
The left image is the bicep of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with the “Deus Vult” tattoo that got him removed from the National Guard assignment to President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021 due to its association with Neo-Nazi extremist groups. Whether Hegseth’s reason for having inked it was that he identifies as a member of such groups or is a mental teenager who thought it sounded badass without fully realizing its prevalence among hate groups is unknown but probably somewhere in between, solely to give him the benefit of the doubt he wouldn’t get if it said “1488.”
Still, Hegseth screamed he was being unfairly targeted for his tattoo and, obviously, the vast majority of Republican Senators didn’t see it as an issue (nor the credible rape accusations or alcoholism he outright admitted) and confirmed him to lead the most powerful military in human history where he now regularly uses unsecured chat apps to discuss ongoing operations.
On the above right is a tattoo on what appears to be the thigh (?) of Neri Alvarado Borges, a Venezuelan native who had it inked to support his 15 year-old brother Nelyerson, who is autistic. Borges taught swimming classes for developmentally disabled kids in his home country until 2023 when he migrated to the US and took a job at a Venezuelan bakery outside Dallas. It’s not clear whether Alvarado, 25, who was detained outside his apartment last month, had jumped the border or was in the US on asylum or temporary protected status. Either was his sister and his boss both tell Mother Jones that an ICE agent had told Alvarado “You’re clean. I’m going to put down here that you have nothing to do with Tren de Aragua,” after reviewing his phone and tattoos.