The U.S. Navy is loosening its stance on tattoos, allowing service members to have visible markings, as a way to attract more millennials.
The Navy has announced that sailors can now have visible tattoos below the elbow or knee, and the military agency no longer restricts their size and the number of them. The Navy will also allow one tattoo on the neck, so long as it doesn't exceed one inch in any direction.
The news came on Thursday and takes effect April 30.
The police update came in response to the increased popularity of tattoos among current service members and those the Navy aims to recruit: millennials.
Already on Friday, a tattoo parlor in Barrio Logan, just a few blocks from Naval Base San Diego, was already seeing the impact of the police changes.
Nemo, the owner of Deville Tattoo, said he already had 30 to 40 messages on Friday from service members seeking tattoos.
“That’s how these boys are receiving (the news),” he said.
Nemo is the son of a retired Navy SEAL who understands the mindset of his military customers.
"They don't like being barred down by not being able to do what they'd like on their body,” he said. “Then you have the ones who are all about maritime tradition who would love to have the sailor marks cause they are sailors."
