When I was a kid, tattoos were very rare, and
every part of everyday life had a dress code. From school to shopping to dinner. My parents' generation literally thought that only prisoners had them from jail, and possibly sailors might have a discretely placed tattoo, but best to avoid them too. A few men "pushing the boundaries" would have a single ear stud, and they could find themselves denied service at some retailers who "didn't have time for punks."
This was clearly an unnecessary level of social control. Yeah, KISS and David Bowie had already made a name for themselves with outrageous image, but that was frowned upon by probably more than half the older population and they still set the standard.
However, the guys of our older brothers' generation were getting rebellious, daring to pierce their ears etc. so by the time I was in Junior High in the early 80's, it was a fairly common sight. Everyone had had many discussions about men with pierced ears and it's significance. Left: Hetero. Right: Faggot. Multiple pierced ears. Clearly faggot.
It was a trend that was taking off, and even filtering down to our age group. A few of my classmates had a pierced ear. Parents worried that if we pierced our ears, what next? Noses? Eyebrows? (keep in mind when they said "eyebrows" it was meant to be satire. no one, least of all us, actually believed that anyone would actually even be able to pierce an eyebrow.)
In the late 80's more and more guys started getting ear piercings and a few people started getting tattoos. It was <airquotes>multicultural</airquotes>. Thanks to National Geographic we had seen a whole bunch of countries where tattoos were not at all taboo, and were even an expected part of everyday life. For whatever reason (hipster) this appealed to some people who, to be original, tried to duplicate it. Tattooists started opening up in more and more places throughout the early to mid 90's and they were no longer serving biker gangs, prisoners and sailors, but suburban kids who were determined to join the horde of original suburban kids just like themselves by getting a unique tribal tattoo armband and so on.
It seemed to catch like wildfire, and before you know it, all the women of my generation were running out to get tramp stamps and all the men were getting "art" to impress the ladies. Remember Brut cologne anyone? AXE was not the first.
Anyway, for some of us it looked mostly just like a useless douchey trend. And who would have guessed? Everyone was getting everything pierced from lips to cheeks to eyebrows to navels to assholes to clits to foreskins to balls. I remember when "branding" became a trend for a while reported in the newspaper, which is probably what truly started my eyes rolling.
Then, in the mid to late 90's, the "body modification community" was born online and it has been humming along pretty much like that ever since. The hyperbolic over-the-top "next they'll be piercing their kneecaps" condemnation of our parents' generation now actually had its own web site.
Some of it (nullification, facial disfigurement, etc.) looks more like a mental illness played out against the backdrop of a society that "empowers people to express themselves" but is deaf to the anguish underlying that expression.
And happily, some of it truly is elevated to an art form. Except like much art, a lot of it is truly mundane nonsense.
So there's the history on which my reaction is built. And my reaction to tattoos is usually "meh..." Often, "you've got to be kidding me," and once in a while "Cool! i would've never thought of that!"
I don't have any. Once every couple of years I think I might have a good idea for one, but I don't actually want needles poked into my skin. I'm more about pleasure than pain. And I don't need any to remember myself, other people, ideals, who i am, who we are, bla bla bla. I also don't like the idea of "permanency." The symbolism is creepy. Not quite sure how to explain that other than to say that if I need some kind of external marking to "be myself" or "remember what i stand for" or whatever then I'd already call it a failure. I believe I should just know myself, and to me, in that light, the bare skin is a more interesting aesthetic/artistic & philosophical statement.
Anyway the only good reason I've heard is aesthetic: "I like the way it looks." Though I like the way some tattoos look, I usually don't. And even then I'd rather see the art on the wall and the skin bare...most times.
I have plenty of friends with full arms, full legs, and full torsos, and several are moving up into their face. Not my cup of tea, but then again, not my body, and they sure as hell aren't doing it to look attractive to ME.
