Like many of his buddies in the Corps, he has decided he wants his dog tag permanently tattooed on his torso.

Firkin and Roger Eiser, a fellow Devil Dog, headed off base Saturday to one of the many tattoo parlors in Jacksonville, North Carolina, the civilian backyard of Camp LeJeune, home to some 43,000 Marines.

Weekends are busy at Primal Ink, says Jessica Lakes, whose boyfriend Phillip Peters owns the parlor. "After they've partied and got their tattoos, they get their hair cut before going to work on Monday."

Customers usually come in twos or threes, shooting pool or watching TV in the lounge where hundreds of designs are displayed on the wall and in swinging panels.

But Firkin, who already has "USMC" -- for US Marine Corps -- tattooed on his back, was only interested in having his name, social security number, service branch and blood type permanently emblazoned on the left side of his torso, by the bottom couple of ribs.

Such a tattoo, known as a "meat tag," was devised "so if you get blown up they can identify you," Peters said. "I've heard it called the largest piece of you left."

Lakes added: "They get them so they can be buried with full honors and with their families."

Noting that these days Primal Ink's three artists do about 50 meat tags a week, with spikes coming after pay days, Lakes said some customers were motivated by the brutal reputation of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Eiser, who had selected an arm band design for his left bicep, was doubtful. "If you hit an anti-personnel mine it don't matter what you got on... I ain't getting a meat tag. What's the point of that? You got your dog tags hanging on your neck."

Undeterred, Firkin double-checked his meat tag's vital information before Peters made a stencil of the simple artwork for transfer onto his ribs.

The artist, wearing green surgical gloves, took the precaution of taping gauze over Firkin's fresh small pox vaccination before the 24-year-old from Woodbridge, Virginia, lay back in a reclining seat, similar to a dentist's chair, to go under the electric tattoo needle.

Firkin said his father liked to say "It don't tickle," but he betrayed no discomfort through the 20-minute procedure carried out on a notoriously sensitive part of the body.

"Ribs is a tender area," said an artist named Butch at another parlor, Fantasy Tattoo. Getting a meat tag "is a way of showing that you don't mind suffering a little bit to show who you are."

He said: "If you're 'about it' (being a Marine), you make a sacrifice." The Marines get meat tags, a custom that dates back to the Vietnam War, "because they're Marines."

Thus for some tattoo lovers, the meat tag goes far beyond its practical purpose, inspiring a variety of gory embellishments such as a trompe l'oeil design depicting an open wound with the dog tag strung around a rib.

Meanwhile, back at Primal Ink, as Eiser was getting his bicep tattoo, the TV was tuned to NBC news, reporting that the bodies of four US soldiers had been found in a shallow grave, one of which had been severely mutilated.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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