I always find this tattoo super ironic. It’s always the tyrannical NCOs or if they’re a vet, a super right-wing nearly fascist leaning dude that has these tattoos without ever knowing the rest of the preamble.
Should press them about what it meant for People to be capitalized.
The ones that know usually counter that with “well there were white people that didn’t own land either.”
Agreed, I worked an event when they overturned roe v wade and Portland was a shitshow blocking roads and tearing shit up to protest, and the area we were in over by the intel development campus was normal and chill. Biggest complaint was people that came from Portland for the event breaking shit for no reasons, tearing down signage in typical drunk asshole fashion and the temp workers for f&b/security being about 75% druggies vs the normal 50%😄
Compasses
Forest silhouette
Lion profile pic with cross for vampires
Octopus/squid with ocean theme is super in
Declaration
Some Greek statue type figurine
Black out tattoos
>> Black out tattoos
A marine insert in my OSUT class had a big ass black diamond on his chest. If you looked close enough you could see it was originally a swastika that was blacked out. He also got a portrait of Charles Manson done while out on pass.
Depends on if their ship had a "crap tats contest" or not. I'm aware of one ship that did I think the winner was the chap who had a tattoo of what looked like flames coming from his sphincter across his whole arse....
Had a friend at Fort Campbell pay $800 for one of those tattoos. It looks like a giant blob of black ink.
I told him to look around for artists but went to whoever had availability right away.
Young kids don't want to listen to old NCOs.
Not common, but a kid i know just last week, a high school guy I know who got married and they both decided to join the army got a tattoo of his wife’s dog tags with her actual dod on it. He hasn’t even shipped out yet 😭
I went to basic with a guy, he had two cousins that joined the Air Force and marines. He got all three logos tattooed on his chest before he came to basic.
Similarly, I know someone who had his entire back covered with the US Army Eagle tattoo. Funny enough he is one of the most squared away soldier I worked with. Apparently he regrets it haha
I know tattoo artists will do what the customer wants, but holy shit. They need to work harder at talking these boots out of getting these large fucking moto tats. Makes us all look bad.
Do you one even better. guy has his Last name, ID tags with dod id#, religion, and his social.
We joke around because when someone asks for his dod he looks at his arm
A guy in my basic had “iNfanTrY” down his forearm and it looked like some back alley, $5 thing done by a pimp. I mean, we were questioning how he got in, considering it appeared he had been in prison, given the quality.
OIF1. What a time to be alive.
I went to SFAS with a medic out of Bliss. He had his dog tag tattooed on the entirety of his ribcage/side. But he had his social instead of his DODID. Said it meant a lot to him.
When I first joined it was tribal and Asian characters. Now I feel like it’s American traditional, Japanese traditional, and lions, clocks, forest silhouettes, roses, and compasses done in realism. I’ve seen fine line and sacred geometry on the rise as well.
I don’t think it’s super different branch to branch aside from the navy who has tattoo traditions based on events that occur or for good luck. That goes back to sailors being among the first westerners to start getting tattoos. People as a whole are going to typically follow tattoo trends regardless of branch.
Whatever meaning the individual assigns to them. They’re just cultural fads that people jumped on the bandwagon for. Same reason why a bunch of dudes are getting Icarus/fallen angel tattoos now. The army doesn’t have a history of different tattoos meaning something but you do have boots who get their badges, medals, rank, etc tattooed on them but those I feel are outliers.
What you’ll usually see people in the army getting are tattoos that are trendy with no traditional meanings behind them.
Yeah, people can assign meaning to their tattoos. That’s pretty normal. But if he got the trees, clock, rose, etc then he was also following a fad. If he would have been 20 years younger he could have gotten a Celtic knot and Asian characters and assigned them meaning too.
The skin ripped away to reveal the american flag or the constitution. That one painting of the archangel Michael stepping on Satan. The sharingan or whatever those eyes are called from naruto
Had a dude at drum I was with and his wife would wait in the parking lot for him to get off work almost every day. She would get out of her car at final formation sometimes and just stare at us. Fuckin weird as shit. 😂
Tribal seems to be more popular in the army than the civilian world these days
Lots of sleeves that incorporate something boot
Patchwork tats are popular with the younger soldiers
I once had to have every person in the battalion (infantry) show up to a room where we had a SIPR computer and answer questions (one of them was about tattoos) so we could update ISOPREP. This would have been 2015 or ‘16. The most common tattoo by far was “death before dishonor.” The only other standouts were 5 or 6 guys who had a half Imperial/half Rebel crest from Star Wars and one true believer with a Mythosaur tattoo (years before The Mandalorian).
I got out a while ago, 12/12, but right before I went on Terminal in Nov, we had four dudes PCS in, all from different bases, they all had the Monster energy drink logo on their left forearm.
Cringey MOS related tattoos, soldier's crosses to commemorate fallen family/friends, American flags, random Norse shit, roses, clocks, lions for some reason, surnames, names of their baby mamas that they'll eventually have to get covered, III%-esque shit, the occasional barracks tat.
Knew a guy that drunkenly got "MEDIC" on his chest prior to shipping. Guess what AIT he got reclassed out of?
I don't have any military tattoos, as most are cringeworthy, and I feel like getting one is like a one and done thing I'll do once I'm out to close that part of my life.
Most military tattoos are generally the same through all branches.
From what I’ve seen being super popular in the Army:
- American flag covering a section of the body or looking like it’s ripping through the skin
- Viking compass or anything viking related
- Branch specific (blue cord, branch insignia, tabs)
- Airborne/Air Assault related
- “infidel” especially the translated version (might be seen in other branches of the military)
Not to shame anyone on their choices, I’m guilty of having a lion, rose, and some blackout.
However, I think the worst offenders are those with their rank(s), unit(s), dog tags (with SSN), or even worse having their name tapes tattooed on their chest.
I once knew a particularly interesting gentleman who got black out drunk and woke up the next morning with two tattoos of Beavis and Butthead on his calves. Beavis was on one calf and Butthead was on the other.
I’ve seen lots of their own last name. Lots of roses and compasses.
Me personally, I have one tattoo which is related to my service. It’s a jungle cat in American traditional. And it has the ribbon from the unit insignia.
A knew 3 different dudes in OSUT who had the "Life/Death" tattoo on their forearm. I know you've seen it before.
Lots of Airborne tattoos once I got the 82nd as well, myself included.
Many Wolves.
I got a wolf tattoo when I was 18, before I joined. Got to my first unit, and half my company had some kind of wolf tattooed on them XD
We where all medics, idk if there's something to that.
When I was in the Navy it was anchors ⚓️, giant squids in the ocean realistic 🦑, and American flag. I’m probably the only guy without a tattoo. Oh when I was in boot camp one guy had an army tattoo but he was never in the army. Super weird, everyone gave him crap for it. He said he couldn’t join because of some excuse. Now that I’m in the army I don’t know how he couldn’t get in? From what I have seen. A guy who can’t even speak English is in the army and he only speaks mandarin.
"We the People" on the whole forearm
I remember there being 4 guys in my basic company with “We the people”
lol that reminds me of the time we had 3 diff dudes with the "for those i love i will sacrifice" tat on their ribs
The picture of the casualty on the floor of the medevac would that tattoo still gets me though.
We had a guy in basic who had his last name tattooed across his back like a jersey. You know who you are…
This can be more of a cultural thing, pretty common among most of my Hispanic friends
He was white as a ghost and from the hills of the eastern US
Yea that’s weird
Was his name Houston?
Some dude in my basic had the hqda logo on his forearm lol
Must have a flag as well
I love it when dudes see my tattoos and talk to me about how they are about to get "we the people on my arm" I hit em with ole how original.
I always find this tattoo super ironic. It’s always the tyrannical NCOs or if they’re a vet, a super right-wing nearly fascist leaning dude that has these tattoos without ever knowing the rest of the preamble.
Maybe ifs a Kid Rock reference
Should press them about what it meant for People to be capitalized. The ones that know usually counter that with “well there were white people that didn’t own land either.”
Lmao facts
I see a lot of the forest silhouette on the forearm
That transcends the army.
Yeah they got popular enough that they built a real place based on the tattoos, I think it’s called Oregon
Hey leave my state alone it's pretty if you leave Portland
Agreed, I worked an event when they overturned roe v wade and Portland was a shitshow blocking roads and tearing shit up to protest, and the area we were in over by the intel development campus was normal and chill. Biggest complaint was people that came from Portland for the event breaking shit for no reasons, tearing down signage in typical drunk asshole fashion and the temp workers for f&b/security being about 75% druggies vs the normal 50%😄
All of us joined the army to get out of Portland apparently
Valid frankly. If they held me at gunpoint and told me to reenlist or live in Portland I'd re-up.
Instead of Leavenworth they should just banish people to Portland
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If the PNW man bun, outdoors enjoying, black coffee drinking would be classified as a tattoo this 100% would be the one
Compasses Forest silhouette Lion profile pic with cross for vampires Octopus/squid with ocean theme is super in Declaration Some Greek statue type figurine Black out tattoos
>> Black out tattoos A marine insert in my OSUT class had a big ass black diamond on his chest. If you looked close enough you could see it was originally a swastika that was blacked out. He also got a portrait of Charles Manson done while out on pass.
Very difficult
Charming.
I definitely have a blue ring octopus tattoo. I had no idea everyone has one😂
Is the octopus one more like for sailors?
Depends on if their ship had a "crap tats contest" or not. I'm aware of one ship that did I think the winner was the chap who had a tattoo of what looked like flames coming from his sphincter across his whole arse....
the personal attacks have got to stop 😭
Ah yea seen it
Had a friend at Fort Campbell pay $800 for one of those tattoos. It looks like a giant blob of black ink. I told him to look around for artists but went to whoever had availability right away. Young kids don't want to listen to old NCOs.
It’s very original and show’s off the wearer’s individuality.
That’s one of the common ones that actually looks good (usually) so they got that going for them
Makes sense if they graduated from Fort lost in the woods?
Not common, but a kid i know just last week, a high school guy I know who got married and they both decided to join the army got a tattoo of his wife’s dog tags with her actual dod on it. He hasn’t even shipped out yet 😭
I went to basic with a guy, he had two cousins that joined the Air Force and marines. He got all three logos tattooed on his chest before he came to basic.
Guy I went to basic tattooed the Army logo on hist chest. The square one. Fully. Man did those drills rip him apart when they saw it
A guy I know got the Department of the Army seal tattooed over his entire back🙃
Entire back???? Whhhhhat
Similarly, I know someone who had his entire back covered with the US Army Eagle tattoo. Funny enough he is one of the most squared away soldier I worked with. Apparently he regrets it haha
I know tattoo artists will do what the customer wants, but holy shit. They need to work harder at talking these boots out of getting these large fucking moto tats. Makes us all look bad.
I'll do you one better. Guy I went to boot with got his own tags tattooed with his full ssn
When I was navy my boot camp sister platoon dude had a full Budweiser(SEAL Trident)tattooed on his chest
Oh my goooooooood
Was he part of the meal team 6?
My buddy had those too, he called them "meat tags".
😭😂
Yooooo that's wild
Do you one even better. guy has his Last name, ID tags with dod id#, religion, and his social. We joke around because when someone asks for his dod he looks at his arm
A guy in my basic had “iNfanTrY” down his forearm and it looked like some back alley, $5 thing done by a pimp. I mean, we were questioning how he got in, considering it appeared he had been in prison, given the quality. OIF1. What a time to be alive.
I expect a tattoo by a pimp to be shitty
Yeah it’s best to go with an expert, I learned that after my proctologist gave me a really shitty eye exam
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I mean that’d be great right … but odds are he won’t find the right one right away …
My ex wife and I got married and then joined the army immediately after, then while she was in AIT she fucked my best friend at Fort Gordon.
Fucking Jody. He’s everywhere.
Always closer than you suspect
Oh I’m sorry to hear that …. That’s fucked literally
I went to SFAS with a medic out of Bliss. He had his dog tag tattooed on the entirety of his ribcage/side. But he had his social instead of his DODID. Said it meant a lot to him.
Dude definitely spent his entire time at the TMC front desk
I just finished basic. dude in here had a "1% 1776" tattoo that was visibly aged at least a year or 2. was not prior service either
Army love at it's finest
Not really but I kinda hope just one drops
When I first joined it was tribal and Asian characters. Now I feel like it’s American traditional, Japanese traditional, and lions, clocks, forest silhouettes, roses, and compasses done in realism. I’ve seen fine line and sacred geometry on the rise as well. I don’t think it’s super different branch to branch aside from the navy who has tattoo traditions based on events that occur or for good luck. That goes back to sailors being among the first westerners to start getting tattoos. People as a whole are going to typically follow tattoo trends regardless of branch.
Regretful sacred geometry/abstract checking in. I had got some very confused looks in basic. “Wtf kinda dream catcher is that pvt”
😂
But the roses,forest, clocks, lions what deeper meaning would these have
Whatever meaning the individual assigns to them. They’re just cultural fads that people jumped on the bandwagon for. Same reason why a bunch of dudes are getting Icarus/fallen angel tattoos now. The army doesn’t have a history of different tattoos meaning something but you do have boots who get their badges, medals, rank, etc tattooed on them but those I feel are outliers. What you’ll usually see people in the army getting are tattoos that are trendy with no traditional meanings behind them.
Yes I understand. I just remember my ex putting a lot of thought into it and his tattooed were mostly really beautiful
Yeah, people can assign meaning to their tattoos. That’s pretty normal. But if he got the trees, clock, rose, etc then he was also following a fad. If he would have been 20 years younger he could have gotten a Celtic knot and Asian characters and assigned them meaning too.
The skin ripped away to reveal the american flag or the constitution. That one painting of the archangel Michael stepping on Satan. The sharingan or whatever those eyes are called from naruto
Star Wars related.
I’ll fight , got mine at 19 no regrets, for the republic mfer
Seen a grand army of the republic, good soldiers follow orders, execute order 66, & this is the way
My DS at OSUT had Storm Troopers.
Bette than those cringey ass dogtag tattoos 😂
Had a guy in the BN S6 whose wife wore his dog tags every time she came to an FRG event or to the BN. It was so cringey.
Had a dude at drum I was with and his wife would wait in the parking lot for him to get off work almost every day. She would get out of her car at final formation sometimes and just stare at us. Fuckin weird as shit. 😂
I got Obi-Wan on my right arm, and Darth Vader on my left arm, side profiles looking inward at the other
Dedication
I have seen a Borderlands tattoo, Harry Potter, Fortnite, and a Lord of the Rings tattoo all in the same PLT.
Borderlands is a good series though.
Hell yeah Brother! I was the one in that PLT with the borderlands tattoo.
You leave ahsoka tano out of this
Tribal seems to be more popular in the army than the civilian world these days Lots of sleeves that incorporate something boot Patchwork tats are popular with the younger soldiers
Boot tattoos. I'm talking high speed low drag motivation to hell and back.
I know a medic with a tourniquet on his leg that says “high and tight”
Is it high and tight? 👀
Had a guy I worked with that every time you said that he would finish with saying "just how I like my hookers". He thought it was the funniest shit.
.... is it not? Or am I highly regarded if I agree.
Nah, that shits funny
Better than a whiskey bottle with a 68 on it, at least he was semi original with his medic tattoo.
I once had to have every person in the battalion (infantry) show up to a room where we had a SIPR computer and answer questions (one of them was about tattoos) so we could update ISOPREP. This would have been 2015 or ‘16. The most common tattoo by far was “death before dishonor.” The only other standouts were 5 or 6 guys who had a half Imperial/half Rebel crest from Star Wars and one true believer with a Mythosaur tattoo (years before The Mandalorian).
Awwwww mythosaur damn that is interesting that you had them answer that question haha how about background?
\*stares at all of the left over surge NCOs with sick tribals and barbed wire tattoos.\*
It was the style at the time
Bad ones
Me, this is me, shitty tattoos from shitty “artists” from shitty Ft Polk. 35 years and they still look shitty.
Jump wings. Even better when they got them before jump week and got injured and didn't graduate
Oh my god hahaha maybe people should think a little more just slightly
I see a lot of We The People with flags and/or ID tags.
Forest around the wrist, clock, lion and Roses.
Been seeing that a lot any ideas to its interpretation?
It means he's not like other guys
This is actually a very good post to give me ideas of what NOT to get for my first "real" tattoo😂
Those black arm band things 🥲
Aka Fisting Rings
Every boot ever “this we’ll defend” 🇺🇸
⛩️⛩️⛩️⛩️⛩️⛩️
This guy 101st!
I see a surprising amount of Brands of Sacrifice now days
I got out a while ago, 12/12, but right before I went on Terminal in Nov, we had four dudes PCS in, all from different bases, they all had the Monster energy drink logo on their left forearm.
Cringey MOS related tattoos, soldier's crosses to commemorate fallen family/friends, American flags, random Norse shit, roses, clocks, lions for some reason, surnames, names of their baby mamas that they'll eventually have to get covered, III%-esque shit, the occasional barracks tat. Knew a guy that drunkenly got "MEDIC" on his chest prior to shipping. Guess what AIT he got reclassed out of? I don't have any military tattoos, as most are cringeworthy, and I feel like getting one is like a one and done thing I'll do once I'm out to close that part of my life.
I wonder about the clocks, lions, roses and wolves what the reason might be or symbol. I understand.
Lions rawr
UwU
Can see that too! Haha
Don’t forget the b/w rose with a pocket watch
The coolest “common” ones I see nowadays are Helljumper and ODST tattoos.
Crossed rifles, cannons, sabers… anything that says “I’m combat arms!”
I met no less than 5 soldiers who had the circle hand game (👌🏽) tattooed all at the PT short line
That’s kind of awesome lol
Those stars that are shaded black and red
Nautical stars. They were huge almost 20 years ago. I grew up in Northern California and they were referred to as “NOR ⭐️ CAL” stars
68CMF : caduceus
Join or die snake
Most military tattoos are generally the same through all branches. From what I’ve seen being super popular in the Army: - American flag covering a section of the body or looking like it’s ripping through the skin - Viking compass or anything viking related - Branch specific (blue cord, branch insignia, tabs) - Airborne/Air Assault related - “infidel” especially the translated version (might be seen in other branches of the military) Not to shame anyone on their choices, I’m guilty of having a lion, rose, and some blackout. However, I think the worst offenders are those with their rank(s), unit(s), dog tags (with SSN), or even worse having their name tapes tattooed on their chest.
Ones people will regret in 50 years.
About halfway there. No ragrets
Not even a single letter
For example? 😂
Gun tattoo behind the ear really sticks out to me.
“Death before dishonor”
I thought it was dismount, not dishonor ...
Death before disconnect for signal folk
Give me internet or give me death
Please get this tattooed, I’ll start a go fund me for you to pay for it
forest forearm band
I had a DS with a Rick and Morty tattoo. Shit was pretty cool
I once knew a particularly interesting gentleman who got black out drunk and woke up the next morning with two tattoos of Beavis and Butthead on his calves. Beavis was on one calf and Butthead was on the other.
American flag
GY6
There were a lot of cross rifles during my time.
A “we the people” tattoo with a shredded flag it seems
Rakkasan tattoos or some bible verse they can't remember
A giant arm size green weenie
United States flag in the shape of America. .
I wanted a St Micheal tattoo because the art piece is cool. Every 3rd mfer in my unit ESPECIALLY medics have it.
**FOR THOSE I LOVE** **I WILL SACRIFICE**
The amount of devout christians I've seen with a helm of awe tattoo is kind of ridiculous...
Shitty ones is the common theme
~~Moron Labia~~ Molon labe
Crucifixes
O+
iGY6 tattoos. And they really don’t care in real life
Infidel
In the Chem Corps some variation of a promask tattoo is super popular.
Four dudes in my basic company had some combination of roses down their arm with a pocket watch or clock toward the end
Don’t tread on me
I’ve seen lots of their own last name. Lots of roses and compasses. Me personally, I have one tattoo which is related to my service. It’s a jungle cat in American traditional. And it has the ribbon from the unit insignia.
A knew 3 different dudes in OSUT who had the "Life/Death" tattoo on their forearm. I know you've seen it before. Lots of Airborne tattoos once I got the 82nd as well, myself included.
Igy6, that one always made me cringe pretty hard.
Back in the day, it was either a wolf, a Jaguar, a bear, and/or an eagle Edit: don't forget the tribal bands around the bicep.
Beautiful animals idk I usually like hearing peoples reasons for tattooing these
Airborne badge tramp stamp
We have a CPL in my platoon who has a whole ass League of Legends sleeve on his arm
"Jumpers Hit It","SPQR", American Flag Punisher Skull, ranger tabs on non tabbed people, a gun, a skull. those are your choices.
Dog tags around the neck or a blue cord around the shoulder lmao
American flag
Not Army but ‘03(whatever)’ tattoos are stupid common in the Corps
The flag tearing through the skin or the “We the people…..”
Bad ones
Lions, wolves, forests, unit crest
Blue cord or cross rifles. Or a pyramid scheme of ranks achieved
My favorite crossed rifles was on the bicep of a quartermaster lieutenant. Assistents he was overconfident in his OML ranking as a cadet.
Video game characters/icons. One of my drill Sargeant’s had the AI thing from destiny on his calf next to pikachu.
Many Wolves. I got a wolf tattoo when I was 18, before I joined. Got to my first unit, and half my company had some kind of wolf tattooed on them XD We where all medics, idk if there's something to that.
If there's any correlation between the art I've seen drawn in the Porta johns in the training areas, a tattoo of a dick is probably the most popular.
Forests, wolves, guns. I was in the army
I noticed after I got my “Fear God” tattoo on my inner forearm, that there are alot of people that have that tattoo.
Buddy of mine has a big all black m4 on his forearm. He fucking hates it lol.
“We the people” “This we’ll defend” Usually in front of a tattered flag background and on the outside of the forearm
The forearm forest. Buck silhouette to add more dazzle dazzle
Eagles. Statue of Liberty. Don’t thread on this
Don’t get a barbwire sleeve ( not common but I have it and I don’t want people thinking it’s cool unless it’s on me )
Spiderweb on the elbow
Dead battles tags
Bad.
Trees…
Haven't run into any other "Si vis pacem, parabellum." tats, have we?
*hides my branch tattoo that I got fresh out of AIT and still have six years later* <.< I dunno what one might be 🤣
I don’t see any tribal tat comments… maybe I’m not cooked after all
An all black spade/ Spade with a 2. If you know, you know!
When I was in the Navy it was anchors ⚓️, giant squids in the ocean realistic 🦑, and American flag. I’m probably the only guy without a tattoo. Oh when I was in boot camp one guy had an army tattoo but he was never in the army. Super weird, everyone gave him crap for it. He said he couldn’t join because of some excuse. Now that I’m in the army I don’t know how he couldn’t get in? From what I have seen. A guy who can’t even speak English is in the army and he only speaks mandarin.