BOARD DATE: 23 August 2016 DOCKET NUMBER: AR20160011144 BOARD VOTE: __x_______ __x_____ ___x__ GRANT FULL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING ________ ________ ________ DENY APPLICATION 2 Enclosures 1. Board Determination/Recommendation 2. Evidence and Consideration BOARD DATE: 23 August 2016 DOCKET NUMBER: AR20160011144 BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION: The Board determined the evidence presented is sufficient to warrant a recommendation for relief. As a result, the Board recommends that all Department of the Army records of the individual concerned be corrected by removing the tattoo memorandum for record and tattoo photographs from the administrative folder of his official military personnel file. __________x_______________ CHAIRPERSON I certify that herein is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in this case. BOARD DATE: 23 August 2016 DOCKET NUMBER: AR20160011144 THE BOARD CONSIDERED THE FOLLOWING EVIDENCE: 1. Application for correction of military records (with supporting documents provided, if any). 2. Military Personnel Records and advisory opinions (if any). THE APPLICANT'S REQUEST, STATEMENT, AND EVIDENCE: 1. The applicant requests removal of the tattoo memorandum and photographs from his official military personnel file (OMPF). 2. The applicant states: * the tattoo memorandum and photographs uploaded in his OMPF are no longer applicable or correct * one of the tattoos he had that could have been considered offensive has since been covered up * he is now serving as his company’s Sexual Harassment Assault Response and Prevention representative and has since covered up the tattoo that could have been considered offensive * he does not want this tattoo to get in the way of any assignments or promotions in his future Army career * he no longer has that tattoo 3. The applicant provides a photograph of the modified tattoo. CONSIDERATION OF EVIDENCE: 1. The applicant enlisted in the Regular Army on 8 July 2009, and is currently an active duty Regular Army Soldier serving in the rank/grade of staff sergeant/E-6. 2. The administrative folder of his OMPF contains a memorandum for record dated 11 April 2014, subject: Self Identification of Existing Tattoos for (Applicant), including six photographs depicting tattoos. 3. An exception to policy (ETP) determination memorandum pertaining to prohibited tattoos has not been uploaded to his OMPF. 4. The applicant provided a photograph of his modified tattoo that could have previously been considered offensive. REFERENCES: 1. Army Regulation 670-1 (Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia), dated 10 April 2015, paragraph 3-3, updated the Army policy on tattoos. It states, in part: a. Extremist, indecent, sexist, and racist tattoos are still prohibited anywhere on a Soldier's body. Tattoos, regardless of the subject matter, are prohibited on the head, face, neck (above the t-shirt neckline), wrists, and hands. Commanders will perform an annual check for new tattoos above the neckline, wrist, and hands, and a simultaneous check for extremist and other prohibited tattoos and the Soldier will be dealt with in accordance with this regulation. b. Accession recruiting battalion commanders (lieutenant colonel/O-5 and above) will make initial entry determinations for new accessions that tattoos comply with the policy for active Army and U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers. Determinations are required when it is reported that a tattoo may be prohibited. Exceptions to policy for accessing applicants not meeting the tattoo criteria must be approved by the Director of Military Personnel Management (DMPM), Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1. Such exceptions must be documented and uploaded into the Soldier's Army Military Human Resource Record upon accession into the Army. 2. Army Regulation 600-8-104 (Army Military Human Resource Records Management) provides the principles of support, standards of service, policies, tasks, rules, and steps governing all work required to support maintaining the OMPF. Chapter 2 provides detailed guidance and instructions with regard to the initiation, composition, maintenance, changing, access to, and transfer of the OMPF. Table B-1 (Authorized documents), updated 4 May 2015, shows the tattoo memorandum with photographs is no longer filed as a stand-alone document in a Soldier's OMPF. The only tattoo memorandum with photographs that will be filed in the administrative folder of the OMPF is one with an ETP memorandum from the DMPM. DISCUSSION: 1. The evidence of record confirms the applicant's OMPF contains a tattoo memorandum with photographs. As of May 2015, tattoo memoranda with photographs are no longer authorized for filing in a Soldier's OMPF unless they are accompanied by ETP memoranda from the DMPM. 2. The tattoo memorandum and photographs contained in his OMPF are not accompanied by an ETP memorandum from the DMPM, and thus should not be filed in his OMPF per regulatory guidance. 3. Additionally, he modified the tattoo that might have previously been considered offensive to render it more palatable. //NOTHING FOLLOWS// ABCMR Record of Proceedings AR20150000953 Enclosure 1 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20160011144 2 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Enclosure 1 ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20160011144 3 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Enclosure 2