The Ink of War: Afghanistan Air Base's Best Tattoos

Saturday, 04 September 2010 17:50

The Ink of War: Afghanistan Air Base's Best Tattoos

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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.