Why are tattoos so prevalent these days compared to 2000's?

dfa wrote:

I'm 34 - graduated college in 2007.

Back then, perhaps maybe less than 2% of men and women I see on the street had visible tattoos.

Tattoo sleaves weren't even a thing.

Nowadays, I see them pretty much on 30% of women and men in my area with some visible tattoo.

What's going on here?

When did this seismic shift happen? Why?

People just aren't original. Everybody else is doing. Everybody and everything is on social media. Everybody follows everybody else.

At this point, i almost feel like the real hipster for NOT having a tattoo.

cycle of life>>>>

pubic hair disappears .tattoos appear

Stop hanging around losers.

Tattoos have become more popular because stupid, judgmental boomers are leaving the workplace. Now little Betty Millennial can get a flower tattoo on her forearm without potential employers thinking that this somehow proves that she lacks judgement and is probably a whore.

I don't have any tattoos, but I'm not about to pretend that I'm somehow better than people who do. Some people just like the way they look. Big deal! Who cares if they look worse as you get older? All old people look like dogsh*t anyway.

The Original P.i.m.p. Baller wrote:

Tattoos have become more popular because stupid, judgmental boomers are leaving the workplace. Now little Betty Millennial can get a flower tattoo on her forearm without potential employers thinking that this somehow proves that she lacks judgement and is probably a whore.

I don't have any tattoos, but I'm not about to pretend that I'm somehow better than people who do. Some people just like the way they look. Big deal! Who cares if they look worse as you get older? All old people look like dogsh*t anyway.

Your ageism is showing, and it is even uglier than most tattoos.

richardbery1 wrote:

On some people it can look good. Personally I find it almost always misfires when people who aren't living an alternative lifestyle- particularly women and nerdy guys get tattoos.

Totally agree. Some folks can pull it off. And pulling it off means that you have to live the life. Gotta be some authenticity/correlation. Artists, musicians, military, creatives, etc.

Kind of like "all hat and no cattle". I was in Aspen and walked by a custom hat shop that specialized in cowboy / western-style hats. Throwback kind of store. The real deal. But the people in there buying hats were rich, big-city-dwelling, effete poofters. They look like fools and posers wearing those hats. Same as seeing upper middle class minivan suburban moms and dads at the local neighborhood pool with tatts is comical.

The Original P.i.m.p. Baller wrote:

Tattoos have become more popular because stupid, judgmental boomers are leaving the workplace. Now little Betty Millennial can get a flower tattoo on her forearm without potential employers thinking that this somehow proves that she lacks judgement and is probably a whore.

I don't have any tattoos, but I'm not about to pretend that I'm somehow better than people who do. Some people just like the way they look. Big deal! Who cares if they look worse as you get older? All old people look like dogsh*t anyway.

Well, Betty probably is a whore. So there's that.

Sheep, Sheep everywhere wrote:

dfa wrote:

I'm 34 - graduated college in 2007.

Back then, perhaps maybe less than 2% of men and women I see on the street had visible tattoos.

Tattoo sleaves weren't even a thing.

Nowadays, I see them pretty much on 30% of women and men in my area with some visible tattoo.

What's going on here?

When did this seismic shift happen? Why?

People just aren't original. Everybody else is doing. Everybody and everything is on social media. Everybody follows everybody else.

At this point, i almost feel like the real hipster for NOT having a tattoo.

That's called "normcore" nowadays. Get with it.

Lhfse wrote:

Your ageism is showing, and it is even uglier than most tattoos.

I'm so sorry. Let me rephrase that in a kinder way: Of course all old people are beautiful in their own, special way. Just not physically. It doesn't matter if the tattoos they got when they were younger fade and get wrinkly because they'd look bad without them, too. Therefore, the argument that tattoos show a lack of foresight is flawed. They will look okay as long as YOU look okay.

you have a tramp stamp wrote:

Well, Betty probably is a whore. So there's that.

"Does you wear makeup? How about tight-fitting jeans? Do any of your shirts show a hint of cleavage? Do you have pierced ears? Have you ever trimmed your pubic hair? If you answered yes to any of these, you are probably a whore. Take it from me, a superior gentleman with little sexual experience."

I'm 73 and really have no opinion at all. When I was young usually guys in the military might get one. I didn't see any women with tattoos until the 80s and they were few and far between. People all over the world have had tattoos for thousands of years. I feel that if it makes someone happy, go for it. As a coach I tell kids that what you think looks good now you won't necessarily feel the same in the future and removing tattoos is not pleasurable, so think about it. I don't judge people by their tattoos. I don't plan to get any myself though!

Looks like I'm not a whore.

And I don't doubt that you have little sexual experience. That's evident.

Coach J46 wrote:

I'm 73 and really have no opinion at all. When I was young usually guys in the military might get one. I didn't see any women with tattoos until the 80s and they were few and far between. People all over the world have had tattoos for thousands of years. I feel that if it makes someone happy, go for it. As a coach I tell kids that what you think looks good now you won't necessarily feel the same in the future and removing tattoos is not pleasurable, so think about it. I don't judge people by their tattoos. I don't plan to get any myself though!

"People all over the world have had tattoos for thousands of years".

Interesting statement. Might be true for some primitive tribes on some corner of the planet, but for civilized society the % of tatted people has been extremely low throughout history. Does your grandmother have a tattoo?

SDSU Aztec wrote:

All the beards bother me more than tattoos. Other than the Yankees, close to 100% of MLB players have them. It has a "Monkey see, monkey do" feel to it.

A lot of beards look like crap. I had one for a while that looked like crap and have no interest in growing one ever again. The difference between it and a tattoo is when I decided I didn't want it anymore I shaved it off with no cost to me other than a nominal cost of razors and shaving cream. And there was no more evidence that the beard had ever been there. A very easy reversible thing as soon as you no longer want it, tattoos not so much.

Seeing a beautiful girl all tatted up disgusts me. You had a special gift and you ruined it, I say to myself. What do you think it will look like when you're 40 or 50?

Saggy blurs on your wrinkled body?

There's a million reasons to get a tattoo. That being said, here's an observation:

Some people own dogs that look like them. Some people own dogs that they wished they looked like. The latter are much more likely to have tattoos.

Short chubby guy with no chin, walking a french bulldog: no tattoos

Short chubby guy with no chin, walking a rottweiler/pitbull mix: several tattoos

Only change is, 30 years ago, that guy would have had a 'Bad Boys Club' sticker on the back window of his pickup instead of tattoos.

A decade ago, the only place I saw a face tat was on Mike Tyson and maybe news photos of felons and Maori rugby players for Fiji. Today, my HR person hired a woman with a face tat, a small floral looking embellishment on her temple. She's not 'street' and in fact seems quite suburban normal in any other way.

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

All the beards bother me more than tattoos. Other than the Yankees, close to 100% of MLB players have them. It has a "Monkey see, monkey do" feel to it.

A lot of beards look like crap. I had one for a while that looked like crap and have no interest in growing one ever again. The difference between it and a tattoo is when I decided I didn't want it anymore I shaved it off with no cost to me other than a nominal cost of razors and shaving cream. And there was no more evidence that the beard had ever been there. A very easy reversible thing as soon as you no longer want it, tattoos not so much.

A beard is the natural state of a man. It is wholesome and good. There is no more reason to shave your face bald as there is to shave your eyebrows completely off.

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I think this is a classic example of the market co-opting (by selling and normalizing) non-conformity. Tattoos in American culture used to say something about group membership and solidarity--having been in the military, prison, a biker gang, etc. Now they are a mode of individual identity expression. The often political and anti-establishment symbolism of a tattoo is defanged in the process. It's basically an aesthetic expression, and like many other aesthetic expressions--dressing like a punk or hipster--these markers no longer give much information about a person's politics, values, or social status. They simply say, "This is me. I like this." At the same time, people who have tattoos can feel like they're doing something unique and rule-breaking. This is why you can show up to a superchurch on Sunday and see pastors with blue hair and spiked collars.

women don't have beards wrote:

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

A lot of beards look like crap. I had one for a while that looked like crap and have no interest in growing one ever again. The difference between it and a tattoo is when I decided I didn't want it anymore I shaved it off with no cost to me other than a nominal cost of razors and shaving cream. And there was no more evidence that the beard had ever been there. A very easy reversible thing as soon as you no longer want it, tattoos not so much.

A beard is the natural state of a man. It is wholesome and good. There is no more reason to shave your face bald as there is to shave your eyebrows completely off.

Beards are makeup for ugly dudes. If you look good, why would you cover it up when you have the option not to?