As a woman in my late 30s in a very hippie, liberal area, I actually feel proud to have no tattoos and no piercings apart from my ears. I feel it conveys that I’m ok with who I am as I age. I know and meet people who are heavily inked, and sometimes the tattoos are splendidly artistic…but most of the time it just looks to me like bumper stickers on a car. I love art, I just don’t want to wear it on my skin forever.
I do think that the feeling of ownership over one’s body is a big part of the increase in tattoos. But I also think some of it has to do with despair about the future, as industries shift, jobs vanish, and people get priced out of housing, there’s a desire to have something nice for yourself, and the body art feels like an investment, something that can’t be taken away from you. Sort of like how nomadic cultures often have elaborate jewelry, a way of wearing one’s wealth.
Personally, I still prefer to be all one color…and I’d rather just make or buy art.
I think our children need us to say: “no tattoos.”
They will be inundated with the opposite message. There needs to be their parents’ voices saying “you are beautiful and innocent- don’t make this mistake. It’s permanent and you are too beautiful.”
It seems to be a desire to show they are original, special, or rebels. Unfortunately, tattoos tend to be banal, trite, and are more and more common. They thus prove, as Theodore Dalrymple noted, that the person getting them is conventional, ordinary, and follows the herd.
I have one around my arm. I’m 60 and have had since 26 and have never regretted it. I certainly didn’t have it done to express inner turmoil. But I still agree that too many is overdoing it. And facial tattoos, no way! Even in 1990s London, I tried to talk a friend out of having one on his chin. The fact that he went ahead told me he was a fool. I don’t encourage the kids in my family to have them done because young people can go overboard. It is fine not to have them.
I think the idea of "belonging" succinctly explains it.
Back in the day, you NEVER got tattooed, as a way to show your social conformity. Now you get tattoos to signal your social conformity. The only difference I see, is some people still view their tattoos as rebellious, when it's actually an act of conformity. At least back in the day, non-tattooed people were proudly aware of their conformity.
Yes. The self harm and cutting connection to the pain of a tattoo. And one form being socially acceptable.
There is a similar scenario in the gender industry. Children mutilating themselves b/c they have a magical sense of self is now accepted and encouraged while it’s called genital mutilation and a crime against humanity and girls in certain parts of the world, especially in the past. 🤔 civilized society used to fight against this abhorrent practice. Now it is celebrated.
That was a fascinating article. I've been wondering about the alacrity with which young women are choosing extreme body alteration (medicalization is for another day) in their quest to change sex. The scene is set early. At a young age, they go all in for elaborate tattoos, as well as facial and other bodily piercings such as nose rings. All of this normalizes body alteration. So contemplating a double mastectomies and other, to me, utterly repugnant desecrations of their bodies, is no big deal. There is, not only a sad rejection of the body, but a definitive repudiation of the original body as it was-- which, of course, was perfectly fine. “I've done this and that already, so why not lop off these breasts that mark me as female?” these confused girls have been encouraged in this by the many people they follow on social media who convince them that their original bodies are THE problem. The positive responses they get as they proudly display their mastectomy scars eclipses everything else.
I am in two minds about this (and have no tattoos, though if my daughter wanted to get a matching one with me when she gets older I would definitely consider something like that). My husband has several tattoos, none of which are visible unless he's wearing a t-shirt and all of which have some meaning to him (he got them beginning at age 40 so wasn't some random thing he did in college).
I definitely notice an increase in the number of tattoos and to be honest there are some incredible artists out there and many people who I compliment about their tattoos have a story/meaning behind their why. The art they chose to place permanently on themselves is something they don't regret because it reminds them about overcoming something huge in their life or commemorating a move or someone close to them. Aaaaaand there are also some out there that just seem to have been done for thrill of it.
On the other hand, I had a senior client four years ago and when we did her senior photo session she had no tattoos and just standard ear piercings. As soon as she went to college she began getting tattoos and other piercings and now I would say has at least twenty (very) visible tattoos and many external piercings that have transformed her into a completely different looking person. There are times when I have to do a double take If I see her on social media. I later photographed her sister who has done none of these things. She doesn't want for anything financially (extremely so) so it's an interesting break out after high school. I had another client who got matching tattoos with her ex-husband three weeks after they met. Obviously they are enough divorced so not sure what either of them did about that since they have both since remarried. I definitely also have friends who regret the tattoos they got in their twenties but now just accept them as a life experience and don't really care about having them removed (they're also not very visible).
People can do what they want with tattoos and piercings. It's your body - as long as it's known that changing your mind after the fact is, as you point out, incredibly painful and expensive.
Whenever I hear someone complain that they can’t afford housing or food or whatever, I look to see how many tattoos they have. Invariably, many. I think, “Maybe if you didn’t have $4,000 worth of ink on your body, you could afford rent.”
It’s also deeply conformist. It’s hilarious to me how people think tattoos are so outré, so avant garde, so rebellious, when every middle-class housewife in middle America has one. Yeah, real rebellious.
Though as you point out, definitely a cry for help from many girls. Goes along with the “trans” delusion.
Look up the Japanese mob, Yakuza, and their all-body tattoos. They go on the black market for liver transplants because impeding the skin cells, that is sweat, causes the liver to fail. The rate of tattoo regret after a decade is something like 70%.
Make un-inked skin great again
Matt Walsh had an interesting take on tattoos and regret about his own.
https://youtu.be/T7A63m4EoYk?is=WRWOx1j9c7HLjhhG
I listened a little bit but he is droning on and on. What specifically was interesting about this take?
Towards the end where he likened tattoos to jeans and bumper stickers.
As a woman in my late 30s in a very hippie, liberal area, I actually feel proud to have no tattoos and no piercings apart from my ears. I feel it conveys that I’m ok with who I am as I age. I know and meet people who are heavily inked, and sometimes the tattoos are splendidly artistic…but most of the time it just looks to me like bumper stickers on a car. I love art, I just don’t want to wear it on my skin forever.
I do think that the feeling of ownership over one’s body is a big part of the increase in tattoos. But I also think some of it has to do with despair about the future, as industries shift, jobs vanish, and people get priced out of housing, there’s a desire to have something nice for yourself, and the body art feels like an investment, something that can’t be taken away from you. Sort of like how nomadic cultures often have elaborate jewelry, a way of wearing one’s wealth.
Personally, I still prefer to be all one color…and I’d rather just make or buy art.
I think our children need us to say: “no tattoos.”
They will be inundated with the opposite message. There needs to be their parents’ voices saying “you are beautiful and innocent- don’t make this mistake. It’s permanent and you are too beautiful.”
YES we should be telling them every opportunity we have!
Demoralisation, enshittification
It seems to be a desire to show they are original, special, or rebels. Unfortunately, tattoos tend to be banal, trite, and are more and more common. They thus prove, as Theodore Dalrymple noted, that the person getting them is conventional, ordinary, and follows the herd.
I have one around my arm. I’m 60 and have had since 26 and have never regretted it. I certainly didn’t have it done to express inner turmoil. But I still agree that too many is overdoing it. And facial tattoos, no way! Even in 1990s London, I tried to talk a friend out of having one on his chin. The fact that he went ahead told me he was a fool. I don’t encourage the kids in my family to have them done because young people can go overboard. It is fine not to have them.
I’m tired of seeing them.
I think the idea of "belonging" succinctly explains it.
Back in the day, you NEVER got tattooed, as a way to show your social conformity. Now you get tattoos to signal your social conformity. The only difference I see, is some people still view their tattoos as rebellious, when it's actually an act of conformity. At least back in the day, non-tattooed people were proudly aware of their conformity.
Fascinating! Yes, there is something to this!
Yes. The self harm and cutting connection to the pain of a tattoo. And one form being socially acceptable.
There is a similar scenario in the gender industry. Children mutilating themselves b/c they have a magical sense of self is now accepted and encouraged while it’s called genital mutilation and a crime against humanity and girls in certain parts of the world, especially in the past. 🤔 civilized society used to fight against this abhorrent practice. Now it is celebrated.
Interesting
I always liked tattoos, and knew that as soon as I was the right age I would get one.
My parents did not have any and were not pro.
Come 21 I got my first tattoo, the idea behind it was well thought out, although the tattoo artist was not.
It sat on my skin for a long time before I decided to get it altered to something that looked better.
Then I got another bigger tattoo a few years after that, once again it was a well thought out process of finding the artist and deciding on the image.
Both tattoos are not where people can see them daily, so I actually forget I have them until I jump in the shower.
I am planning to get more, but I have no time frame for this, but I have started thinking about the design and the artist.
Yes, I had regrets about the end result of the first one, but managed to rectify it.
I love the artistry of it, and while I'm not a fan of the pain, I can deal with it enough to think about getting more.
Admittedly I am quite judgemental of those who (to my opinion) have no rhyme or reason to their ink, but ultimately their body, their choice.
I have dabbled in piercings, the traditional ear ones that I still have from the age of 13.
Two failed attempts at navel ones which I thought were cool at the time, but my body rejected, and I have no desire to go a third time lucky.
(I am in my early 50s).
That was a fascinating article. I've been wondering about the alacrity with which young women are choosing extreme body alteration (medicalization is for another day) in their quest to change sex. The scene is set early. At a young age, they go all in for elaborate tattoos, as well as facial and other bodily piercings such as nose rings. All of this normalizes body alteration. So contemplating a double mastectomies and other, to me, utterly repugnant desecrations of their bodies, is no big deal. There is, not only a sad rejection of the body, but a definitive repudiation of the original body as it was-- which, of course, was perfectly fine. “I've done this and that already, so why not lop off these breasts that mark me as female?” these confused girls have been encouraged in this by the many people they follow on social media who convince them that their original bodies are THE problem. The positive responses they get as they proudly display their mastectomy scars eclipses everything else.
I am in two minds about this (and have no tattoos, though if my daughter wanted to get a matching one with me when she gets older I would definitely consider something like that). My husband has several tattoos, none of which are visible unless he's wearing a t-shirt and all of which have some meaning to him (he got them beginning at age 40 so wasn't some random thing he did in college).
I definitely notice an increase in the number of tattoos and to be honest there are some incredible artists out there and many people who I compliment about their tattoos have a story/meaning behind their why. The art they chose to place permanently on themselves is something they don't regret because it reminds them about overcoming something huge in their life or commemorating a move or someone close to them. Aaaaaand there are also some out there that just seem to have been done for thrill of it.
On the other hand, I had a senior client four years ago and when we did her senior photo session she had no tattoos and just standard ear piercings. As soon as she went to college she began getting tattoos and other piercings and now I would say has at least twenty (very) visible tattoos and many external piercings that have transformed her into a completely different looking person. There are times when I have to do a double take If I see her on social media. I later photographed her sister who has done none of these things. She doesn't want for anything financially (extremely so) so it's an interesting break out after high school. I had another client who got matching tattoos with her ex-husband three weeks after they met. Obviously they are enough divorced so not sure what either of them did about that since they have both since remarried. I definitely also have friends who regret the tattoos they got in their twenties but now just accept them as a life experience and don't really care about having them removed (they're also not very visible).
People can do what they want with tattoos and piercings. It's your body - as long as it's known that changing your mind after the fact is, as you point out, incredibly painful and expensive.
Really good essay.
Whenever I hear someone complain that they can’t afford housing or food or whatever, I look to see how many tattoos they have. Invariably, many. I think, “Maybe if you didn’t have $4,000 worth of ink on your body, you could afford rent.”
It’s also deeply conformist. It’s hilarious to me how people think tattoos are so outré, so avant garde, so rebellious, when every middle-class housewife in middle America has one. Yeah, real rebellious.
Though as you point out, definitely a cry for help from many girls. Goes along with the “trans” delusion.
Look up the Japanese mob, Yakuza, and their all-body tattoos. They go on the black market for liver transplants because impeding the skin cells, that is sweat, causes the liver to fail. The rate of tattoo regret after a decade is something like 70%.