Steve Sailer has a funny post up about tattoos. I’m old enough to remember when tattoos had meaning. It used to be that a man got ink if he was a criminal, a soldier, a sailor or a carny. Criminals used ink to signal their membership in gangs and to advertise their violence capital. Even the baddest of bad men prefer to avoid violent conflict if possible. Displaying the fact you will kill if provoked lets other bad guys know to avoid you. This is still true today.
Warriors have been inking up for as long as anyone knows. It used to be that soldiers got their unit insignia and maybe some ink to remember battles or places they experienced. Barbarians in antiquity used tattoos as a form of ornamentation. Vikings died their teeth. Sailors have long used ink to document their travels. A turtle standing on its back legs (shellback) for crossing the equator and being initiated into King Neptune’s Court. Again, this is a ritualized form of tattooing that has nothing to do with self-expression. It’s about membership.
The modern tattoo fad comes down from carny-folk who used tattoos as form of self-segregation. People who wished to live outside proper society would get all sorts of weird ink. Modern people are unaware of this connection. They have been told it is a form of self-expression, when it is really self-abnegation. Piercings are another tradition passed down from carny-folk to the modern hipster.
The modern tattoo trend is in reaction to the homogenizing effects of globalization and mass media. Regional and local weirdness has been thrown into the blender of mass global culture. The resulting gray slurry leaves few ways for an individual to set himself or herself apart. Young people, who are wired to “peacock” for mates use tattoos and piercing to draw attention. In a world where everyone lives the same, thinks the same and believes the same, superficial decoration is all that’s left. Strangely, you never see people talking to one another about their tattoos.
Another possibility is the modern tattoo is a form of self-mutilation. Greeks and Romans associated tattoos with barbarians. Greeks would tattoo their slaves, for example, as a way to distinguish them from Greeks. The Latin word for tattoos is “stigma” and had the same meaning it does today. The Romans would tattoo criminals as a form of punishment. Soldiers who failed in their duties, but not so much to warrant death, would be tattooed and sent off to the frontier.
Narcissism has a lot to do with it also.
Young men getting their own names or birth-dates tattooed on their chest or back? What, in case they forget?
The girls with the sleeve tats are going to look plug ugly at 50. And the guys with the 1 1/2 inch ear gauges are going to look like Deputy Dawg in their dotage.” Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio, a nation turns its weary eyes to you?”
Always sad when you see someone with lots and lots of tattoos, because you know (as they must) that they have run out of body space to mark and any future new trend in tattoos will have to pass them by.
Also, almost all of them are really, utterly wretchedly ugly and will fade to uninteresting dull shades as time goes by. As it does.
Tats and piercings, interesting perspective. When I was in the Navy (’66-’70 WESTPAC) one of the other facets of Sailor lore was it was customary for those who survived a Ships’ sinking was those survivors would have an ear pierced. Not so much today but back in the day’, you know, of “Wooden ships and Iron Men!!”
Got Gunz??,
III%,
skybill-out
Further back, sailors pierced their ears with gold rings to ensure a proper burial. The person performing the burial got the gold. A black pearl in the ear meant your survived a ship wreck. Sailors have a lot of lore and legend tied to tattoos and piercings.
Several different motivations, methinks. Low self esteem is certainly one. So is high (however debatable that is) self esteem.
I can’t offhand recall a tattoed individual who was articulate, so perhaps the inability to distinguish oneself is indeed a factor.
Tattoos seem to work like cliches for most people. They are not a starting point, but an end point. The most interesting thing about heavily tattooed people is their ink. The rest of them is dull as dirt.
I’m voting for self-mutilation. Tattoos are so ubiquitous today that one could even say they are a way to conform, rather than set one apart. Or maybe the barbarian hordes are growing. Either way, I wonder if the people who get tattoos because they imagine themselves “hip”, will regret them once their skin wrinkles? It’s not going to be pretty.