Army Tattoos
Army Tattoos run the full spectrum of tattoo designs from the quirky to the funny to the serious to the woeful to the religious tattoos worn by many soldiers. Technically at least, army tattoos or military tattoos in any form are illegal as they are considered to be defacing government property and while threats of prosecution may be heard, there are no confirmed cases (at least by this author) of soldiers being prosecuted for getting army tattoos and wearing them throughout the length of their enlistment. In fact, many lifetime and career soldiers proudly boast army tattoos featuring campaigns they have fought in or units that they have belonged to.
The most common pictures of tattoos on soldiers are probably the pinup girls that were featured as arm tattoos and that so gracefully danced when the arm muscles were flexed. These days, army tattoos are probably more diverse than all but the most well traveled seaman with his navy tattoos. Warrior tattoos are certainly nothing new though and go back at least as far back as the days of the ancient Romans with their italian tattoos sporting the legion they fought with. It is highly doubtful that any of the Ancient Roman Soldiers wore fairy tattoos or jesus tattoos or even cross tattoos, but many of them did have army tattoos with their legion or regiment information proudly displayed mostly on arm tattoos.
In fact, most of the Army tattoos of the Ancient Roman soldiers and centurions were done well before the time of Christ and since ancient Rome had an uneasy peace at best when it came to religion and more specifically, with those of the Jewish faith, it is doubtful that any of their Army tattoos were really religious in any real sense of the word. Most of the army tattoos back then were pretty simple though some of them may have been adorned with other tattoos featuring the Roman gods.
The ancient Roman and Greek mythological gods were very popular and in many cases, their history has influenced the army tattoos of today. The lightning strike of the third armored cavalry army tattoos is directly related to the “lightning” from the days of Zeus and Mars when the army tattoos were more likely to represent something known to the soldiers of the day. Still, it is not at all uncommon to see many of these historical tattoos and their impression in the army tattoos of today.
