A giant piece over your entire leg is bold and brave. Either mentally or emotionally and they choose a shield or warrior design to signify their triumph (and return) from the. Soldier saluting a military headstone. For these soldier tattoo designs the fonts are different, but the characters and the meaning are the same. This practice continued until 1861 when maurice berchon, a french naval surgeon, published a study on the potential medical complications of tattooing.as a result, french officials banned military tattoos.but soldiers can now rejoice, because tattooing is now safer than ever, and members.