UPDATE: I want to make clear, here, that I am talking about “job stopping” tattoos- neck, face, sleeves, etc. Not a tattoo of “mom” on your bicep, or that ankle tattoo.
I believe the rise in idiotic and extreme tattooing corresponds with the rise of low intellect and a “my feelings at this moment dictate I do this” mentality. The inability, or lack of caring about, planning for the future is represented wonderfully in the extreme tattoo.
You’re a walking anachronism the moment you “Tony Danza yourself” and get the “Keep On Truckin'” tattoo.
Yours forever, indeed.
Imagine if it was on his face.
At Chicago Tattoo & Piercing Co., which has been in business in that city since 1973, the employees have a name for tattoos on the hands, neck and face. “We call them job stoppers,” said Joel Jose Molina, a tattoo artist at the shop. “Your possibilities are cut down. You’re going to be working at the Trader Joe’s putting groceries away or working that bar job.”
For decades, tattoos in highly visible areas, especially the face, were considered the extreme in body art, at least in Western culture. It wasn’t only members of polite society who were put off. Even among tattoo aficionados, the face was sacrosanct, a canvas of last resort when the rest of the body was covered.
Anna Felicity Friedman, a scholar who runs the website Tattoo Historian, said that starting in the 1990s, it became common to see athletes and celebrities with tattoos. Soon, reality TV shows (with titles like “Best Ink” and “Tattoo Nightmares”) and magazines began covering tattoo culture, and Americans embraced body art like never before.
Tattoos, as a result, began losing their renegade status. Hence the creep upward, past the neckline.
“If you want to be transgressive — and a lot of rappers want to create a transgressive character — the last frontier is the face,” Friedman said. “Some of it is to give them a rebel/criminal allure. And some of it is a more artistic or free-spirit reference.”
Free spirit = asshole
Still, don’t expect face tattoos to become commonplace anytime soon. Molina, the Chicago tattoo artist, says that those getting face tattoos are generally young and work in untraditional jobs.
For what it’s worth, he has no plans to get one himself. “I know if I drop my kid off at school and I have face tattoos, the teacher is going to judge me,” he said.
Echoing many in the tattoo community, Molina also believes that a face tattoo should never be someone’s first time getting inked. When an 18-year-old woman recently asked him for a tattoo on her ear, he saw she had no other visible tattoos and talked her out of it.
ht/ fdr in hell
I’m very glad that tattooing was not in vogue when I was a young adult. It wasn’t even popular for the military folks of my age. Bikers? Yeah.
Women put little butterflies on their butts, which probably look like pterodactyls at this point.
How many women would weld the clothes they are currently wearing to their body for the next 3 decades?
So why is a permanent neck tattoo not at all like wearing those in-style jeans in 1987 for the rest of your life?
Knew a guy who had extensive arm tattoos. He loved baseball and loved to teach baseball to kids as a volunteer, until one day he rolled up his sleeves. The parents asked him to leave.
“B…bbbuuu…bbbuuuuuutttttt…SELF EXPRESSION!”
umm…NO.
said in other words: you *sure* you wanna express that?!
“How many women would weld the clothes they are currently wearing to their body for the next 3 decades?”
Good question but you already know the answer. If you ask them, they almost all think they will be able to pull off in 30 years what youth endows them with now. It’s the usual false sense of immortality and no concept of guaranteed senescence. Common to all of us at some point.
But with visible “look at me” tattoos, I maintain there is also low intellect and usually questionable morals at work.
And something else I’ve noticed since moving to Florida — a surprising number of decidedly older people with RECENTLY acquired displays of tattoos. Didn’t see that in either Ohio or N.C. That’s a sign of a mind and soul that’s out of whack.
It’s bad enough when you see the word P I N K emblazened across a huge ass in the frozen food isle.
It gets worse when you notice the stretched out calf tattoos.
Why do the biggest, nastiest, ugliest women insist on wearing brands made for teenagers?
PINK = okay
P I N K = not okay
More crap pushed by hollywierdos and sports prima donnas. I remember talking with the guys about this back in the 90’s. Not one would go out with a girl with ANY tat, not even a little one. Why would you want a woman who’s been “manhandled”(felt up) by some creepy tattoo artist? She’s damaged goods, just like the school tramp.
Stereotypes are sometimes valid and the valid ones start for a good reason: there’s an element of observable truth in them. They start when people notice consistent patterns about others, patterns which tell you more about the others than you’d otherwise know.
Neil Boortz used to say that, way back in the olden days, if you saw a teen girl who smoked, you could bet your next paycheck she was also having sex. That was usually way more true than not. People have always assumed the same (and worse) about people with public tats and there’s reasons for it.
old oaks,
Yeah and a 300 pounder wearing yoga pants?
The only seriously tattooed man I ever knew was a crusty old boatswains mate in Naples Italy. He had spiderwebs on each elbow with a spider descending down each arm. And letters on the back of his fingers that were interwoven said Let’s Fuck. I guess that was ‘his move’.
I’ve seen worse on pretty young girls recently.
How unfortunate.
Tattoos are a pretty normal, acceptable mode of expression for Prisoners, Maoris, Bikers, Dope Addicts, Merchant Marines, and some other sub-strata of humanity – but have now become (more or less) mainstream similar to the “celebration” of perversion, mendacity, victimhood, subservience, the slavery of socialism, the repudiation of God, and the belief in nihilism.
I can perceive no direct correlations among these things, only trends in the general direction of societal dissolution and a coarsening of civilization.
Self-disfigurement, self-mutilation, self-denigration – it all seems to be one of a kind with convincing us to kill our own children and permitting illegal-alien invading rat-people, not only to stay here, but to vote and to partake of our tax-funded welfare system. That may be a stretch, but we live in a closed Universe, and every thing is related to every other thing, somehow or the other.
izlamo delenda est …
The time is near when we are going to have to go to a circus freak show to see the “un-tattooed” woman.
Face tattoo on a job applicant for me and my biz = no go. If you have so little respect for yourself, we can’t trust you would be responsible professionally. You permanently advertise that you don’t give a f**k.
Don’t be surprised when we believe you and act accordingly.
Self employment is the best path for this situation. You produce what’s needed and you’ll get paid what it’s worth. You can still be rich with a face tattoo.
Just can’t work for me. Probably wouldn’t like the job any way. Too many rules.
Personally, I am glad I never got one when I was younger and dumber.
I have know regerts.
Tats. Geez. Most of them don’t mean anything at all, just weird ink.
As someone who looks at 65 in the rear view mirror of life, skin doesn’t hold up – gravity and Mother Nature rules.
about 10 years ago i asked the same of a young single mom (19) if she would hammer down the furniture in her home, never to be moved or removed and compared that to her new tattoo.
Went right over her head.
Not to worry. Starbucks hires all sort of weirdo’s
@Moe Tom That’s why I’ve never stepped foot into a Starbucks and never will.
If you’re gonna do this for nearly 50 years go for it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzamiMpzVko
The only tat I have is a dot by my right eye, the result of shooting a right handed flintlock, left handed.
Not against ink, never had the desire, Dad had one, “Ada”. He was married to Marian for 48 years.
It would piss him off when I asked, heh, heh.
The Mr would tease me sometimes, I’m gonna get a tat when I turn 30 was the first time. He got the reaction he wanted and tried again at 35, by then I knew he was just yanking my chain. So he upped the ante at 40 and said he was getting an ear ring. I just laughed hysterically.
” I could see getting married and having few kids..But a
Tattoo is so permanent”
Norm McDonald
“Do you actually sat still long enough for some tagger to graffiti bomb yer body or did you just fall asleep in the Joisy Transit switch yards?”
HENRY
Wrong! The Scotch tribe(as opposed to Scotch in general and Bodacia – who kicked the roman out of London for 3 days. they feared us so much after her they built Hadrians wall. Still stand in North England BTW, not much of a wall IMHO.) Were the tattooed boys + girls the Romans called PICS; in reference to the pics thy had tattooed all over their bodies.
1 of 2 Jarheads to get 2 MOHs and live to tell the tale was Smedley D. Butler. A man GWB would have had drummed out of the Corps (THAT IS SAID CORE MR I HAVE 3 Ivy League DEGREES “PRESIDENT” O!). Smedley( Gen Butler) was tattooed from ankle to neck. I have known man Jarheads the last 70 years that had “Tats”. I do not claim to have know every person to have worn the E,G+A ; not by far. but maybe several thousand.
I have tats. I’m in a motorcycle club. It’s normal. I made money in college designing them.
Tribal tats? GAY
Colored ink? GAY
Stars? GAY
Spider web? PRISON/WHITE SUPREMACIST
Spider web with spider? PRISON MURDER
Military tats? COOL
Motorcycle tats? MEH
That leaves designs that have a personal meaning. Tats that mark a significant occasion.
R.I.P ACCEPTABLE
R,I,P, with portrait and slogan G.T.F.O.
Dog R.I.P. F.U.
Jesus ALL DAMN DAY LONG
Hand tats are no big deal, full sleeve are problematic if you’re a dick and have crazy shit all over your arms. If it’s just flames or something “artistic” no one really cares.
Personally I keep mine covered because I’m low key But I’ll probably end up with the firing order of my favorite engine across my knuckles.
I may consider tattooing that damn thinning hair spot on the top of my head…
Loco – Save yerself a lot of money, just spray paint the bald spot.
Home Depot has a color that’s close…
ol jarhead, you are full of fertilizer, and you know it.
Since the government has decided that every Party Member in Good standing deserves a golden ticket, who shouldn’t want a few Everlasting Job Stoppers, to go with it?
If I were to ever get one it would be three characters with the center one having his arms draped over the two others on either side of him. Center would be “The Grinch” and on either side “Oscar the Grouch” and Disney’s “Grumpy.”
My héros
How would they do the tat when I’m already wrinkles and flab?
If anyone wants to do it for me please have Oscar in his garbage can and Grumpy with his arms folded and his traditional scowl. You may send me proofs for approval.
We’ll put that tat right across yer’ buddah belly Anymouse.
The only issue thematically is that the grinch has his arms around the other two. None of those guys are into hugs….. but whatever, come up with 300 bucks and it’s a done deal.
I was considered “heavily tattooed” a couple of decades ago, but tame by today’s standards. I did recognize some “discrimination” due to the tattoos on my forearms, but even that wasn’t bad (wear long sleeves). My oldest son (“Idiot Boy, the Elder) is very heavily tattooed, but he did take my advice…”Nothing below the wrists or above the collar bone.” He hasn’t had any trouble getting or keeping jobs, but he does own quite a few long sleeve shirts and long pants.
We hired a local country boy one fall who was a bit rough around the edges but had good skills and seemed like a good soul. Next year in the summer, he was wearing shorter sleeves than usual and I spotted a tat of a buxom ‘lady’ on his arm who wasn’t wearing sleeves… or anything on her upper bod. Ummm… I don’t want to look at that and neither do our clients. Yes, Ma’am, won’t happen again. It didn’t. Poor fellow wore long sleeve shirts rolled up just to the elbows from then on.
Until: We saw him through months of a family crisis and he came in one day and said, You’ve done so much for us, I wanted to do something for you. Rolled up his sleeve and the tat lady had a bikini top!
That boy has job security!
T-shirts and bumper stickers.
Tattoos are for
narcissists
those with inadequate communication skills
idiots
those curious about the chronic hepatitis
My little brother told me a joke about tattoos once and I’m going to tell it to you all: You know what the difference is between people with tattoos and people without? People with tattoos don’t care if you don’t have any.
That said, I don’t have any.
Karasioux
Where’s the haha part? LOL
BB,
I didn’t say it was a *funny* joke. 😊 It did, however, make me chuckle.
K