Heraldry In The News!

It's time for another edition of "Heraldry In The News!", though this time not for the most positive of reasons.

Now, to be honest, I haven't been following the anti-immigration demonstrations (and counter-demonstrations) and far-right riots occurring in England very much, as I am still recovering from surgery to remove the hardware they put into my left ankle nearly ten years ago to repair a spiral fracture but which was now causing what they term "hardware pain", as well as dealing with some scar tissue that had built up and was also beginning to cause some issues there.

But though I'm not getting out on-line quite as much as usual right now, interesting pictures of heraldry still attract my attention, as this one did taken at a demonstration that became a riot in Leeds, England.

My first thought upon seeing it, especially as regards the man in the mask, is that: "Apparently someone has not learned that the primary reason for heraldry is identification of the bearer."

Now, admittedly, the coat of arms on his left shoulder is not his, or his family's, but still ....

The shield is that of the Middlesbrough Football Club,* as can be easily found on their website and any number of other places on the internet, such as Wikipedia, where the image below came from.

As you can see, it's pretty much an exact match for his tattoo.

Anyway, it just seems to me that if you apparently don't want anyone to identify you -- as he seemingly doesn't, given the mask pulled up to obscure most of his face -- then maybe you shouldn't at the same time be clearly and publicly displaying a tattoo of a coat of arms that can be used to easily identify you!

Just sayin'.

* The city of Middlesbrough, where Middlesbrough FC is located, is about 65 miles (105 km) NNE of Leeds. I cannot say why a Middlesbrough fan would be in Leeds for a demonstration/riot, but there could be any of several possible innocuous explanations in addition to the ones that are more sinister.