Tattooed people are no longer welcome in the Ivorian gendarmerie, whose commander, General Alexandre Apalo Touré, believes one can wonder at their “state of mind”.
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“Tattoos are forbidden in this facility,” General Touré said during a speech to cadets this week, believing them to be incompatible with gendarmerie values.
“Someone who has recorded a certain number of elements on their body, sometimes the heads of a lion, an elephant, a rhino, we wonder about their state of mind,” he added.
“While some are reprimanded for being too small, we cannot allow some whose bodies look fearsome,” concluded General Touré.
These statements provoked some skeptical reactions on Ivory Coast social networks. Some deemed it a “regressive” remark or a “useless” measure, while others posted photos of US Marines with their arms heavily tattooed.
The commander of the gendarmerie urged prospective gendarmes not to “burn” their bodies to remove any tattoos, assuring that there were other ways to serve the country than entering the facility.
In France, tattoos are allowed in the army as long as they “do not damage the reputation of the army” and are “not racist, political, extremist, homophobic or religious,” according to the Defense Ministry.