV that she was not allowed to talk about the policy or the lack of the refund.

One of the owners of the apartment, a southern California physician named Edward Frankel, replied to an e-mail about the policy saying his complexes do "reject prospective tenants who have... tattoos exposed on the neck, head, hands and wrists, or large tattoos that cover over 40 percent of the lower or upper arm."

Frankel and his partners have purchased a number of upscale apartment complexes in San Antonio and Dallas, where they have also banned pierced tongues and eyebrows and tenants can't have more than one nose piercing or five earrings.

But Frankel said the policy is not discriminatory. "The above applies to persons of any race, color, gender, etc," Frankel wrote.

Texas housing officials said the rules may be unusual, but are not illegal.

"Refusing to rent to somebody because they have tattoos may be unfair, but is not necessarily discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, unless the tattoos are specific to the person's religion or national origin," said Sandy Tamez of the San Antonio Fair Housing Council.

After the San Antonio television station began asking questions about the case, the complex did refund the Carrillos' full application fee, but the couple is still angry that a landlord would consider body art to be the mark of a bad tenant.