Could a tattoo, inscribed at Belize, decide whether the district attorney of Georgia’s Fulton County, Fani Willis, and her special prosecutor and boyfriend, Nathan Wade, should be disqualified from the sprawling racketeering case that they have brought against President Trump and 18 others?

The possibility that a tale told in ink and skin could shape one of the most anticipated prosecutions in American history became legible after Judge Scott McAfee rebuffed the request by Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade to cancel an evidentiary hearing set for Thursday. ...

The judge wants to hear evidence on what he calls Ms. Merchant’s “core allegations.” Those include the accusation that the funds Ms. Willis paid Mr. Wade — totaling more than $700,000 — paid for shared vacations. One of those locales, according to Ms. Merchant, was Belize, in March. She writes that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade “spent $74.15 at a tattoo parlor,” among other expenses.