Terisa Green - Freelance Writer

Terisa Green, Ph.D. Freelance Writer
If you're looking for the Tattoo Web Site CLICK HERE. Articles Books Newsletters Technical Reports Illustration Tutorial Writing Credits Resumé Interviews E-mail Terisa Home	Selected Articles "More Than Skin Deep" by Terisa Green, Ph.D. American Legion Magazine December, 2003 Two million veterans currently carry with them one of the most identifiable and permanent symbols of military service ever used – the tattoo. Although it was once solely the realm of barnacled sailors and outlaw bikers, tattoos are now so mainstream that they have almost become a requirement for celebrities. However, the military tattoo is a special case, with a foot in two worlds. In one sense, military tattoos are much like any other type of tattoo, serving many personal purposes ranging from mementos, milestones, and memorials to risk-taking behavior, sheer body adornment, and even curiosity. In the other sense though, in their long and varied past, these symbols in the skin have also managed to capture not only personal history but military history as well. Military themes in tattooing are no recent fad. In fact, the world over, tattooing in general may go back as early as the Paleolithic or Stone age. Unfortunately we will never know where or when tattooing actually originated since human skin does not preserve well, except in the most extraordinary of circumstances. Perhaps the most famous of all ancient tattooed people is Otzi, the Ice Man of the Alps who was discovered in 1991. His mummy, created by having been covered with glacial ice shortly after his death, is the oldest known human skin ever discovered – 5,300 years old – and it is tattooed. Otzi has 59 separate tattoos, consisting of small dark blue dots, plus signs, and short parallel lines. Speculation about the meaning of his tattoos abounds but two of the most interesting interpretations are that his tattoos are therapeutic (located directly over arthritic areas of his body) or that they signaled membership in a group (perhaps an ethnic or tribal group). In this latter interpretation, we begin to see some of the earliest precursors to military tattoos, specifically the projection of group identity. One of the most famous of generals in human history was keen to observe much the same in one of his opponents In 50 BC, Julius Caesar wrote in his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars that during his campaigns in Britain in 55 and 54 BC he observed that “all Britons paint themselves with woad, which turns the skin a bluish-green color; hence their appearance is all the more horrific in battle”. While Caesar uses the word paint, later historians speak specifically of tattoos and modern historians believe that the warriors who faced Caesar were in fact tattooed. In these earliest of references to tattoos and military action the emphasis is on intimidation. Caesar reinforces that thought by describing them as horrific, not simply blue. The purpose of the tattoos from the viewpoint of the Britons themselves is not recorded. If their intent was to daunt their foe, then they were successful. There are, however, other psychological and emotional byproducts of being tattooed. The process of receiving one is painful. It is a pigment, inserted through the epidermis (typically with a puncturing tool such as a needle) into the dermis, where it remains permanently beneath that first layer skin. Some blood (though not much) will be spilled and infection is risked. People who endure the process, especially if that process is imbued with some ritualistic and symbolic meaning, as was often the case for early peoples, are transformed. They bear the outward sign of having a shared experience and can forever after be identified with a certain group – be it a group of distinct social status, a certain ethnic unit, or a class of warriors. They essentially manufacture esprit de corps, if only as a side-effect in the attempt to awe their enemies. As widespread as both tattooing and warfare were around the globe, it should come as no surprise that the Britons were not the only, nor even the most well-known, group in history to have used tattooing in this way. In 1778, Captain James Cook, famed British Naval explorer, landed at Waimea, on Kauai, in the Hawaiian Islands. The ship’s surgeon noted that “The custom of tattooing prevails greatly among these people, but the men have a much larger share of it than the women; many (particularly some of the natives of Mowwhee) have half their body, from head to foot, marked in this manner, which gives them a most striking appearance.” Or, as later French explorer Jacques Arago described it on the men from O’ahu: they are “tattooed only on one side, which produced a very singular effect; they looked just like men half burnt, or daubed with ink, from the top of the head to the sole of the foot.” In Hawaii, these early observers noticed that the half-body tattoo seems to have been restricted to warriors. Likewise, in the Marquesas Islands, an identical type of half-body tattoo was used by warriors there as well. For these warriors, the tattoo was a form of disguise where only the tattooed half of the body was shown to an enemy in combat such that the warrior couldn’t be recognized by that same enemy in another encounter. Military tattooing, in the more western sense of memorial, however, made a big upsurge in popularity during our own Civil War. Although the 1862 engagement between history's first two ironclad warships, the Monitor representing the Union and the Merrimack (rechristened the Virginia by the Confederacy) was essentially indecisive with both ships sailing away for repairs, both sides in the conflict claimed victory. False hopes were raised in the South that the Union blockade had been broken while observers in the North breathed a sigh of relief that it hadn’t. Emotions ran high and Naval tattoos commemorating the event began to make their way through the service, along with other more general tattoos. Gunners' mates sometimes wore crossed cannons while boatswains wore anchors. In the case of the Spanish-American War, tattoos actually preceded formal hostilities. Remember the U.S.S. Maine? Possibly not, since it was sunk in Havana Harbor at the outset of the Spanish-American War in 1898. A suspicious explosion sank the battleship suddenly, taking the lives of 260 sailors aboard her. Although Spain offered to have the matter investigated and submitted to arbitration, the cause of the disaster was never discovered. The slogan “Remember the Maine and to Hell with Spain” was coined and sailors of the era rushed in droves to have it tattooed on their chests before heading out to avenge her sinking. Already these types of tattoos had acquired the features which we recognize today – the curved scroll or banner with perhaps a slogan, name, or date; red, white, and blue bunting; the stars and stripes; a giant eagle as a backdrop. Even now, these are the quintessential features of many military and patriotic tattoos, easily recognized due precisely to their long traditional use. Although distant in time and fading from memory, those early events and tattoos are a faint echo of the Gulf War tattoos of today or the “911” tattoos that became so popular around military bases nationwide in the aftermath of the September 11^th attacks of 2001. Only fifty years ago, most servicemen simply made their tattoo choice based on flash (sample drawings of tattoos, typically arranged in posters on the walls) as they stood in a crowded tattoo studio and waited in line for their turn. Today, though, many different images and themes are melded by tattoo artists and custom designs are not uncommon: some Operation Iraqi Freedom designs have incorporated the name of a unit or individual; the Statue of Liberty is paired with an outline of Iraq; the single word “freedom” is done in the colors of the American flag. Entire military groups (men and women) are spontaneously acting in unity by getting the same tattoo before shipping out. And while the troops are deployed, the tattoo shops are not idle. Some receive a steady business from wives and other family members who are anxious to commemorate their patriotism and also their loved ones. However, of all the people who acquire patriotic tattoos, it is the people of the military who understand all too well the real risks associated with their profession. Tattoos placed on the underside of the arm (an area of the body which might escape damage from various types of assault) which record a serial number, blood type, or religious preference are a sobering reminder of those risks. Military tattoos have likely taken an infinite number of forms in our collective past: from the horrific bluish-green of Caesar’s enemies or the black half-body of the Marquesan warriors to a simple scripted “U.S.A.F.”, a full-blown “Screaming Eagle”, the ever popular banner of “Death Before Dishonor”, or a well-muscled “Devil Dog” plus everything in between. While the modern military services are far from endorsing tattoos, each is faced with increasing numbers of members who are tattooed and even heavily tattooed as the popularity of tattoos in mainstream culture continues to rise. In fact, all branches of the service have recently revised their policies on what are considered appropriate images and placements for tattoos. Although never explicitly stated, such policies acknowledge the fact that the military and tattoos have a long tradition together. It is a tradition where personal history and military history become one and the same, captured in images and words in the skin. It is a tradition that has endured in many different forms and circumstances but with the fundamental experiences of building comradeship, creating identity with the group, and marking a transformation. Indeed, precisely for those reasons, it seems likely that the tradition of military tattooing is one which will not be ending any time soon. For more information on tattoo symbols, visit the TattooSymbol.com web site.	Flash by tattoo artist Greg James of Sunset Strip Tattoo, Hollywood.	Site Map Anne Lamott, I Am Not (my blog) Books on Writing
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