A picture is worth a thousand words, and these tattoos, on show at a Royal British Legion exhibition, have powerful stories behind them.
Sgt Johnson Beharry, 40, is one of the heroes who has shared his story.
Beharry was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry given to members of the British military, in 2004.
He risked his life twice to save his crew and others by driving through raging fires while serving as a vehicle driver with the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment in Iraq.
He said: “At the time I was just doing the job.”
Beharry says he feels guilty when he wears the VC – as he is reminded of the friends who died. He loaned his medal to the Imperial War Museum and had it tattooed on his back instead.
Here others share how their tattoos remember people that have left their mark on them.
Matthew Thomlinson
“We all shared blood, sweat and tears together,” says Matthew, 52, one of the most highly decorated living Royal Marines.
He joined the forces when he was 22 and served for 28 years in Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, the Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan. He has received the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (CGC) and Military Cross (MC) for his bravery.
After everything he has been through, Matthew says that coming to terms with the loss of his comrades has been one of his biggest struggles.
He says: “These guys were my second family and losing any member of your family is devastating.”
So, after finishing his time in Afghanistan in 2016, Matthew’s friend suggested he get a tattoo to remember those he had lost on the battlefield.
Now, he has the silhouette of a bugler from the Royal Marines etched on to his back as a reference to the Last Post.
Touchingly, he also has the names of 10 fallen Royal Marines and US Marines with whom he served, inked.
These include Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, who was killed while commanding the Welsh Guards during an operation in Afghanistan during July 2009.
He said: “Each is a person who made the ultimate sacrifice and touched my life whether I served alongside them or commanded them.
Paul Glazebrook
“Everything I do, there’s always some element of the lads in my mind,” says Paul, whose father was also in the Royal Green Jackets. So, when he turned 16 in 2000, he decided to follow in his footsteps and joined the army.
After eight years and a tour in Iraq, Paul and his friend Tom Keogh decided to quite the forces and get jobs in the security industry. Sadly, Tom’s job fell through and, after struggling to find another, he decided to re-join the army. But tragically, during his deployment in the Middle East, Tom was killed.
Paul, 35, struggled to cope with the lost of his good friend and moved out to the Caribbean. He said: “I went into a bit of a hole for a few months over it.”
But Paul also wanted to get a lasting tribute to Tom and five other comrades who were also killed in Iraq.
So, he got the names of Tom Keogh, Jez Brooks, Paul Harding, John Rigby, Rod Wilson and Edward Vakabua inscribed on his back, alongside their ID tags and an excerpt from the poem For the Fallen, with the famous line: ”We will remember them”.
Craig Daniell
“I see my tattoo as my own symbol of remembrance”, says Craig, 29, who joined the RAF when he was aged 19 and served as a Senior Aircraftman in Afghanistan in 2011 and 2013.
Tragically, his time in the forces was cut short when he was injured by a blast which caused permanent damage to his hand. And he was medically discharged from his position in 2016.
However, he appreciates he is one of the lucky ones – as many of his comrades died in action. So Craig’s tattoo tells his, and their, stories.
He says: “For me, my tattoo is a visual memory of my time in service, it allows me to commemorate those I lost along the way and reminds me of how lucky I am to be here today.”
Craig’s sleeve depicts his journey through the armed forces with a medic to represent his first deployment as part of a medical response team – where he evacuated critically-injured casualties from the battlefields of Helmand, while often under fire himself.
“He has also managed to capture the moment that he was discharged from service with the image of a soldier walking towards a clock – inspired by the belief that his time in the forces was up.
The inking also includes a poppy, as well as the name of his friend Ryan Tomlin who was killed on patrol in Afghanistan aged 21.
Poignantly, at the bottom of his leg, Craig also is inked with the symbol for post-traumatic stress disorder – with which he was later diagnosed. He says: “At the time I was serving I didn’t really have the time to process what was happening around me, and what I saw, and deal with the grief of losing comrades along the way.
“You simply carried on as best you could and got on with the job at hand.
“It wasn’t until I was injured myself that I stopped and had time to think and my brain went into overload.
“After diagnosis for PTSD, I realised I had to take my time and process everything and reassess after injury.”
Danielle Cummings
“No matter how tough, I will always come out better,” says Danielle, who serves on board HMS St Albans, a Type-23 Frigate, as a Leading Logistician working with ammunition and general stocks.
With deployments everywhere from Afghanistan to Bahrain, Danielle, 29, celebrated her 21st birthday working with the police forces in Kandahar.
It was during this time that she decided to get a tattoo to symbolise being away for a big day.
Danielle chose the design of a swallow and an anchor, which she had inked on her lower back. The swallow is a centuries-old naval symbol often worn to remind the sailor that no matter how far they travel, they will always come home. And the anchor symbolises stability in stormy seas.
Danielle also has President Franklin D Roosevelt’s phrase: “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor” etched on her side.
She said: “After a deployment in Bahrain where I had not had the best time, it was to remind me that no matter how tough, I will always come out better.”
- Tribute Ink launches on Friday at The National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Burton-on-Trent. Entry is free and open to the general public. Click here for more details.
