This is slightly off-topic, but I once read that Kiss changed their logo while perfoming in Germany due to its resemblance to the Nazi “SS”.
Although many people in the USA adorn their skin with tattoos for purely decorative reasons, a significant number of them do so to identify with criminal gangs. The lightening bolt tattoo is, in fact, associated with prison and street gangs such as the Aryan Brotherhood, the Nazi Low Riders, and the Skinhead gangs (Aryan Resistance Movement, Aryan Youth Movement, and the White Aryan Resistance (WAR)).
Well, we all know how well “niggardly” went over. :rolleyes:
I thought that the “lightening bolt” used by the Waffen S.S. was actually a rune, and had some mystical Norse or Teutonic meaning appropraited by the Nazis.
I mean there is nothing inherently racist about electricity is there?
It depends on the context. Some symbols are intrinsically racist; some are not. It depends on a lot of things.
However, let’s face it–99 out of 100 people who wear a swastika, display the rebel flag, etc are in fact racist.
Put it this way: If I had a hammer and sickle tattoo, many people would understandably think that I’m a Commie, right? If I had a pentacle tattoo, people would think that I’m Pagan. Whether or not you like it, the fact of the matter is that swastikas, SS/Totenkopf runes, etc are considered racist now. Okay, you personally may not be racist–but many people will see you as one.
If that doesn’t bother you, go ahead and get that tat.
If that DOES bother you, skip the tat.
That’s a GREAT idea!
I’m gonna go get a Hammer and Sickle (tm Karl Marx 1917) tattoo as soon as possible! 
— G. Raven
Design and location for Tats are everything.
I am sure if someone wants to get their undies in a wad they can link any symbol to a gang,hate group,secret society, ethnic group.
People, will also make judgements on how the symbol is displayed. Winnie the Pooh is cute, Winnie the Pooh nailed to a cross might not be.
If you place said Lightning tattoo in the center of your forehead your gonna get some looks. If placed on your upper arm or forearm you can control the ammount of visiblity strangers have of it with sirt sleeve.
At one drunken point of my life I almost shaved my head and had a Mt Rushmore type tattoo put on my head. Except with Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin instead of the US Presidents.
Is amazing what kind of dares I would take on when drunk.
Needless to say I am not the drinker I used to be 
Enjoy your Tat!
Osip
Oh my. I’m seeing a new sig!
Una “Winnie died for your sins” Persson
The runic lightning bolt (I forget the name) symbolizes power I think. If you look at the swastika, you can see two. One is turned on it’s side. This means the “fireball” and continual power. At least that’s how that nazis portayed it.
If I am wrong, someone please correct me!
Father Pacelli said,
How would you characterize your statement as being anything other than bigotted? I would love to see you support that claim with some sort of meaningful data.
I don’t wear a swastika, nor do I own a “rebel flag,” more properly known as the Confederate Battle Flag. I do know people who exhibit that flag for resons of their own, not one of whom is racist. I have also known some rebellious people, kids, mostly, who have chosen to wear a swastika just for the shock value. And, as has been pointed out, the swastika, in it’s original form, has very ancient roots in religion and culture.
Labeling people on the basis of a flag or a tatoo is as bad as labeling them on the basis of color, creed, or national origin.
Hmmm. If a lightening bolt signifies racist attitudes, that may explain the relative dearth of Canadians of African descent playing for Tampa’s NHL team. It’s the only explanation that makes sense!
I would disagree with this statement. A person chooses to display a flag or tatoo, as a form of personal expression. That’s their right. If people choose to express themselves through a symbol that has certain meanings associated with it, it’s fair for onlookers to assume that those persons are identifying themselves with the meanings of that symbol.
For example, if someone is wearing a lapel pin of a cross, it’s fair to assume that person is a Christian, and possibly further along on the evangelical spectrum than some other Christians. That’s not pigeon-holing or labelling; it’s ascribing meaning to the symbol that the person chooses to display to the world.
There are limits to how far it is fair for the onlooker to ascribe meanings, based on the nature of the symbol, the context, and its ambiguity or clarity, as this thread itself demonstrates. In some contexts, a runic lightning bolt may be a racist symbol, or a gang symbol, or means nothing more than “Hey - cool tat!” But if a person consciously chooses to display a symbol of unambiguous meaning, then it’s completely fair for others to atribute certain values to the person displaying the symbol.
For example, a flag with a tilted swastika, in a white circle, on a red background, is pretty unambigous, and I feel no qualms about attributing certain values to the person who chooses to express themself by displaying it.
Hi, here’s a starting point.
http://www.manwoman.net/swastika/swastika.html
Short answer: the swastika or “broken cross” is an ancient symbol that was appropriated by the Nazis. It’s got nothing to do with runic lightning bolts or electricity or fireballs or continual power.
All you have to do to make one is to take a basic “+”-shaped cross and turn each of the arms at a 90 degree angle. So it’s no wonder that many cultures have come up with it, and it usually means “good luck”. Dunno exactly why, you’d have to talk to an anthropologist or psychologist.
I believe that the two lightning bolts reffered to Hitlers SS forces and/or Hitlers “Blitzkrieg”(Lightning War. I could be wrong though, you’re best bet is to head over to a local library and begin researching, try looking up Facist symbols.
-NHL
I always thought that the Nazi SS was a visual play on words. SchutzStaffel(sp?)=SS=two lightning bolt runes next to each other.
Then again, I’ve been wrong before.
As for my being bigoted for assuming the vast majority of those with swastikas, etc are racist, consider. Symbols have meanings; skin colour and heritage do not. I can be Black, Hispanic, White or whatever and have any ideology at all. However, if I was Jewish, I probably wouldn’t wear a swastika. Why? Because the people who used that rune would have thrown me into a gas chamber just like they did to 5.7 million of my ancestors.
Skin colour denotes ideology; race/ethnicity do not. Geddit? Got it? Good!
No one HERE said that, Jill.
I was just using it as an example, because I know a lot of people who do that - they accuse other people of being racist based on skin color or some other ethnic factor, and in doing so, they prove to the rest of the world how racist THEY really are.
Just trying to get my point across, that’s all.
See, I know all that. I was even kinda taken back when I saw a swastika on a native american basket in the Pac NW, until I realized it was theirs first. What I am saying is that the two runic symbols of lightning bolts, with one on it’s side, is also a swastika. It has a double meaning, in addition to good luck. It pops up in Norse carvings and decorations, and Ol’ Hitler may have taken it from that. It’s meaning in Norse mythology is what probably made him take it.
I direct you to tarahill.com, please look at eihwaz. This is the rune that was used in the S on the SS badges, and is also found twice in any swastika.
Also, a nit to pick, they do symbolize fireballs. The Navajo mythology sees the swastika as a falling star or fireball, and as the flaming wheel of life.
I’m not a bigot, ignorant, or racist. I’m worse. I’m superficial. I judge you not by the color of your skin, but how you carry yourself. By how you dress, and by what kind of car you drive. And, lastly, by the tattoos you choose.
Your defence would be that only an ignorant jerk would think something so narrow minded, and “if you got the chance to know me you’d see I’m no racist”.
And the reason that I wouldn’t think that a black, asian, or latino with a “nazi derived tattoo” is racist, is because they aren’t white. That doesn’t mean blacks, asians, or latinos can’t be racist, you’ll read I never said that.
I read that Hitler may have first seen the Swastika at the Catholic school in his boyhood home. I got this from a book called Pope-puorri, so it may be a bit unreliable. Apparently the priest who ran the school Hitler went to was named something like Hagencreutz which sounded like the German word for the hooked-cross or swastika and so he used it as his symbol. (All of this I read along time ago and I didn’t commit it to memory, so I may be missing or distortng some details.)