<?php

/*Vars to test*/

$var1="<HTML>";
$var2="<P>";
$var3="<ALL YOU WANT>";

/*function*/

function replace($string_tag) {
$newString="";
for ($i=1; $i<(strlen($string_tag)-1); $i++){
    $newString.=$string_tag[$i];
}

return $newString;

}

/*Output*/

echo (replace($var1));
echo "\r\n";
echo (replace($var2));
echo "\r\n";
echo (replace($var3));

?>