Military tattoos in the age of Iraq

This is kinda interesting. From The Texas Observer:

There are four basic types of military tattoos, and Fry says he can almost always tell whether a soldier is a fresh recruit or a veteran by the type he choose. Soldiers headed off to war tend to favor vintage, gung-ho Americana, a style perfected during the World War II era by Sailor Jerry, a Honolulu-based tattoo artist whose stock images of eagles, weapons, and pinup girls evoke a more innocent, patriotic era. Pvt. Thomas Hair, who has a billowing, three-masted ship sailing across his forearm, has modified the message. “It used to have a scroll underneath that said ‘homeward,’” he says, “but I changed it to ‘wayward.’ I’m definitely not homeward. I’ve got a few years left.”

The second type of military tattoo is for soldiers who want to make their uniform permanent. Some do this for practical reasons, tattooing dog tags complete with military ID and Social Security numbers onto their torsos in case they become separated from their heads during combat. These tattoos, called “meat tags,” can be elaborate: One Killeen variation shows the dog tags in an open wound, wrapped around an exposed rib.

Religious iconography constitutes a third category of military tattoo. [...]

Not everyone feels that way. Outside of Kingpin Tattoos, a blond soldier named Mac McConnell sits on a bench and smokes a cigarette. He’s got an upside-down cross tattooed across his bicep, his reaction to being force-fed religion in the Army. “The only time we get a break during basic training is to get to go to church,” he says. “And that pisses me off, since I’m not religious. If people can’t figure out right and wrong for themselves, they’re pathetic. It’s a way of not thinking.”

A fourth type of military tattoo stands as a reminder of the human cost of the Iraq war. All the tattoo shops in Killeen now do dozens of memorial tattoos each month; the most common is the iconic image of boots, machine gun, and Kevlar helmet. Memorial tattoos honor friends and comrades who’ve died in war—though not always by enemy fire. William Flood is a 20-year-old interrogator just back from Iraq with a memorial tattoo on his ankle. He says it’s dedicated to two close friends, Wesley and Alfredo, neither of whom died in combat. “Wesley was nice and quiet most of the time,” Flood says. “But he could get wild and have a good time. Then one day over there, he committed suicide without warning. I have no idea why. He wasn’t showing any signs. It pissed me off because I wasn’t expecting it. And then other soldiers started joking about it, which made me even more upset.”

It appears to me that the returning Vets are very angry. Rightly so.

My goal this summer is to get the tattoo I should have gotten forty years ago. I'll keep ya posted.

I can't draw a turd floatin' downstream, but I'll try to describe the tattoo I came up with back then, which I most definitely will not get. Time wounds all heels, or something like that. Picture a Marine Corps Eagle, Globe, and Anchor emblem, subtly modified, to wit: an 8-ball with a broke-and-folded-wing, cross-eyed buzzard perched atop it, two back-to-back fishhooks instead of an anchor, and the motto "Death Before Re-enlistment!". It's a Jarhead thing, folks.

Here's some USMC tattoos.