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When Will This Fad End?
This topic has been bouncing around my head for a while, but I’ve never gotten around to writing it. Someone on Ricochet will mention something, Jay Nordlinger months ago on a podcast complained about tattoos or a user whose name I forget recently said he was up for a good tattoo rant. Other times I see someone and think why?
I noticed markings on Dana Loesch’s arm in a Parkland CNN screenshot or a cross on a pastor’s back at a church swim party. Tattoos seem to be everywhere and there is no demographic that is exempt. This will come across as a get-off-my-lawn rant, but here we go.
I guess I’m a Generation X person. I still remember that about the only people who had tattoos were military veterans or criminals and they might only have one or two, no sleeves or multiple ones covering a lot of the body. Others might have had them, but they were in a private location. Maybe it was just where I grew up.
Some point along the way, tattoos became more mainstream. In the ’90s a lot of girls were getting lower back tattoos, but they were derided as “tramp stamps”. Then it seemed as though they exploded on the scene and everyone had one. Yes it’s me, but I have yet to see a tattoo that improves a woman’s appearance. As G. Gordon Liddy used to say, putting a tattoo on a woman is like putting a bumper sticker on a BMW. I will be glad when I don’t see ink everywhere I look.
Maybe things are changing. I saw this on Twitter. I don’t know what drove it, but we might be on the downward side of the trend. I can hope.
We have reached full mainstream tattoo saturation, it is now far edgier to not have tattoos. So it flipped on me and now I’m the dork. Crap.
— Chris Loesch (@ChrisLoesch) May 30, 2018
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Published in Culture
The people who I consider the most immoral and unscrupulous wear a suit and tie every day.
Barack Obama? James Comey? Bernie Madoff? Bill Clinton? all suits.
On some level, a suit just says ‘pay no attention to the man behind the curtain’.
It’s also true that the guy in tank top and shorts may be a wonderful human being. Heck, they might both be on their way to a costume party. But again, not “just as likely”.
A wise man also knows that first impressions matter, and casually dismissing those who are put off by your “edginess” might make you feel superior, but it won’t make your life any easier.
Nothing like serving food with rings in your nose and tongue – I never went back to the restaurant after that either –
Maybe for you. To me, a suit says “I am an adult doing something serious and should be treated as such.” The inner city uniform of sagging jeans, over sized t-shirts, and do rags, or the hippy one of long unwashed hair, tie dye, and ragged jeans, or the 20 something one of painted on jeans, tattoos, piercings, gages, and blue, green, or purple hair say “I reject your bourgeois norms and morality.”
Fine. That’s your choice. But if you’re going to reject me and my lifestyle, don’t be surprised when I reject you and yours.
I’m not saying I reject the man in the suit on first impression.. I wear suits myself. I’m just saying that those who really pose a treat to my freedom and well being wear suits, not saggy drawers.
I’m against snap judgement of anyone based on such fleeting impressions. Be they poorly or very well dressed.
How one chooses to present themselves is not trivial, because we live in an affluent society. For the vast majority of Americans, what we wear and what we do with our bodies (tattoos, piercings) are not driven by economic necessity but reflect choices that we make. If I see someone with lots of tattoos and piercings, he or she has just told me something about themselves. That’s just reality.
Nope. Not buying that for a second.
I view all the tattoos, piercings and weird baby names as a superficial way for people to stand out. I think 50 years ago people aspired to stand out due to what they were doing and accomplished not what their crazy name was or how they looked.
I was a corporal, so whateves, they could care less what we plastered on our selves .
What, exactly, has he or she told you about themselves that makes you think they are no longer worthy of respect? This is what I am somewhat astonished at, this idea that ‘I wouldn’t do that, I don’t think it’s attractive’ translates to ‘you are beneath me, low class, and not worthy of my respect’.
Can you really judge a book by its cover? How about a man?
Man, you really are a hippie! ; )
Funny; never much agreed with that slogan when I was under 30, why do I find myself in sympathy now?
You may be against snap judgments, in theory, but there are times it is unavoidable. The whole notion of snap judgments is that you aren’t given time to process. You must make your evaluation quickly.
I constantly see people in the ER with dental issues who “can’t afford a dentist”, or who “can’t afford their medicine” (4 dollars at Walmart), etc etc with fresh tats, who smoke, drink and “smoke a little weed” while texting on their smart phone.
You’ve never met Bill Clinton…
He or she is telling me that he or she is a person who makes decisions with permanent consequences often with minimal forethought for the purpose of drawing the shallowest form of attention to his or herself at best, to say nothing of the ones who fit Amy’s description:
Sure, if all you have is a first impression, and you have to act on just that, you gotta make a judgement. I just suspect that many here would make a wrong headed snap judgement because one guy has a custom suit and the other is wearing sweats and has a tattoo.
I guess I have become a bit jaded. I have worked with many people who have high degrees and impeccable dress, yet don’t know the first thing about doing the job at hand, and many more who are just blue collar sweat of the brow types who are the keystone to the project.
When the chips are down, give me the blue collar type every time.
Maybe once this fad fades away with the next generation the new fad will be getting a job and settling into a life filled with responsibilities. The Horror!!!
I feel so sorry for their parents.
Where I come from “blue collar types” wear jeans, boots, and t-shirts at worst. Their pants fit, some of them might have a small tattoo on one shoulder, but not full sleeves, and none of them will have random bits of metal hanging out of any orifice.
Exactly!
I have a daughter who is an artist. I see her sitting in the window with a pad of paper trying to get a drawings exactly right. She goes through page after page until she has the hands “just right” or the lighting “just right” or the eyes “just right”. Then when I ask to see it she says its garbage and throws it away and tries again.
She doesn’t have a tattoo and says she never will.
When you paint graffiti on a wall you can always paint over the wall. When you write on a page you can turn the page to a clean sheet and start again.
Tattoos have a place when they are delivering a message (armed forces for example).
Skin is not a canvas.
You are definitely at a disadvantage in a bar room fight.
Same here. Especially when it comes to piercings, studs, and gauges as those are a real safety hazard.
Blue collar and white underclass are not synonyms.
No, indiscriminately leaking out of both ends.
Not the case up here. I see enough tattoos and piercings.
The sort of people who would wear those things probably think blue collar work is beneath them.
Thank you for that image.
DK
Your employer doesn’t require them to be removed during work hours? Wisconsin must have a very well funded employee disability fund.
You should hear what my blue-collar, machinist neighbor says about tats. It is not positive.
Amen.