Hey, guys, it’s Sergeant Davidson, active duty Air force recruiter for the Huntsville area. And a big question I get asked a lot is, what is your tattoo policy? What tattoos can I have and what tattoos can I not have and can I get in with tattoos? Well, I’ve got a great news for you. The air force has one of the most relaxed tattoo policies of all the military branches, and everything is going to be allowed except no tattoos on the hands s, face, or neck.
Okay? So when you have your full uniform on, no tattoos should be exposed. The only exception to that is if you wanted, you can get a wedding band tattoo. That is it. You can’t have, like, a skull or anything like that.
It’s got to be a wedding band tattoo on your finger, on your ring finger. That’s the only exception for hand tatoos. Everything else, as you can see, is fair game, as long it’s not derogatory. So I have almost two full sleeves, and then I have tattoos on the rest of my body, but they cannot be derogatory in nature. And when people ask me what derogatory is, so nothing gang related, nothing obscene.
So not like a naked woman or a naked man on your arm, something along those lines, and no rude or obscene gestures or words. So other than that, everything else is pretty much free game. If you do have a tattoo on your hands, face, or neck, I see that very often. Typically, I see the little tattoos, like the music note behind the ear, that is disqualifying. Now, talk to your local air force recruiter.
You can get that tattoo removed, and you can move forward with the process. The air force will not pay for a tattoo removal or anything along those lines. And make sure you don’t have any other issues. Heaven forbid, because I want to. Want you to get your tattoo removed, and then you move forward with the process with your recruiter, and then you have a disqualifying medical factor.
So make sure everything is laid out on the table, and there would be no other issues other than getting the tattoo removed. Then if you wanted to pursue the air force, you could get it removed and continue the process. So, long story short, hey, free game, you can get whatever you want. Just make sure it’s in good taste, and it’s not on your hands, face, or neck. So it’s pretty dang awesome.
They changed the policy back in 2017, and the minute they did, I went out and I started filling my sleeves up, because before then, you could only have 25% of your exposed body part tattooed. So that means typically it could not exceed past your hand. It was very restrictive. They lifted that, and I’m extremely happy. So those are our tattoo policies.
If you have any questions, concerns, make sure you reach out to your local air force recruiter. And if you’re in the northern Alabama region, please reach out to me. My contact information will be listed below. You guys have a great day. Bye.