Edit: Thank you so much for the answers, from what I gathered it’s a huge taboo and very frowned upon, so I will wear a jacket to cover it up if it won’t be too hot outside.

Edit 2: Not sure why I keep getting downvotes. Fair to say that **I’m not associated with nazism** in any way, and the tattoo I have is a spiritual symbol of my culture, **not meant to be an alt-right symbol.** After all, I’m asking the question and trying to clear everything up so **I’m not offending** the local people.

Hello! I’ll be traveling to Vienna this summer, and I have a couple of questions regarding my tattoo. I have an ancient Baltic thunder cross symbol tattooed on my arm and it closely resembles a swastika.

1. Is the swastika (again, my tattoo is not a straight-up swastika, but just a variation of it) an illegal/banned symbol, and will I get in trouble for walking around the city with just a t-shirt on a hot day?
2. How would the people in public react? Will someone give me trouble for it or am I going to be okay?

I hope I’m going to be okay since the symbol is not at all associated with nazism in my culture. The symbol in my tattoo looks similar to this one: [https://www.fenikssfun.com/cache/images/2116746534/janis-un-uguns-krusts_1695720354.jpg](https://www.fenikssfun.com/cache/images/2116746534/janis-un-uguns-krusts_1695720354.jpg)

Also, any general tips about tourism in Vienna and recommendations on cool/interesting places I could visit in Vienna would be greatly appreciated 😉

13 comments

  1. 1. If the symbol is like the one you posted, meaning the spurs are counter-clockwise, it doesnt (to my knowledge anways) fall under the Verbotsgesetz (law prohibiting, among other things, display of nazi symbols)

    2. People wont know the difference and stare at you/harass you nonetheless.

  3. I dont think you will get problems with the law, but consider covering it up to avoid awkward looks/talks.

  4. Yes. almost all people will stare. most will give you dirty looks, and some will actually challenge you for having it. Very few will be totally cool with it.

    A lot of our NeoNazis co-opted this or very similar designs to piss off people without doing anything illegal – passersby will not be able to differentiate you from the Assholes. Swastika-lite tattoos make us seriously question the person having it

    blame the fucking NeoNazis for co-opting and therefore soiling your design, and wear long sleeves for maximum security/minimum harassment

  5. One more thing: some people you will meet are going to cheer you for your tattoo and talk to you/invite you to drink with them. They’ll call you ‘brave’ or ‘courageous’.

    THOSE ARE NAZIS. avoid.

  7. Ci would recommend you to cover it up. Especially in Vienna some people could be offended or provoked by it.

    Also if I remember correctly from lawschool there’s precedence of someone with a schwarze Sonne tattoo who got prosecuted. As the other poster said that it depends with symbols if it can be associated with a nazi group. Not sure if that would matter if someone calls the police on you because of your “nazitatoo”

  9. nothing i can contribute regarding its lawfulness but you will get plenty of weird looks and raised eyebrows. to get the max out of your stay, i recommend you cover it up and relax instead of feeling paranoid or even engaging in conversations or arguments about it.

  10. With what I know and if I’d be a tourist here, I would definitely not show such a tattoo – no matter if it’s illegal or not. You will get looks and someone will probably confront you, if not call the police right away. Even if that would not lead to any charges, I‘d not want to deal with that.

  12. Just spend your visit in a small town in Carinthia or Western Styria, people won’t look at you weird, people are very open here.

  13. Since your question has already been answered pretty well, here are some general vacation tips:

    Rent a bicycle! Vienna is quite small for a capital city and most places you’d want to be can be reached in about 20 minutes by bicycle. And riding along the danube you can reach some nice spots for day-trips. But if you don’t like biking, the viennese public transport system is among the best in the world.

    For swimming we have a lot of public baths https://www.wien.gv.at/english/leisure/bath/ and an artificial island (“Donauinsel”) in the danube.

    For not-so-obviously-touristy cultural places I always recommend “Narrenturm” (“fool’s tower”) – a pathological-anatomical collection https://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/en/narrenturm

    Donaukanal (danube channel) – a sidearm of the Danube – is a nice place to have a beer in the evening, wheter you bring it yourself, buy it at one of the many bars or out of the backpacks of not-actually-legal but omnipresent street vendors.
    If you are more of a wine person, you might want to check out a “Heuriger” – these are places in the vineyards (outskirts of the city – e.g. in the 19th district – “Döbling”) where they sell straight from the vine 🙂

    Prater is also nice. Used to be the emperors hunting grounds and still has some fairly pristine nature directly in the heart of vienna. Wurstelprater – Vienna’s amusement park – is also there.

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