I always hear, “I’m waiting until I really like something” when asking people if they want a tattoo. I guess they are waiting to identify with some piece of art or text that they feel powerful enough about to ink on their body. I know plenty of people who just add tattoos for fun and on a whim. And on the opposite spectrum are the culturally bound tattoos, generations of ritualized inking. But in all, tattoos help construct personal identity and self-expression.
Are we talking Marine’s, prison alum, gang members or what? All have been classified, as groups with heavy dosages of ink but over the year’s tattoos have become decoration for the body in an aesthetic fashion. What about the new age of tattooing? I find it funny when I see people inked with things like math equations and barcodes. Who are they identifying with, or are they trying to tell us that this is all just a big game were playing and were just part of this commercialized society?
People with tattoos love to identify with one another, comparing tattoos and hours under the needle. This tattoo community is one that more and more joins each day.
There are so many subcultures of tattoos; portrait, cartoon, Japanese, realism, etc., all specialties to their own.
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