Sick of meeting youths turning up in recruitment camps sporting filmy tattoos, the armed forces have prohibited display of body tattoos in soldiers except small ones suiting the religious sentiment or ethic tradition of a person.
Even those small tattoos of religious or ethnic symbols or names of near and dear ones could be sported only on the reverse side of the palm and inner side of forearm, between the elbow and wrist, reliable sources said. The new policy approved by the government in January has now been sent to all recruitment centres of the Army, Air Force and the Navy so that it comes into effect in the next round of candidate selection.
“Keeping in with the discipline of all ranks in the defence forces, should not display permanent body tattoo during recruitment,” said an officer. He said allowing such practices would be prejudicial to maintain good order and military discipline.
Determining factor
The risk of contracting HIV or hepatitis from needles was another determining factor to ban tattoos. A leeway has been given on religious and ethnic grounds. Tattoos reflecting those sentiments can be sported on the forearm and on the back of palm. People from tribal communities are permitted to wear these skin arts as per their custom and tradition.
But they have to get approvals from service headquarters.
While there is no restriction on size or the type of tattoo in these cases, it should not be too large to be visible during physical training drills and should not have any objectionable content. In case there is anything offensive, the person would be shifted to the nearest service hospital where doctors would decide how it should be removed.
The Indian policy on body tattoo comes more than six years after the US Army revised its body tattoo policy in 2006 after realising that a large number of young Americans are not joining the services because of the ban on skin arts. The French Army, too, allows body tattoos.
Though there is hardly any data available in India, the popularity of tattoos are increasing particularly in the urban areas.