One thing I noticed in the past few years has been a marked increase in the number of people I see with tattoos. And I'm not talking about a small heart bicep with the words "mother" in the middle, I'm talking about the elaborate collages of images that run from neck to chest down the arm to my fingers.
Besides, I find these types of tattoos people surprise me. It used to be tattoos are printed only in the "types" of foreigners: punk rockers, heavy metal dudes, strippers, bikers, etc. These days I see a lot of tattoos in what appear to be essentially middle-class college girls. And, again, they are not just small tattoo, they have a pair of giant eagle wings spread across their back, or a spiderweb down their breasts and nipples delightful ensnares them alive.
This increased visibility and acceptability of tattoos is, of course, destroying "the effect of the rebel." It used to show that tattoos kind of courage, a willingness to embrace social ostracization. Soon the opposite may be true - people who have abstained from needle color will be true individualists.
As a reader you may know, I have a few tattoos myself, although nothing like the elaborate sleeve that run up the arms of several people. For a while I considered them to be reliable indicators of my manhood awesome. But, as I consider some of the douchebags walking around with tattoos, I have to admit this may not be the case.
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