I know there has been a lot of talk about tattoos going on lately but it made me think of something that was un-answered to me a few years ago here goes ...

I was working at a factory and at that time I was considering the reserves , I was working with a guy who was in the service ( to be fair Air National Guard )and he was trying to tell me that I could not get in anymore because they had passed new regulations across the board( all branches)that prohibited tattoos that showed with sleeves rolled up ---thus ruling me out...

I had a good friend ex 82nd airbourne current National Guard who was more heavily tattooed than I and yes they were visible and he said that he never heard anything about it ...

so ,i never did figure this one out..

t

probably true...

about the late 80's, some of my buds with topless female tatoos were required to put band-aids over the nipples of their "girls"!  (one of the guys put ointment over the nipples vice band-aids since they "work" better. we were always in trouble.)

Actually, that is true.  You probably wouldn't get past MEPS.

Our first weekend pass at the end of Basic Training while in the Army, some of us went into town to get a tattoo.  

Right next to the tattoo parlor was a strip joint.  

Well, to make a long story short, I never did get that tattoo.  [8D]

The regulation states (AR 670-1) that tattoos must not be visible in Class A uniform.  The class A uniform has long sleeves.  

The tatto must not be racist, extremist, or sexist in nature, regardless of location on the body.  

So you could have a tattoo that is visible with your sleeves rolled up as long as it isn't racial, sexist or extremist in nature.

Here is the link to the Army regulation.

[url]www.usapa.army.mil/pdffiles/r670_1.pdf[/url]

Navy's most recent statement on tattoos (Jan 24):

7.  TATTOOS/BODY ART/BRANDS.  NO TATTOOS/BODY ART/BRANDS
ON THE HEAD, FACE, NECK, OR SCALP.  TATTOOS/BODY ART/BRANDS
ELSEWHERE ON THE BODY THAT ARE PREJUDICIAL TO GOOD ORDER, DISCIPLINE
AND MORALE OR ARE OF A NATURE TO BRING DISCREDIT UPON THE NAVY
ARE PROHIBITED.  FOR EXAMPLE, TATTOOS/BODY ART/BRANDS THAT ARE
EXCESSIVE, OBSCENE, SEXUALLY EXPLICIT OR ADVOCATE OR SYMBOLIZE
SEX, GENDER, RACIAL, RELIGIOUS, ETHNIC OR NATIONAL ORIGIN
DISCRIMINATION ARE PROHIBITED.  IN ADDITION, TATTOOS/BODY ART/BRANDS
THAT ADVOCATE OR SYMBOLIZE GANG AFFILIATION, SUPREMACIST OR
EXTREMIST GROUPS, OR DRUG USE ARE PROHIBITED.  TATTOOS/BODY
ART/BRANDS WILL NOT BE VISIBLE THROUGH UNIFORM CLOTHING.  WAIVERS
MAY BE REQUESTED FOR PRIOR SERVICE AND EXISTING TATTOOS FROM THE
CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS (N09BU).

are confederate flags acceptable nowadays in the military?

Thanks for clearing that up


t

Govt issue, man, one, white, med, jarhead, one each. MIL-troublemaker-6172

The army lets black guys have corn rows so why not tattoos? They say corn rows are not faddish, YEAH RIGHT!! Makes me sick to see these guys in uniform looking like downtown thugs!!

ask your local armed forces recruiting center
about being accepted in the military with tattoos, they change the rules all the time,
sometimes at the end of the month they get desperate to meet certain recruitment quotas
and they might still take you. They are more
worried about a criminal record than a tattoo.

The AFI that covers tattoos in the AF says you can't have any "offensive" tattoos anywhere on your body.
You can have tattoos that show when your sleeves are rolled up to your elbows.  You can't have "excessive" tattoos on your arms.  Excessive is defined as more than 1/4 of the exposed body part containing a tattoo.
If you really want to know, go to [url]www.e-publishing.af.mil/pubfiles/af/36/afi36-2903/afi36-2903.pdf [/url]  page 92 is what you're looking for.