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All people struggle for a good and decent life in their free and united countries, but sometimes these struggles end up in wars between nations or even between brothers. No matter how strongly we object to wars – they will never end – unless we all find a way to live in forever harmony, which is almost impossible because of the changeable human’s nature.
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Tattoos have their own history and their own way in the military events. Since ancient times tattoos served as identification marks, that helped to recognize the wounded or the dead soldiers. At first tattoos showed the soldier’s belonging to a certain army, later there could be placed the soldier’s name. In the 20th century all members of the SS in Germany had these two letters in the shape of lightning plus their blood group tattooed thus providing the necessary information for the medics that could help a wounded soldier to survive.
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Nowadays there is an interesting tendency among soldiers: those who are about to take part in the military event tattoo something that will help the identification process. And designs of such tattoos are quite simple and widely spread – hearts with ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’, crosses, bottles of booze. That’s when people’s religion, character and attitude to life come out – you can get it from the type of the tattoo they get. The so-called ‘meat tags’ are also common, when soldiers have their name, rank, blood type and Social Security number tattooed on their ribs. Ribs are the most secure part of body, because limbs may be lost in an explosion.
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But when a soldier gets back he usually gets a memorial tattoo. Like other people sometimes do ‘in loving memory’ tattoos to pay tribute to their loved ones, so does a soldier get a tattoo, that commemorates his lost friends, his lost hopes and… his lost pre-war life, because a person that has returned from war will never be the same again. There is a lot of fallen soldier tattoo designs, for example, American soldiers get a skeleton climbing out of a coffin and reaching for a Kevlar helmet or an M-4 rifle planted in a pair of boots and topped with a Kevlar helmet.
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For many soldiers getting a tattoo is a way to fight their pain and grief. But it is in our power to lessen the number of such tattoos. Make peace, not war!
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