All evidence points to asking him about it. Look at how many replies this thread got. Clearly a swastika tattoo is a conversation starter.
Who here is volunteering to go ask as they are suggesting the OP do?
If the guy is a conversation ender, in a violent way, will you pony up $$$ or accept any responsibility for egging the OP into doing the asking?
Most of those I know who did this quit it after high school because they find that they do bear some responsibility.
Amazing how much that has not happened to so many of the posters in this thread.
If it would not be harmful to the OP, I would like for tattoo guy to be a real bad ass with a violent reaction to that question.
- There is right & dead right.* I wonder how many are willing to put that up front over this guys old tattoo?
You live in a weird world. I suspect it exists only in your head.
I do things like this not every day, but occasionally. Asking a question is not going to elicit a violent response almost ever. It seems kind of cowardly, to be honest, to be so terrified of asking a question.
And if you think the guy is going to kill you for asking the question, maybe he’s someone you want to avoid, with or without a Nazi tattoo.
GusNSpot’s worldview is certainly…unusual.
Here, he berates everyone who thinks that anyone defending a driver who hit a dog and in the process of slowing down to stop the car is chased away by what appears to be a screaming maniac who may be yelling racist comments is a “nothing” and presumed chickenshit.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15399031
Eta–post 165, but check out some of the earlier comments too
So…yeah.
Picture yourself in a gym on a weight bench
Surrounded by grunting and the smell of sweat
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A guy with a swastika tat
You think he got the tattoo to commemorate his colitis?
Nazi in the gym with biceps
Nazi in the gym with biceps
Nazi in the gym with biceps
Bleaaauggghhhhh…
I am pleased that you remember this and were willing to go to the effort to go back & dig it up. Or did you have it booked marked because you knew you would want to use it in the future. Either way, I’m glad to know you are that concerned with what I say. 
You made that up, I did not say that.
This … ignore the tattoo. Problem solved.
I gotta admit…it’d be kinda hilarious if it turned out he got it when he was blackout drunk (or his friends got it for him), and it’s at juuust the right spot to escape his normal field of view, and is usually covered up, he actually has no idea he even has a tattoo. :eek::smack: “So that’s why girls never called me back!”
That, or maybe he’s a Nazi, but just not racist towards South Asians.
Or, ignore the Nazi. Problem solved.
Google…it’s this newfangled interweb thing…you type in words and it searches for them. Took about 20 seconds of typing to find it. It’s not so much a concern, it’s that I had 30 seconds free and thought I’d let people know that your bizarre worldview and posting habits are consistent from thread to thread.
Also, everyone knows the parts that are my opinion, since I put qualifiers like “appears to be” and “may be”. Note that the “may be racist” part is due to the op of that thread making a point of repeatedly saying “large angry negro” to describe people.
And as for “presumed chickenshit”. True, those weren’t your exact words. Your exact words were
I think “presumed chickenshit” adequately sums up your largely incoherent post…at least thematically.
I’d ask. I’d ask because he seems nice and I’d want to be able to interact with him at the gym in the future, and I can’t do that if he has a swastika tattoo, he has a swastika tattoo! is in my head every time I see him. Odds are, he’ll be slightly embarrassed and possibly hadn’t realised it was visible. Then I’ll be comfortable with him. Maybe suggest he wear something that covers it up because it isn’t giving out the right impression for the man he is now.
FWIW, it’d cost maybe £50 to get it covered up, not thousands as someone else was suggesting.
If the South Asians in the gym have noticed the tattoo, they might stop going there too. Hell, I’m gay, and I’d feel uncomfortable going to a gym that was happy with open swastikas. You don’t just display the swastika like it’s any old symbol - it does mean something. He needs to cover it up with a t-shirt or something until/if he chooses to get it covered up permanently. Odds are pretty good that someone else will notice it, report him, and get him banned.
I wouldn’t care what Mr. Swastika thinks, only what he does.
Swastika, Texas, a ghost town in Hale County, has largely been removed from maps, but I have access to a very old map. Didn’t Lindburgh have a Swastika painted on the Spirit of St. Louis?
You mean the Charles Lindbergh who said
and
and who was unabashedly a Nazi sympathizer?
Yeah…I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he had a swastika painted on his airplane (or even tattooed on his forehead), but I’m not sure I understand why you’re bringing it up.
Yeah, I’m sure there are plenty of righteous swastika wearers out there. oldrolleyes
And there are people wearing KKK as a historical nod to their southern ancestry.
From Symbolism: Astrology, Swastika, Crossroads, Western Use of the Swastika in the Early 20th Century, Sex Symbol, Symbol Grounding, Badge of Shame
“The symbol was popular as a good luck charm with early aviators.”