I'm wondering what the political/social ramifications would be?

I would like to get the Bundesadler (German coat of arms) on the upper part of an arm.

Example:



I say "an" arm because I don't know which would be most politically acceptable. I do plan to travel extensively to Germany as my family is from there and the country intrigues me to no end. What I DON'T want to happen is to be at a resort/pool and catch royal hell (or worse) for "affiliating" myself with a group and being unaware of it.

My big question to those "in the know"... Would there be any hidden meaning I should know about if I put it on the right? Granted, it's not a **** symbol by any stretch and it IS the version of the coat legally permissable for use (there is a federal version with rounded edges that is prohibited from public use, in Germany). Or would the left present a "friendlier" image?

Stateside, I doubt many would care, regardless.

Thoughts/opinions?

 

I would suggest that you research the history of your last name, then the history of your own family.

It might/could be a bit embarrassing to find you've done something permanent that was a mistake.

JMHO

 

Humble opinion accepted.

Moorehead is traced back to Scotland, as it was originally spelled Muirhead but phonetics/American translation resulted in the current spelling. Having said that, the vast majority of my family's roots stem from Germany, specifically the Nuremburg area from what I can gather. It wasn't until 1950 that the Moorehead name came into play. FWIW, my grandmother (rest her soul) could barely speak any English whatsoever, it was all Deutsch. Same for my Father's side of the family.

I've researched as much as possible on my own means, and everything checks out. So, short of paying a proffessional hundreds of dollars to dispel that research (and somehow explain to me how my entire family spoke German, not Scottish dialect), I'll rest fairly assured in the fact that I'm German.

Back to my question... social/political ramifications?

 

Cool.

Now you said A German coat of arms. There must be hundreds, if not thousands. You might look into family crests/coats of arms in the Nuremburg area. Especially for your family name. I don't think I would go for a generic tat-try to find something specific to your heritage.

I was told by my whole family that my grandfather came from Strasbourg (French) last name Cichon. But after a bit of research (Ellisisland.org) I found he was from Chemnitz-east Germany. And an email to the Chamber of Commerce there revealed a number of long lost relatives I will someday go to visit!

Good Hunting!

 

There are indeed thousands, you're absolutely right. The reason I decided on the Bundesadler (pictured above) is based on the colors, general "at-a-glance" notoriety being the coat of arms for Germany as a whole, and it's a bold design that is cleaner overall than the majority of the family crests. The family crest for the Moorehead name (a scottish crest) has so much detail that in a smaller size, it would simply look messy and busy.

Bundesadler is bold, clean, simple, and makes the statement that identifies with the majority of the history; without being gaudy or too "busy".

That's the justification for the tat, at least.

Having said that, it WOULD be very interesting to find the specific coat of arms for the family and display that in the house somewhere.