Man Gets Swastika Tattoo On Testicle, Receives Prison Sentence

An Austrian has been sentenced to 19 months in prison for having a Nazi symbol tattooed on his testicle.

The alleged neo-Nazi, a 29-year-old soldier from the Austrian town of Sankt Veit an der Glan, went on trial in the city of Klagenfurt on June 8 for getting a swastika tattoo. The identity of the man was not revealed due to local privacy law.

The soldier, who reportedly showed his tattoo to his army colleagues while heavily drunk and flaunted the tattoo online on a different occasion, was given a 19-month prison sentence for the glorification of Nazism and possession of illegal firearms.

The man told the court that he had drunk almost two bottles of whiskey before getting inked. He said it was his brother who did it.

"I just got in with bad company. For us, anything that wasn't allowed was something we gravitated towards, but we all underestimated enormously how much a mistake this was," the man said as per 7 News.

However, it was also found that he had posed for photographs with Nazi material at the Bunker Museum Wurzenpass. He shared Nazi propaganda online and consumed a Hitler-branded wine, too.

The defendant has a criminal record. He got into a brawl at a festival in his hometown, after which he was sentenced to two years for deliberate aggravated bodily harm, 7 News said in a report.

The soldier expressed remorse in the courtroom and said he was "sorry" and "embarrassed" for his actions. According to him, it was only when the tattoo-related investigation began that he realized how "nonsense" the Nazi glorification was.

"Other than that, I can't give any reasonable explanation for why I did it," he told the court.

The court heard the defendant's claim saying that he had stopped associating with the far-right eight years ago and stopped drinking heavily since his stint behind bars. He also informed the court that the tattoo on his scrotum was no longer visible.

Franz Zimmermann, the defendant's lawyer, has said that the soldier would appeal his sentence.

Under Austria's Verbotsgesetz or Prohibition Act of 1947, anyone who tries to revive or glorify organizations that resemble the Nazi party will be punished with a prison sentence.