A lot of NBA players have them up and down both arms, and some, even on their neck. A lot of NFL players, same thing. WWE and Cage Fighter's, all over. Rappers, all over. Heavy metal bands, pretty much all over. Guess PGA players, and perhaps P.B.A., don't go for the "tattooed" look. And, of course, from taking a look at a program about inmates and pit bulls, men and women in prison have lots and lots of them. One cable program was about Guards at a pre-trial holding area and it looked like every inmate had dozens of tattoos. So, is the above why tattoos have become such a fad with the younger generation? From all the tattoos that sports figures have gotten, as well as many Hollywood Celebs and others, it would seem like many tattoo artists would be making more money than an Engineer, doctor or other high professional. Living in Beverly Hills or some other very "up-scale" neighborhood in America. Remember when the "look" use to be only a few? Now, today...…..
People have been tattooing their skin for a long while. Tattoos have been found on mummified remains from the 3000s BCE. In the United States, early tattoos were done by Asian tattoo artists, and were more common along the ports, where sailors and seamen may have first had them done overseas. During the Civil War, a German tattoo artist went from one military camp to another, Union and Confederate, tattooing soldiers from both sides, which is possibly what ushered in their popularity among fighting men. Shortly after the Civil War, tattoos became popular among wealthy young adults. With the invention of the tattoo machine, tattoos became cheaper, boosting its popularity among the less wealthy and, consequently, lessening its popularity among the wealthy. Then, there were the prison tattoos, gang tattoos, etc. As for the current trend, my guess would be that there are popular entertainers or sports figures with tattoos, and there is a tendency among young people to seek uniqueness by copying someone else.
Except for TV and gang members in the news I seldom see anyone ...especially the younger crowd with tattoos. I'm talking about my kids circle of friends and peers and also my oldest grandson's friends...no tattoos. The younger grandsons are still under 16 but I doubt any of them will be getting any tats. There might be someone with a discreet tiny tattoo somewhere but it's not visible. I may on occasion see an older guy in a line at a store with a tattoo but not covered in them... And the central coast has some weird hippie dippy types...pacific grove and Carmel are full of them. I did see an older woman in the grocery store the other day, you could tell she was well off, tall, thin, dressed kind of weird but fashionable...at least in her late 70's ...but her hair!!! I can't even explain it. Lol
@Ken Anderson Which just might go to show that all the efforts put forth for decades now, regarding equality for women, has produced visible results: formerly, submitting to tattooing was done by men. They may expect benefits: equal pay, equal promotional access, equal freedom to cuss, overall, equality to men. But wait! What about the "TG'ers"? What might they expect? Frank
It seems to me the logical thing to do, if one has already replied to a thread on another forum, is simply not to reply to the same thread here. Some of us don't participate in another forum, and intend to stay put here. Look at things from our point of view. The thread will be new to us. It's up to the OP and the Admin whether a thread merits posting here. There are a lot of threads that get zero replies here, so not a big deal if it gets none, imo. Just a thought.
Or to reply in a different way, discussing other aspects of the OP, giving different examples, or whatever. Not everyone will have read it on the other forum, so I don't mind the same topics or stories being discussed here. I strongly desire that posts not be copied and pasted from one forum to another. If I knew that they were copied and pasted from another forum, I would delete them but I don't want to put myself in the position of having to search other forums in order to make that determination, so I'd rather just beg people not to do that. It's not fair to this forum or the one it was originally posted in. I also see your point, @Nancy Hart. Someone who is not active in the forum where it was first posted isn't interested in knowing that it was posted there, and it's not really on-topic. I'd rather they simply let me know in a private message that the OP (or another post) was copied and pasted from another forum and I can remove it without comment. To clarify, I don't mind you discussing the same life experiences, telling the same stories, or whatever, but please change it up. Don't copy and paste it from another forum. To end this with an on-topic comment, people often feel a need to set themselves apart, or to express themselves in a non-verbal manner, which a tattoo might do. Ironically, tattoos are also used sometimes to identify with a group. Military people used to have an urge to get a tattoo, as a means of identification beyond the uniform. Although most (or perhaps all) branches of the US military now prohibit tattoos, considering them to be desecration of government property, as soldiers are considered while in service, many still do this, but not as many as in previous decades. Earlier, I mentioned gang tattoos and prison tattoos. Being not particularly familiar with gang members of prisoners, I don't know how common this is anymore. I think it was popular a decade or so ago for young people to get tattoos along one side of their neck, and I don't know what that was about because it's not something that can be readily hidden and, of course, we've all seen pictures of people who are so heavily tattooed that they couldn't possibly find a job anywhere, and all that I can think of is that these are done in order to ensure a lifetime on welfare.
The topic is already here, and it has replies now, so I am not going to remove it at this point. Let's make the best of what we have and discuss the topic. In the future, PLEASE DO NOT COPY AND PASTE opening posts or replies from any other forum. If you wish to discuss the topic here, please think of something new that you can say about it, including the title. Otherwise, just leave it in the other forum. I don't want this forum to be a duplicate of any other forum. Please do not reply to this thread unless you have something to say about tattoos. Other than two or three trips along the East Coast or into Pennsylvania each year, I have been pretty much restricted to Maine for nearly two decades now, so I can't speak to the younger generation anywhere else in the country, but I am not seeing it in the younger generation in Maine, and that goes for those from lower income families as well as those with higher incomes. There may be groups of young people somewhere who are into tattoos so I am not arguing that point, but I am not seeing it.
Perhaps the ladies are reincarnations of those in ancient Egypt. It was earlier thought that since it was primarily the women who had tattoos that they were marked as prostitutes or ladies of lower function such as a slave. A new understanding of the markings is that they denoted a priestess and / or a woman of power.
I understand that @Cody Fousnaugh , but if you read @Ken Anderson 's post you will see that he would rather you altered the post at least a little bit rather than have identical posts on each forum. I totally understand his reasons for that.