I remember the old Marines and sailors I knew as a kid and grizzled paratroopers I served with.
Nice meaningful daggers and skulls or "Death Before Dishonor" Airborne wings-the days when tats said you had been somewhere.
Just out of Airborne school and entering SF, a lot of us were giving consideration to some kind of decoration.
One of the first classroom orientations us younger guys were asked if we had any tattoos.
Those who did were advised to leave.
The cold war was still raging in 1967 and there was a chance some of us might get assigned UW to Europe where missions were actually run in various denied areas.
Point was that if taken, our cover would not last very long with a nice red devil hanging from a parachute tat.
Most guys from my era did not ever get any.
Today they are covered with them. especially the wierd tribal stuff they never earned nor were exposed to. Or the oriental jive nobody can read, including the wearer.
Most disturbing is the trend amongst youngsters towards self mutilation.
What's next?
I have run around with a pretty hip crowd over the years since the military and even the more jaded are appalled over that.
Not sure there is support for lower back tats being considered very masculine.
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