Show Us Your Tats: Tattooed Under Fire at the Ritz

No matter where you are or who you meet here in Austin, chances are they’re sporting some ink. In fact, chances are you are too. Yes, our generation is going to make for a bunch of colorful old people someday—literally! (See what we did there?) But tattoos are more than just pretty pictures. They’re things that mean a lot to us, things we feel, things we used to love, things we regret. Each one has a meaning, a story.

Tattooed Under Fire, screening Wednesday night at the Alamo Ritz, is a documentary that delves into just how much tattoos can mean. Brought to you by the Austin Film Society, the film follows six soldiers at Fort Hood as they prepare to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. Using their tattoos as a prism, their inner thoughts and feelings are revealed. It’s an unusual and effective way to get past the steely exteriors and straight to what’s really going on inside.

The filmmakers (director/producer/UT film prof Nancy Schiesari and her graduate students) interview the soldiers both before and after they’ve served, so you can get a clear picture of how their time abroad has affected them, and sit with them as they contemplate both where they are headed and where they have been.

Whether you’re into documentaries, war films, art house fare, local cinema, or just like hearing stories about crazy tats, you should walk away with a smile on your face. And the screening's downtown, so when it’s over, if the mood should strike, there are plenty of tattoo parlors nearby. It is Austin, after all.