Tattoo stories: Military types share personal ink tales - Entertainment, Books - Navy Times

Tattoo stories: Military types share personal ink tales

Walter Dudycz went drinking with a friend the night he received orders for Vietnam in 1968. The uncertainty of surviving the war filled his 18-year-old mind.

After rounds of beer, the two friends decided to get “meat tags.”

“We figured, ‘If something happens to us, at least they’d be able to identify us with our tattoos,‘“ Dudycz says. He got a crucifix with a heart and a crown of thorns tattooed onto his left upper arm for $10. With his last $3, he added his nickname, “Wally,” to his right arm.

“This is part of my life story, and those tattoos at $13 have followed me and reminded me of that moment for all these decades,” he said.

Dudycz’s story is one of the 78 tales of tatted troops in Kyle Cassidy’s new book “War Paint: Tattoo Culture & the Armed Forces.”

Cassidy spent more than four years talking to current and former service members who were willing to share the intimate stories behind their tattoos. He photographed everything from anchors on the arms of World War II vets to elaborate designs of demons pouring from an outstretched hand on the forearm of an Army sergeant in Iraq.

Army National Guard combat medic Staff Sgt. Richard Zacamy Jr. saw one of Cassidy’s fliers about the project last year and jumped at the chance to show off the expert medic badge tattoo on his back — “a pride thing,” Zacamy said. “We had 40 people start out, and when we finished, only six of us graduated from the class.”

Though Cassidy released “War Paint” on Memorial Day, his quest for tattoo stories is not over. He envisions his Flickr page — accessible via his official website, kylecassidy.com/warpaint — as a forum for more troops to bond over the stories of their tattoos.