Tattooing, an aggressive and intimidating mixture of endurance and art, is as old as warfare itself. But each generation, and each war, yields its own warrior body art. In Afghanistan, America’s longest war, troop tats have matured alongside the culture’s growing acceptance of ink.
To any repeat visitor to U.S. military bases in Afghanistan or Iraq over the past ten years, it seems like soldiers get more ink as time passes. Bureaucratically, the military still has an ambivalent attitude to tattoos, a vestige of justified fears of gang affiliation; most services still aren’t cool with neck tats. But the official restrictions have been repeatedly relaxed over the past decade at war. Practically speaking, the military’s got little choice. Recruits are often inked up when they join, and servicemembers’ admiration for tattoos is as characteristic of today’s troops as working out when bored.
So consider the tattoos here a sociological document of the Afghanistan war circa 2010. At Bagram Air Field, the war’s largest U.S. base, troop tattoos are ironic and earnest; professional and amateur; and every one filled with pride. (And if you want to represent your base or your unit by showing off your ink in a future gallery, email us!) Time will tell if the U.S.’s impact on Afghanistan is as indelible — or as pleasing to the eye.
U.S. Air Force Tech Sergeant Geoff Gerencer
Believe it or not, Gerencer insists that he’s not even such a big Simpsons fan. “I wanted to change up the Japanese style a bit,” he says.
Photo: Spencer Ackerman/Wired.com
U.S. Air Force Tech Sergeant Brian Frazier
Frazier’s grandfather flew in the Berlin airlift, so he went with “old style wings, to represent both of us.” He’s a walking recruitment poster.
Photo: Spencer Ackerman/Wired.com
U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Lara Masterson
The ribbon of blue running down beneath the pixie to the bluebird represents Masterson’s son. “For his first birthday, he was covered in blue icing,” she says. A tattoo on her other arm represents her daughter.
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U.S. Army Specialist Daniel Duckwitz
The script on Duckwitz’s arm is ancient Sumerian — supposedly the first written representation of the concept of liberty. He got “Ama-gi,” as the script is called, nearly two years after leaving a tour in Iraq, where he was stationed at Camp Liberty in Baghdad. But Duckwitz says he wasn’t trying to commemorate his year at the Iraq mega-base.
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U.S. Air Force Tech Sergeant Ray Gara
“It’s the mark of new beginnings, Gara says. Then he levels: The Japanese-style carp is covering up three old, unwanted tats.
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U.S. Air Force Tech Sergeant Brian Douglas
That’s one way to honor your Scots heritage. “Peel my skin back and that’s what you’ll see,” Douglas says. That and a haggis recipe.
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U.S. Air Force Tech Sergeant Matt Perry
Perry lets his stone-faced swordswoman-geisha speak for him. “She’s effing cool,” he explains. “That’s pretty much it.”
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U.S. Army Sergeant Walt Hartnett
There’s a lot for Hartnett to explain here. “I was really drunk,” he says, “with a bottle of india ink and a cartoon book.” Did he mention he was 16? And a cautionary tale?
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U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Chris Grullon
Grullon, who works for the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing’s medical group, depicted St. Lazarus’s resurrection as a tribute to his father, his grandfather and “more people I wish were still here.”
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U.S. Air Force Airman First Class Kurt Karabetsos
“They’re a reminder to me constantly, ‘Don’t beat yourself, don’t let yourself be your own worst enemy,’” Karabetsos explains. Then again, what can’t two smoking skulls tell you?
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U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Kristen Block
Block is from the beach, with family in Hawaii, so turning part of her spine into a islander’s totem pole — ouch — takes her back to her roots. “I love the water, just anything to do with the beach,” she says.
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U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Elizabeth Floyd
Floyd found refuge in British artist Banksy’s graffiti-inspired style while serving in Iraq in 2008. “He was my guardian angel,” she says. Now his angel in Kevlar guards her arm.
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Retired U.S. Navy Petty Officer David Parsons
Parsons works at Bagram’s passenger terminal. The tat is his “gift to himself” for surviving his first day at boot camp.
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U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Aaron Scott Miller
The impressively inked Miller got Oklahoma City artist Mike Thurman to put together this tribute to his parents. “They’ve always been there,” he says, “so my love and loyalty will always be there.”
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U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Aaron Scott Miller
One more from Miller. This macabre image is “for freedom,” he says, “and all the things I’ve had to deal with and rise above.”
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U.S. Air Force Tech Sergeant Gary Narciso
Body art often plays with the balance between the sacred and the profane, but put-yer-dukes-up-Jesus is pretty unusual. “It’s the drama of life,” Narciso says. When I arch my eyebrow, he adds, “It’s something different.”
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U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Nathanial Kopplin
This backpiece took three years, ten tattoo sessions and four deployments to complete. Kopplin started with the cross when his grandfather grew mortally ill. “Everything else kind of came together — religion, family,” he says.
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U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Kristine Mayfield
The two fish, swimming in a modified yin-yang pattern, represent Mayfield and her husband. She got it during a stint in Japan. “I really like koi fish,” she says.
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U.S. Army Sergeant Johaun Winbush
Winbush got this to honor a fallen friend from a previous deployment. He doesn’t say much more. Nor does he need to.
Photo: Spencer Ackerman/Wired.com
