Sometimes a character can be so convincing that we start to forget that they aren’t real people, and this is especially true when it comes to Chris Meloni. Although we’ve always known the actor as Elliot Stabler, in reality, Chris is much different from his on-screen persona. 

Previous episodes of Law and Order revealed that Elliot Stabler grew up in Queens, N.Y. and served in Desert Storm as a hand-to-hand combat specialist, unlike Chris Meloni, who is originally from Washington, D.C. but raised in the suburbs of Virginia.

Before booking gigs on Oz and later, Law and Order: SVU, Chris attended the University of Colorado and worked as a bartender, construction worker, bouncer, and even a personal trainer, but he was never in the military. With this said, what’s up with the marine tattoo that we’ve seen on previous episodes of Law and Order?