Professor’s Documentary Film, “Tattooed Under Fire,” Goes Beneath the Surface to Uncover the human and cultural cost of war

Radio-TV-Film Professor Nancy Schiesari’s documentary, “Tattooed Under Fire,” is a grippingly intimate portrait of war-bound and returning soldiers as they go under the tattoo needle. Schiesari started the film without a particular pro- or anti-war agenda. She merely wanted to explore the thoughts and feelings of the soldiers who had offered their bodies to war and who before leaving were marking themselves with artwork to affirm their identity in the face of possible death or dismemberment.

Speaking with friend Roxanne Willis, owner of River City Tattoo in Killeen, Texas, outside of America’s largest military base, Fort Hood, Schiesari was intrigued by the highly customized artwork Fort Hood soldiers were inking permanently on their skin. These were not your stereotypical military anchor tattoos. Schiesari discovered instead astoundingly creative, personalized images and words that revealed a seldom seen part of the psyche of the American soldier.

Sitting in the chairs at River City Tattoo, under needles abuzz with ink, the soldiers openly profess their patriotism, share their secrets and confess their fears. Each soldier’s story is an evocative, poignant and highly personal look at the human and cultural cost of war. With an official military dress code that celebrates the uniformity of appearance, soldiers look to their bodies as their own personal landscape to express their identity. Though they are faithful members of unified battalions, the soldiers in “Tattooed Under Fire” reveal a multitude of stories bristling under the surface, a riot of self-expression going on right underneath the uniform.

One trend that presented itself during the making of the film was the contrast in tattoos before a soldier deployed and after he or she returned from combat.

“Before the soldiers left,” Schiesari notes, “the young men and women were getting tattoos that helped them cope with their anticipation of what they would encounter in combat. They chose symbols to live up to, images of what they wanted to embody to help them face their fear and protect them against danger. ”

Some soldiers chose fierce tigers to evoke bravery. Others were inked with religious symbols to inspire them to maintain long-held values that they knew might be tested, even obscured, as they were swept up in the urgency of combat, the ambiguity of a foreign land and an unfamiliar culture.

One soldier, Josh, enlisted one of the River City Tattoo artists to help design a tattoo for his back that consisted of two ravens intertwined inside a historically based image of a Norse warrior’s shield. The shield embodied Josh’s military/ancestral connection while the ravens represented thought and memory, which Josh said distinguish human beings from animals.

When the soldiers returned from Iraq, Schiesari said, they would often get a commemoration tattoo on their body as a reference to one of their buddies who died. A few soldiers inked themselves with images illustrating their deep cynicism toward their role in the war.

The film relates the story of one soldier who before being deployed is filmed enthusiastically receiving a tattoo on his bicep of a fetus in a blender. While at a hospital in Iraq the soldier held a young Iraqi toddler in his arms and was stunned by the irony of his tattoo, to which he said the little girl was oblivious.

“Before I went to Iraq,” the soldier shares after returning from his tour of duty, “I was getting the most offensive tattoo ever. I wanted to shock people. Now I don’t feel that way anymore. But I’m not going to try and hide it. It’s my past and this [my skin] is my storyboard. ”

According to army medical doctor John Perelli, a consultant on the project, the film is about something deeper than tattoos; it’s a powerful illustration of how outsiders have a veiled view of those who experience war first-hand.

“The depth of the feeling of getting such a permanent, shocking painting on your body is implicit in being tattooed like this,” Perelli said. “If you ask the solider to ‘tell me about the war,’ you might not get words. You might just get something like abstract art, some deep symbolism that gets in your face. ”

In “Tattooed Under Fire,” Schiesari reveals an intimate glimpse of American soldiers before and after serving in Iraq. These young men and women who volunteered to serve in the military often return from war changed in ways only their fellow soldiers can grasp. Through the creative and sometimes subversive act of tattooing, soldiers construct a narrow bridge to the “outside” world. “This is who I am. This is what I went through. ”

By showing how the soldiers employ their skin to assert their individuality and identity and by providing these young men and women a chance to articulate their place in a world in which war is an unavoidable fact, “Tattooed Under Fire” ably serves as the other half of the bridge, meeting the soldiers where they are and presenting them faithfully to the world.

Chris Margrave (this article originally appeared in the Department of Radio-TV-Film’s “Communique”

For more information about how to see this film, visit the Tattooed Under Fire Web site.