Can you apply the old adage “you can’t judge a book by its cover” to the president-elect’s choice for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth? The answer is a little more complicated than a simple yes or no.
Tattoos are popular aesthetic pleasures for many fashion-conscious wearers. But injecting indelible dyes below the top layers of one’s skin is not always meaningless decoration, and can carry with it a statement of some consequence. Tattoos can be brands that link like-minded people or covert groups together clearly or implicitly. Prison tattoos, of which there are many, suggest many commonly held experiences of beliefs.
There are also those who flirt with medievalist symbolism and garner aesthetic pride displaying it as body art with purpose. Hegseth has been very forthcoming about his allegiances, displaying four tattoos referencing his Christian faith. In fact, these tattoos have no direct connections to white supremacist ideologies, though at least one has been linked to Christian nationalism.
When it comes to Hegseth’s Jerusalem cross, with smaller Greek crosses in each of its four quadrants, the symbol represents the Kingdom of Jerusalem and was emblazoned on tunics and tabards of Christian Crusaders during the religious wars to conquer the Holy Land between the 11th and 13th centuries (1095–1291). Hegseth cites its prominence on his chest, in addition to other charged symbolic representations, as a sign of his Christian beliefs. Critics may not, however, be faulted for mistaking the Jerusalem cross with fascist variations in far-right and white supremacist ideology (the Nazi hakenkreuz, the German word for its hooked cross, has long been mistaken for the similar composition of the swastika, a Sanskrit word for auspiciousness). But Hegseth’s skin-deep body markings also have patriotic symbolism. They include: “We the People” from the U.S. Constitution; “1775” in Roman numerals (MDCCLXXV); a stylized American flag with a stripe replaced by an AR-15 rifle; a ring of stars around his elbow referencing the revolutionary American flag; “Join, or Die,” from Benjamin Franklin’s famous 1754 cartoon (recently a Tea Party icon); and the emblem of the 187th Infantry Regiment, in which Hegseth served.
Whether Hegseth is an appropriate candidate for Secretary of Defense is a crucial question that has already raised hackles. Probably you can tell the man by his tattoos (not to mention his rhetoric), but these tattoos will ultimately not prove anything more than he is proud of his service, country and faith—and, just one more thing: When his skin begins to age, wrinkle and sag, it would be advisable to wear a long-sleeve shirt.