Forum: Air Force Life

Two parts to this...

First, what's the requirements...haha kidding...whats the policies for getting tattoos before or during service in the Air Force/military, if any, and is there any restrictions on pilots getting tats?

On a lighter note, if there isn't any restrictions...

From dragons, snakes, skulls to hearts, flowers, and butterflies, what's the craziest, coolest, sweetest, most stupid and/or most interesting tattoo you've seen on a pilot, crew chief, general, nurse, or anyone and everyone who's put on a BDU? Include a story behind the tat if any, and include yourself if ya got one Very Happy

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The Tazmanian Devil flipping the bird, on a crew chief whose nickname is Rupp. Had a friend with the AF crest on his back , cross over to fly helos with the army, had to get the word Air Force changed into barbed wire.

There's a great one about the 192nd in Richmond VA. I was there and saw this one happen. In 92-93 the Governor (Doug Wilder) decided he didn't like the squadron patch. There had been some public outcry that the patch represented racsim (which it did not - at least not to the members of the unit anyway). Anyway - Doug made us get rid of it and come up with a new one. If you do some research on the patches you'll see the differences. Anyway - we were all pretty ticked that this doober was throwing out part of our history. My good friend happened to be the Crew Chief on the two seater and this Governor was getting his "leaving office incentive ride." Well my buddy goes out and gets the old squadron patch tatooed on his shoulder and the next day straps the Governor in the backseat with his t-shirt sleeves rolled up. He made sure the Governor got more than one eyeful of the tatoo.

Now I'm not saying what he did was right - but it took some big cajones to do it. BTW - Look up Doug Wilder and you'll see why this was particularly dangerous for this Crew Chief to do.

goatmilk wrote:

Two parts to this...

First, what's the requirements...haha kidding...whats the policies for getting tattoos before or during service in the Air Force/military, if any, and is there any restrictions on pilots getting tats?

Well, tatoos are fine-sorta. You're not allowed anything racist, anarchist, sexually explicit, etc; if the military finds it and they don't like it, they can make you have it removed ($$ out of your own pocket of course). Other than that you're allowed anything, so long as it doesn't cover over 25% of the exposed body part i.e. no 'sleeves', face tatoos (Mike Tyson for example), things like that. I know a couple guys that have pretty much full body tatoos, but they stop at the neck and (T-shirt) sleeve line. In uniform, you can't even tell they have tatoos.

VPRGUY wrote:

goatmilk wrote:

Two parts to this...

First, what's the requirements...haha kidding...whats the policies for getting tattoos before or during service in the Air Force/military, if any, and is there any restrictions on pilots getting tats?

Well, tatoos are fine-sorta. You're not allowed anything racist, anarchist, sexually explicit, etc; if the military finds it and they don't like it, they can make you have it removed ($$ out of your own pocket of course). Other than that you're allowed anything, so long as it doesn't cover over 25% of the exposed body part i.e. no 'sleeves', face tatoos (Mike Tyson for example), things like that. I know a couple guys that have pretty much full body tatoos, but they stop at the neck and (T-shirt) sleeve line. In uniform, you can't even tell they have tatoos.

I have a couple of friends who have been told by the AF that they have too many tattoos covering their body. So they joined the Army, who took them right away...

I am not in the military and tattoo-free, but one of the funniest tattoo stories I witnessed occured in Cancun, Mexico. Was there for spring break with college buddies a few years back, and we were doing it the cheap way...in town with the locals for $10 a night, and living on $1 tacos. We figured we'd meet rich hot girls there and end up in some all expenses paid hotel. Cheers

That didn't happen. Doh

After one of my buddies was involved in a drunken collision while riding on the back of a locals mo-ped, we were really drunk and heading into town. Some of the guys were smoking some weed, and one beligerent one refused to listen to us that it was a bad idea to be doing that in the "touristy" parts of town. Well, he didn't listen, and about 2 minutes later we were surrounded by 4 officers pointing sub machine guns at us. A minute after that we were surrounded by about 12 of them...and 50 or so tourists photographing and videotaping us being patted down and yelling "No me gusta!"

Long and short of it, he was thrown in a jail cell, and we went to bribe/bail him out in the morning for $250. He was still drunk, and insisted at 6:30 am on getting a tattoo to remember the occasion. We found the only tattoo place open at that hour, and he wanted a Greatful Dead dancing bear, behind bars, with a Mexican flag as the background of the cell, and a blurb with the bear saying "No me gusta!" Of course, being the good friends we were, we did our best in broken spanish and he got an awful looking tattoo of exactly what he asked for. It has got to be the funniest tattoo I have ever seen! Rolling Eyes

Forum: Air Force Life

All Tattoo'd Up