Hi!
Okay, first, I realize this is the USNA forum and I'm a "lurker" type from the home of the CinC's Trophy...
Okay, that just slipped out...
Seriously though...it would seem that USNA is very much in synch with USAFA and we're pretty thorough on "tat's." And what I've read above is pretty much precisely what we ALO's brief our candidates and potential applicants/candidates.
While we/I don't much care about anyone's personal thoughts on tattoo's, the USAF/Military is a bit different there. I remember as a kid seeing the senior NCO's on the base with their arms all tattooed...never saw an officer and when I asked my father he told me that officer's didn't do that, only enlisted.
Those were the times we lived in.
Now? I know plenty of "O's" and "E's" with beautiful work...but you'd never know they had it because its, for want of a better word, hidden. The rule "can't be visible in any uniform, to include the PT uniform" is pretty much sacred writ.
I do know a pilot that got a nice USAF crest on his forearm while drunk on a TDY...
And I watched the pain in his eyes as he had it removed by laser...and the cost financially, and militarily (his commander gave him an article 15 for willful violation of a lawful order) was ugly! He has survived it but...
Just be careful...heed the advice of the much more learned USNA folks on this board, I'm just a USAFA lurker...but we're all US Armed Forces.
Steve
USAFA ALO (Same as a BGO)
USAFA '83