Watching Season 3 of Sons of Anarchy.
SAMCRO is in Ireland, and they left their leather cuts behind, wearing these black jackets with the reaper on it but no specific club affiliation.
However, at least a couple of the guys have blue stripes on the jacket, around the bicep. Jax has 2 blue stripes around the left bicep. Clay has 3. Bobby doesn't have any. Opie has 1. Juice has 1.
Yes, SOA is a fictitious biker club.
But, what would be the significance of a blue armband around the left bicep? Evidently the # of stripes on it implies rank, since Clay has 3 as president and Jax has 2 as VP.
I subconsciously associate armbands primarily with neo-nazi types, and secondarily with old world armies. Culturally, SOA doesn't strike me as racist. They are allied with a black biker gang, and alternate between friendship/animosity with Mexican and Chinese factions based upon economics rather than skin politics. They went to war with some neo-nazis in season 2.
So what would such an arm-band mean? Blue, horizontal stripe, around left bicep.