anti-swastika tattoo

The original writeup in this node has been deleted, leaving my reply redundant.

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An anti-swastika tattoo? Hm... how about a swastika, maybe?

I assume NOFX is speaking out against Hitler, rather than elementary geometric patterns in general. This is a good idea. I'm not sure what symbol would be specifically against the holocaust, but healing might be represented by the Hindu right-handed swastika symbolizing the sun, and new beginnings.

A left-handed swastika in many Asian cultures also represents good fortune. It also represents the Buddha and is one of the 106 symbols appearing on his footprint. This is all pretty directly opposed to the holocaust.

The swastika is one of the most commonly reappearing symbols in human kind, used universally, and for almost anything. Until Hitler came along and ruined it for the West.

In modern times (but before WWII) it has appeared on boy scout logos, American pilots used them on their planes in WWI, and Rudyard Kipling used it for his coat-of-arms. Of course, he called it a flyfot or a gammadion.

But when Americans were given a choice as to what it should represent, they chose hate.

It is not unusual for skins to have anti swastika tattoos, such that it is an oft associated part of the subculture (such as boots and braces, fred perry shirts, blah blah). Many seem to have an affinity for getting in fights with (neo)nazi's.

What makes this line not merely pensive ("What does an anti-swastika look like?") but ironic is the fact that according to some conservative translations and interpretations of Leviticus 19:28, tattooing is as much a disfigurement of the soul as it is of the body and as such prohibited by both Christian and Jewish law and would not occur in a "good" Jew, let alone the k-Jew++ the song describes.

The aversion is selectively practiced and enforced these days; tattooing is now known and observed among Jews, but it (and similar body modification techniques including piercing) has traditionally not been practiced for the reason of being mentioned in the sacred texts. To this day some will interpret it so strictly as to refuse the burial of a tattooed Jew in a Jewish cemetary (excepting those who have been tattooed against their will - cf. concentration camp survivors, for whom the tattooing was not merely physically painful but potentially consigning them to an uneasy afterlife.)

One of the Anti-Fascist Action's logos features a man swinging a hammer into an already cracked swastika. The arm of the swastika on the right side is slightly out of place and what appears to be sparks are flying from it. It is intended to show that the next swing will break it.

This symbol has appeared in a similar fashion in many other Anti-fascist or Anti-racist (hey, there IS a difference) badges and posters since the mid-seventies.

A few, that I happen to remember right now, include a similar man but this time holding and axe. The classic swastika cracked down the middle and breaking open, the most common tattoo form. An arrow piercing the centre of the swastika. And, ironically, a large doc marten boot crushing the swastika from above, the top already dented.

Ironically I say on that last one, since it always reminded me of the 1984 passage about the future and what it holds "imagine a boot stamping on a human face- forever."