Recruiting is skin deep

For the Marine Corps, less is more when it comes to body art on would-be leathernecks

He was a recruiter's dream — fit, motivated and ready to go green. Solid morals, no past criminal offenses and no history of drug use. Enough college credit to qualify him for meritorious promotion at boot camp.

The applicant had all the attributes the Corps wants in a future Marine, said the New York recruiter who screened him for possible enlistment this past winter. But there was a problem the recruiter's commanders couldn't accept: ink, and too much of it.

None of the tattoos was too large or offensive, the recruiter said. But the would-be recruit had seven of them and, these days, that's too many for the Corps.

Once the subject of a negative stereotype, tattoos — and more extreme forms of body modification — are finding broader acceptance in mainstream society. Tattoos long have been a part of military culture, but Marine recruiters who go "kneecap to kneecap" with today's youth are finding them more tattooed than ever.

Working an average of 70 hours a week, recruiters continue to make mission, finding enough would-be Marines to keep the Corps on an eight-year run of making quota.

But as society increasingly embraces tattoos, recruiters said the Corps is toughening its criteria, making it harder for them to find and sign qualified applicants.

The New York recruiter said he turns away about one applicant a month for tattoo-related reasons. His recruiting substation has rejected about two dozen would-be Marines since October. This at a time when it seems everyone has a tattoo, the recruiter said. "I'm seeing grandmothers with them, mothers, but kids especially," the recruiter said.

"We see this as being a big issue because it severely affects how many people we can recruit," he said. "You are potentially disqualifying a lot of people who are otherwise qualified."

The Corps' policy regarding body modification is part of Marine Corps Order P1020.34, which also addresses personal-appearance issues. That policy has been revised and fine-tuned in recent years in response to developments in youth culture. In general, tattoos or brands on the neck and head are prohibited. On other areas of the body, the order states, "tattoos or brands that are prejudicial to good order, discipline and morale or are of a nature to bring discredit upon the Marine Corps are also prohibited."

Most applicants aren't walking into recruiting offices already inked with offensive tattoos such as swastikas or other inflammatory images, recruiters said. Instead, most questions that arise while screening would-be recruits stem from the size, location or number of tattoos on an individual.

Such difficulties are more common in the Eastern Recruiting Region, where recruiters say a stricter interpretation of the tattoo policy is enforced. In some cases, applicants cross the Mississippi River (which is the boundary dividing much of the two recruiting regions) and enlist in the Western Recruiting Region.

Marine Corps Recruiting Command officials at Quantico, Va., said they don't track how many potential Marines are disqualified at the recruiting substation level. But in interviews with a dozen recruiters, officers involved in recruiting and would-be Marines, the word is that the Corps — and the Eastern Recruiting Region in particular — is looking for comparatively clean-skinned recruits. Command officials said there is no difference in the way the tattoo policy is interpreted between the Eastern and Western regions. In fact, both recruit depots discharged the same number of recruits for tattoos — 25 in each region — during fiscal 2001, said Lt. Col. Stephen Wittle, who heads enlisted recruiting operations for Recruiting Command.

"This really kind of confirms that both regions have the same evaluating process," he said.

But recruiters interviewed said that while the number of recruits discharged at the depot level may be similar, it does not reflect the number of applicants disqualified long before they set foot on the yellow footprints at recruit training.

And, at the least, region-level oversight of tattoos may well be stricter in the Eastern Recruiting Region, based on a comparison of tattoo-waiver requests submitted to the commanding general in each region.

Since October, Eastern region recruiting stations sent more than 500 tattoo-waiver requests on behalf of potential recruits with questionable tattoos — whether for size, number or subject matter — to Brig. Gen. Joseph McMenamin, commander of the Eastern Recruiting Region.

While the command approved about 87 percent of those requests, the number submitted is more than three times the number of requests submitted to the commanding general of the Western Recruiting Region. That command, led by Maj. Gen. Jan Huly, had reviewed 144 tattoo-waiver requests as of June 12 and approved 118 of them, or about 82 percent.

"McMenamin holds the line a little tighter on things," said one Marine officer familiar with the way the Eastern region interprets and enforces tattoo policy and who asked not to be identified.

McMenamin did not provide comment about the tattoo-policy issue, but his assistant chief of staff, Lt. Col. Michael Bowersox, said the command is not being too restrictive in its interpretation.

"If a tattoo is determined to be not within standard, it's clearly out of the standard," Bowersox said in a telephone interview from Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. "We generally give the benefit of the doubt to the kid."

The point is to maintain good order, discipline and a professional standard for the Corps, Bowersox said.

"We're not saying we don't want applicants or recruits with tattoos," he said. "We're not saying that at all."

"If a recruiter disagrees with it, too bad," he said. "We have a policy we have to enforce."

Exceeding the threshold established by Recruiting Command "is not necessarily a bar for enlistment," Wittle said, "but a point of reference where it is reasonable to question whether an applicant meets the standard."

Some recruiters, who find otherwise qualified Marines who have been stymied by the tattoo policy, are skirting the issue and finding ways to bring them into the fold — even if it means turning the would-be Marine over to another recruiter.

The Marine officer familiar with the Eastern region said he is aware of several instances in which East Coast recruiters disqualified an applicant because of tattoo issues, only to recommend that the individual go to a state in the Western region to enlist.

The recruiter from New York saw it happen. He submitted a waiver request for his applicant with seven tattoos, but the waiver was denied.

Instead of losing the potential recruit, or letting Army recruiters get him, the recruiter called a fellow Marine at a recruiting station in Louisiana, who gladly enlisted the applicant.

"The applicant bought a bus ticket, got to Louisiana and enlisted in the Marine Corps," the recruiter said. "I know it happened because he sent us a letter from boot camp thanking us for all the help."

Based on what he's seen in his own region and heard from recruiters back East, one Western-region recruiter agreed that an enlistee might have better luck in his territory.

As soon as he mentions the word "tattoos" to recruiter buddies in the Eastern region, he gets an earful, he said. He sees a distinct difference between the working tattoo policy in the Eastern region versus the one he uses in the West.

"The first reaction I get when I [ask] is, 'It's a nightmare,'" he said. "They're getting stricter here, but they're not as strict as they are there."

He cited a recent example. In June, recruiting officials reviewed the case of a potential enlistee who had initials and Japanese writing tattooed on his back in characters 8 to 10 inches tall. The officer who reviewed the case told the recruiter "that's not a big deal," the recruiter said.

Other would-be Marines rejected by the system aren't going West, however — they're taking their fight to Congress.

Every month, the Corps receives hundreds of "congressional inquiries," letters written by members of Congress on behalf of their constituents. The letters concern awards, records, discharges, benefits and other issues. Since October, Marine Corps Recruiting Command has received 16 inquiries from lawmakers questioning the Corps' tattoo policy — nine relating to issues in the Western region and seven in the Eastern region, according to Maj. Dave Griesmer, a command spokesman at Quantico.

Recruiting Command issued new guidance June 9 to help recruiters better interpret the Corps' tattoo policy. In clarifying the policy, it issued four guidelines that are to be used in determining an enlistment candidate's tattoos — location, size, content and number. Recruiters also have a new screening form to be used in conjunction with the criteria.

• Waivers likely will not be granted for any tattoo above the neck area, defined in the guidelines as any portion above the collarbone in the front, or above the first cervical vertebrae in the back.

• Combined tattoo coverage on a particular body part cannot exceed one-quarter of the total size of that body part. So for instance, if someone has two tattoos on his leg, those tattoos together cannot cover more than a quarter of the leg.

• Tattoos that are exposed while wearing the short-sleeve khaki shirt must be no larger than the individual's hand.

• The recruiting region's commanding general will review any applicant who has more than four tattoos on his body, regardless of the location of those tattoos.

Recruiting Command officials said the policy, which they consider straightforward already, will be made clearer when a new booklet is issued this fall to recruiters.

That booklet will amplify the guidance on tattoos and body piercing by providing examples of acceptable and unacceptable body markings, with Internet links to sites that help recruiters evaluate the content of a tattoo.

There may be a perception among recruiters that the tattoo policy is being interpreted differently between the two recruiting regions, said one former recruiting region commanding general, but that perception may be born of their frustration with the Corpswide policy.

"It becomes very disheartening that you have to go back out on the street and find another contract," said retired Brig. Gen. Stephen Cheney, who ended his career two years ago as the Eastern region's commander.

Cheney said the difference in the number of waiver requests between the two recruiting regions is curious.

But Cheney, who still lives near MCRD Parris Island and is close to McMenamin, said the general likely is doing the right thing.

Charles Moskos, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University in Chicago who specializes in military matters, said the Corps is right to stick to its guns.

"By being out of step with prevailing fashions, the Corps stays in step with its unique military heritage," Moskos said. "Marines are expected to be Marines first, not trendy youth. The image of Marines being different and better than the typical young person helps recruitment in the long term."

William Strauss, a consultant to the military and co-author of the book "Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation," believes tattoos represent something far different than they did even a decade ago.

What once symbolized rebellion and disrespect for authority now means something else, he said. Strauss believes there is what he calls a "renorming," a recalibration of attitudes, and tattoos are part of it.

"They're not intended to shock adults [or] to show the person is an outcast or a 'goth' or a punk," he said. "That's a change."

Strauss' work has been used extensively by Marine Corps Recruiting Command in the development of marketing strategies and advertisements meant to connect with today's youth.

"Some lines are being drawn about what's acceptable and what's not," said Strauss. "To the extent that people have tattoos or piercings, it's not an attitude of 'so there,' it just looks nice."

Issue Date: July 07, 2003

Is a crackdown on active Marines far behind?

By Gordon Lubold

Times staff writer

While would-be recruits undergo greater tattoo-related scrutiny, changes to the policy for active Marines may not be far behind, given the Corps' increasingly tough stance on body modifications in recent years.

Officials with Manpower and Reserve Affairs at Quantico, Va., recently reviewed the policy on body modification. But in the end, they opted to stick with existing rules — for now.

Capt. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, confirmed that tattoo policy did undergo a review, but that officials decided against revising it, saying that it fits the needs of the Corps for the time being.

Two Marine officials, who are not part of Manpower and Reserve Affairs but are familiar with the debate, said manpower officials were considering a more restrictive policy.

Indeed, while much attention is paid to initial enlistments, it's far less clear to what degree Marines are scrutinized come re-enlistment time.

Manpower officials do not track how many Marines are denied re-enlistment or otherwise penalized for having inappropriate or excessive tattoos, Chapin said.

If the Corps were to apply the recruiting-specific tattoo guidance to the active force, it would not be the first time a service has taken such a step in cracking down on body art.

Expanding on recruit-specific policy issued in 2000, the Navy issued an order Jan. 24 that now prohibits active sailors from having any tattoos or brands on the head, neck and scalp, as well as tattoos or brands elsewhere on the body that are "prejudicial to good order and discipline" or "bring discredit upon the Navy."

The Corps made the first in a series of substantive changes to its policy in a Corpswide message issued in 1996 that banned tattoos and brands on the neck and head. It also reiterated the ban on tattoos or brands elsewhere on the body that are "prejudicial to good order, discipline and morale or are of a nature to bring discredit upon the Marine Corps." The regulation governing personal-appearance standards, MCO P1020.34, was revised to reflect this change.

And in 2000, the Corps raised the bar for enlisted Marines who want to become officers. With the change, enlisted Marines applying for warrant- and commissioned-officer selection boards now must show commanders their tattoos and send pictures of the body art to the selection board. The policy was implemented to preclude problems at Officer Candidates School or The Basic School at Quantico, where some officers were being sent home for having "inappropriate" tattoos.

The most recent change came in 2001, when officials closed a loophole in the order that at least one Marine used to justify piercing his tongue.

At the time, the order stated that a Marine could not pierce his skin, but the tongue is a muscle. The word "tongue" subsequently was added to the order.

The other services also have cracked down on body art in recent times.

In addition to the Navy's recent changes, the Air Force in January published clarifications to its regulations that further define what is acceptable body art. The change follows a celebrated case last summer in which in which officials discovered that a junior airman had split his tongue to give it a forked appearance.

The Army published a revision to its appearance standards for that service last summer. Now, Army regulations bar soldiers from having tattoos or brands on the hands, head or neck. And like the other services, the Army bans tattoos or brands elsewhere on the body that are "extremist, indecent, sexist or racist," calling them "prejudicial to good order and disicpline." Piercing also is banned, with the exception of earrings for female soldiers.

Now, for the first time, the four services apply a similar standard to their active members.

Prior-service trouble

The scrutiny potential recruits now see could mean trouble for at least some Marines: those who left active duty and want back in.

One former Marine, Mike DiGiovanni, found that out the hard way. He left active duty as a corporal in August 2002, only to find he didn't like life on the outside. After earning an associate's degree at a community college in Florida, he tried to come back to the Corps but learned the road he was about to travel had more twists than the huge dragon inked on his chest.

DiGiovanni, 25, said he had no tattoos when he first enlisted in the Corps, but he got about eight during his four-year tour. After his discharge, he had two eagles inked onto his left elbow, brass knuckles tattooed onto a bicep and an eagle, globe and anchor put on his back.

But since he had most of his tattoos while on active duty, he was shocked when his package was disqualified. "I was just dumbfounded," said DiGiovanni in an interview from his parents' home in Laurel, Md.

Then, a Marine officer from the West Coast suggested he try enlisting on the Western side of the recruiting line, telling DiGiovanni about the apparent difference in the way the tattoo policy is interpreted in the two recruiting regions.

He since has applied through a Western region office in California, but his application still hasn't gone anywhere — likely because the Corps suspended enlistment of prior-service Marines as of April 27 to give preference to combat veterans returning from Iraq with hopes of re-enlisting. The freeze was expected to last through July 1.

DiGiovanni's biggest problem with the tattoo policy is that it seems to be a double standard. Though he may not be able to enlist again, he sees many Marines who are allowed to remain on active duty despite having a dozen or more tattoos.

DiGiovanni still wants to be a Marine. He's doing construction work for now, hoping he'll hear from the Corps but knowing he probably won't.

"I think the policy is ridiculous," he said. "It doesn't show whether you can do your job or not. My record in the Marine Corps proves I could do my job."

A different view of ink

Regulations aside, some tattooed Marines see their ink differently now and have begun the expensive, protracted process of removing their artwork.

One major who plans to retire in the next year believes his tattoos might brand him as a particular kind of person in the civilian world and make it hard to get the kind of job he wants. He plans to go into public relations, where a "public presence" is key, he said.

"Rightly or wrongly, people make value judgments of others based upon physical appearance," the major said in an e-mail response to questions.

"People won't necessarily see Marine Corps service, sacrifice, honor, courage and commitment in my tattoos," he wrote. "They may well see just tattoos and based on stereotypical judgment ... their judgment of me personally, and by extension the organization I represent, could be negative."

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-1970322.php

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