Commandant
2100 Second Street, S.W.
United States Coast Guard
Washington, DC 20593-0001
Staff Symbol: CG-122
Phone: (202) 267-2239
Fax: (202) 267-4823
COMDTINST 1000.1A
Jun 17 2005
COMMANDANT INSTRUCTION 1000.1A
Subj:
TATTOO, BODY MARKING, BODY PIERCING, AND MUTILATION POLICY
Ref:
(a) Uniform Regulations, COMDTINST M1020.6 (series)
(b) Medical Manual, COMDTINST M6000.1 (series)
1. PURPOSE. This Instruction amends the Coast Guard's Tattoo and Body Markings Policy to include
both new accessions and current active duty/reserve members, and establishes new guidelines
governing content, location, and amount of body coverage. Additionally, this policy reinforces the
prohibition against other forms of intentional body mutilation.
2. ACTION. Area and district commanders, commanders of maintenance and logistics commands,
commanding officers of headquarters units, assistant commandants for directorates, Judge Advocate
General, and special staff offices at Headquarters shall ensure compliance with the provisions of this
Instruction. Commander, Coast Guard Recruiting Command (CGRC) shall ensure compliance with
this policy for all enlisted and officer accessions other than the Coast Guard Academy; CGRC is the
final approving authority for all accession tattoo issues other than those on cadets and shall note any
such approval on a CG Form 3307 prior to applicant's arrival at the accession point. The
Superintendent of the Coast Guard Academy shall ensure compliance with this policy for all cadets.
Commanding Officer, Coast Guard Training Center Cape May shall annotate recruit records as
appropriate. Commandant (CG-122) shall be the final authority for determinations involving the
acceptability of tattoos/brands on personnel being considered for discharge and for any other cases in
which there are questions concerning applicability of this Instruction. Internet release authorized.
3. DIRECTIVES AFFECTED. Tattoo and Body Markings Policy for Coast Guard Accessions,
COMDTINST 1000.1, is cancelled. The following instructions will be amended to reflect this policy:
Uniform Regulations, COMDTINST M1020.6 (series); Coast Guard Recruiting Manual,
COMDTINST M1100.2 (series); and the Personnel Manual, COMDTINST M1000.6 (series).
4. BACKGROUND. Our current policy on tattoos, branding, piercing, and other forms of body art has
not changed appreciably over the past thirty years. Our standards date back to a time when tattooing
was restricted to a very small portion of society, branding was almost unheard of, and piercing was
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