I clearly just don’t understand the appeal of tattoos. If they were something like makeup you throw on temporarily for an event then sure whatever but… the permanent, painful, and expensive option is the one everybody chooses? To put a picture of a bird on your arm? Lmao why
They look cool you nerd
In the West, temporary tattoos are seen as toys for babies basically.
In other areas, temporary skin markings can have significant cultural or religious importance. The West has no culture remaining and no cultural events in which we would traditionally decorate and adorn ourselves in those types of markings. We are so alienated and our culture so stagnated that there’s no reason we would ever congregate and hold meaningful shared cultural events, therefore temporary tattoos get relegated to toys for babies.
Permanent tattoos historically have also been used as signifiers of community, of joining a certain group or tribe or reaching a certain social milestone. In the West, again, that is dead and all that’s left is individuals getting tattoos for individualist/aesthetic reasons to prove their “identity” to themselves and others.
I don’t get it either.
I’ve also seen very few tattoos that were actually good aesthetically speaking. Actually, I can only think of one person who I know with a track record of 100% exceptionally beautiful tattoos—but she has a degree in art history so that makes sense. If people got beautiful tattoos all the time then I’d understand and would probably appreciate tattoos more. I think most piercings look cool, so I’m not totally against body modifications.
But most people just get the absolute shittiest things permanently tattooed onto their body and blanket themselves in it. I truly don’t get it.
I have one friend who is an adrenaline junkie and he explained it as getting excited from the irresponsibility of getting something dumb permanently placed on your body. That’s the only explanation I’ve heard that makes sense to me, but I also doubt it’s true for most. Maybe just peer pressure or trends or something? Work of seeseepee on TikTok?
I know fascists love to hate tattoos for different reasons, including misogyny, so I want to emphasize I think people should have the right to modify their body as they like considering that it’s theirs. But when these trads say that people are ruining their natural beauty (I realize this is code for “White beauty”) by getting ugly tattoos, I kinda agree in a very limited way. I see it like getting a bad haircut but permanently. Okay, Bryan, I understand it’s your choice how you want to style yourself and you want to try something different, but WHY DID YOU MAKE IT PERMANENT?
Again, if they are well-made tattoos then I can appreciate them and the desire for them but I also realize my opinion doesn’t really matter. If people want to get tattoos, that’s fine, not for me and I don’t get it.
