SOUTH JERSEY

Military tattoos evolve into tributes in South Jersey

Carol Comegno
@CarolComegno

Andrew Einstein did what a lot of leathernecks do immediately after surviving Marine boot camp.

He got a tattoo.

It would not be the only one.

After tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Mount Laurel resident got several other symbols of his military service, including one emblazoned on his left rib cage to memorialize the death of two fellow Marines.

Army veteran Bruce Coleman of Marlton got one of his tattoos for the same reason — to remember fallen comrades in Iraq, where he served.


Younger veterans' tattoos are different than those worn by their World War II and Korean War counterparts — today, they are often larger, more colorful and artistic, relating more personal, intimate stories of their military service.

The 26-year-old Einstein disliked the feel of tattoo needles piercing his skin when he got that first Marine Corps emblem and vowed never to get another tattoo, but his attitude changed after considerable time spent in combat zones.

A second tattoo on his left shoulder and upper back signifies the stress of returning home.

"Now, I love tattoos. They tell my story," he freely admits.

"I had my battles adjusting to a lifestyle outside of war and dealing with the loss of those guys, so I got more tattoos and decided on a full rib cage tribute piece in honor of those we unfortunately lost.

"The pain of getting those next tattoos was nothing compared to the pain of losing comrades in the fighting or the pain their families went through," concluded the Marine, a Westampton police officer who is still in the Marine Corps Reserve.

He plans even more extensive ones — a full leg tattoo to showcase various aspects of his tours in combat and the personal battles he's faced.

Einstein served on a team that searched for enemy IEDs (improvised explosive devices) on his first tour in 2009. In 2011, while on a second tour — this time as a community affairs specialist who established relations with Afghanistan village elders — he suffered a trauamtic brain injury from an explosion.

Craig Bruns, curator of the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia who penned a history of the art, said tattooing has moved beyond the "flash" — a simpler, more standard tattoo with a fixed price that hangs in wall displays in every tattoo shop — into designs that can carry hefty price tags into the thousands of dollars.

Early sailors — the tattoo tradition began with ancient seafarers — would just pick a "flash" or "American traditional" tattoo off a tattooist's wall for $50, such as a Navy anchor or a military emblem or motto.

"This whole sort of custom tattoo started because tattoo artists are now artists with an art education background. They are offering a fine art tradition and that commands a higher price, like a fine art painting would," the curator said.

While tattoos have changed, he said, the main motives for getting them have not.

"Young recruits, kids mostly, are whisked away from their mothers, plopped into the midst of a new and unfamiliar culture and are looking for a way to belong, to love and be loved, which are reasons to fight.

"Wearing your heart on your sleeve is what tattoos are all about. You don't have many personal items from war, but you do have your skin."

Coleman sat for hours for his fifth military tattoo this week at Empire Tattoo in Laurel Hill Plaza, Gloucester Township.

Tattoo artist Matthew Doherty first drew a Colonial-era, Betsy Ross flag on Coleman's lower right arm in red and black. Then taking a tattoo pen and turning it on, he firmly pressed it against his client's skin in circular motions.

Inside the pen head and out of sight, a myriad of tiny, closely-knit needles punctured the skin with gray and then red, the first colors to be applied, as the instrument buzzed like an electric razor. Periodically, the artist wiped away excess ink.

"Today tattoos have a higher level of artistry; they're more varied, detailed and larger," explained Doherty, a graduate of the University of Fine Arts in Philadelphia who also paints on canvas.

He and servicemen credit the Internet with helping to popularize custom tattooing because anyone can go on a tattoo website and view a wide range of the artwork.

The red, white and blue background of a U.S. flag is a backdrop for Einstein's "Fallen Soldier," tattoo. A rifle stands upright in empty combat boots. A helmet sits atop the weapon's butt end and dog tags hang from it. The message etched in the tattoo: "To the Ones I Love ... I will sacrifice."

Coleman's forearm "Fallen Soldier" symbol also is a tribute to soldier casualties in Iraq and carries the phrase Honoris Causa, Latin for "for the sake of honor."

Both men also have body "dog tags," torso tattoos that carry their personal identification number and blood type. It has become a common practice among recent veterans to indicate they've been deployed or to help identify them if they were to become a war casualty.

On his right bicep and shoulder Coleman also has a massive military history tattoo with three soldiers. It depicts Revolutionary War, World War II and modern era soldiers in their respective uniforms to illustrate the history of the Army's 1st Infantry Division and 1st Armored Division.

Beneath the soldiers is a tattoo signifying one of his accomplishments, the Combat Infantry Badge.

"I was proud to serve, I enjoy the artwork and I want to get more to continue my military-related sleeve of tattoos," said the two-tour Iraq veteran.

He said it has become common for younger generations to get tattoos because tattoos are a more accepted art form today, carrying less of a stigma than decades ago.

Vietnam veteran George Wise, a jeweler and an artist himself, has a entire left arm "sleeve" of tattoos he designed. Medieval armor, the Marine emblem and and his military unit patch are intertwined with green ivy vines, maple tree branches and other tattoos with family references.

"This outfit is near and dear to my heart. We were in a lot of fights, desperate fighting, and I was honored to be with them," said the 70-year-old Wise, co-owner of Wise Family Quality Jewelers in Haddon Heights, pointing to his arm and the red tattoo patch of Kilo Company, Third Battalion, Third Marines (Regiment) with the Marine motto, "Semper Fidelis."

Now a co-owner of Wise Family Quality Jewelers in Haddon Heights, he was wounded several times but most remembers Feb. 7, 1968, when his unit lost 37 men in a single day in a village in Quang Tri province.

"In 1967-68 as Marine infantry we all got tattoos. "It was for macho reasons and also served as form of identification," he said.

"I don't care what people think. Getting tattoos is something I always wanted to do and they have to have some meaning."

Even high-level officers have gotten tattoos. Army Lt. Col John Hodson Jr., an Audubon native and Iraq war veteran, rolled up his shirt sleeve to reveal a Phoenix rising from the ashes of a helicopter crash in Iraq that killed 12. Four were on his command staff, so he included their names on the tattoo because he never wants to forget their loss.

"I will take it to my grave," Hodson said of the tattoo, "so they will all live on in me."

Gloucester County veterans office director Duane Sarmiento said his father had a more simple Navy tattoo of a rose and a lady's name to remind him of an early flame left behind, but the marking faded to a blur decades later.

A Navy veteran like his father and a Persian Gulf War sailor, Sarmiento has old-school tattoos like the Navy eagle to commemorate his 1988-1997 service years.

One is of a woman holding four aces — a winning hand in poker — and a bottle of liquor. The description below it: "A Sailor's Dream."

"They're like a rite of passage in the Navy. I got the first one in a port overseas when I was just a dumb kid who had a little too much to drink," he said, recalling his mother forbade him to wear short-sleeved shirts to church because a dragon called his lower arm home.

The recent proliferation of tattoos and body piercings prompted all the military services to revise their rules for appearance between 2010 and 2014.

The Marine Corps forbids tattoos on the face, hands, neck, fingers and wrist and also bans excessive, sleeve, vulgar, racial or nude tattoos. However, servicemen who already have them can request to be grandfathered and a potential recruit will be administratively reviewed if he has four or more tattoos.

The Army has similar restrictions.

"The policy's overall intent is to ensure Marines can be assigned whenever and wherever they are needed and to maintain professional demeanor and the high standards expected of the corps," said Capt. Eric Flanagan, Marine Corps headquarters spokesman.

Reach Carol Comegno at (856) 486-2473 or ccomegno@gannett.com