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Soldier draws a crowd with tattoo parlor at Marez base

Jan-12-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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By MARGARET FRIEDENAUER, News-Miner

MOSUL, Iraq--At the bottom of his sign for OIF Tattoos, Staff Sgt. Justen Folda wrote the words: "Welcome to your new addiction."

The sign is not a welcome but a warning, a caution that once you feel the sting of the needle during your first tattoo, you'll want more.

Folda has done more than 180 tattoos since arriving in Iraq with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team five months ago. Most of his customers are repeats--soldiers looking for a souvenir of time spent in the confounding and dangerous combat zone.

Or in many soldiers' cases, several souvenirs.

Feeding their addiction fills up any free time he has when not on duty as a forward observer with the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry. By day he directs artillery, by night he is the resident tattoo artist at Forward Operating Base Marez.

"If I'm not on a mission, I'm tattooing," he said last week while preparing for a customer. [...]


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