What Can I Do With My Coat of Arms? Part 34 - Just for Fun

The past few years have made many of us much more aware of the importance of Personal Protective Equipment in helping to keep ourselves safer from diseases like Covid-19 or the flu.

Of course, if we are wearing certain PPEs, like a face mask, for example, then we may find ourselves in the same situation as 12th Century knights; a situation where a face covering, whether a helmet with a nasal or a visor, or a face mask, makes identification of the wearer more difficult.

And the answer to that situation, we are told, was the introduction of personal identifying marks -- coats of arms -- in the late 12th Century.

And I believe that this same answer may serve us today. That is to say: Use your heraldry on a mask!

Ideally, it would be your personal coat of arms, as in these two examples:

But I have seen examples using a Scottish clan crest:

Or the arms of a city or town:

Or of a state:

And even home-sewn masks made from fabric that had been printed with coats of arms:'

Alas, this last one was lost when I went to see a movie in the local theater, and since the theater was sparsely attended, I took off the mask for the movie and at some point it fell on the floor and I didn't notice it being missing until after I got home. So this heraldic mask is no more.

But still, I think you get the idea here. You can identify yourself (or if you prefer, proclaim yourself) to others by using heraldry in places where it is either recommended or mandated that you wear this modern equivalent of a helmet's faceplate.