I know sailors had tattoos way back when, and pirsoners had a long-standing tradition of getting inked, but at what point did tattoos become fashionable for the everyday average person?

In the 80's I know a bunch of rocker dudes, groups like guns n roses & motley crue, had members with full sleeves.

In the 90's, getting your whole body inked became popular with rappers and alternative rock types.

What was really the impetus for tattoos becoming popular/acceptable and even cool in the mainstream?

Early to mid-200s when tattoo shows like Miami Ink became popular. I'm from a navy city with a large biker presence and years ago having visible tats meant something, now a neck or hand tatttoo means you likely read slam poetry at coffee shops and have never been in a fight.

Around the time reality T.V. became popular. And for similar reasons.

By mid 2000's it exploded mainstream. And I remember when everyone got a tribal in the late 1990's setting the stage for an explosion of body art. The Fad is now a mega culture of tatted up people unaware of how ridiculous it all became.

Brock Lesnar would be better w/o chest tat:

I remember in the 90's some people had tattoos but if they did, they didn't have many and as Scotian said, it often meant something that normies' wouldn't be apart of. Organized crime/biker/prison affiliation, service in the armed forces, you were in a music sub-culture etc. You typically weren't having a straight day job. And most who did have tats definitely weren't covered. A few normie wannabes and scene orbiters stole some of the edge by getting tats and then the boulder started rolling.

In 1997 the vast majority of people I knew my age or slightly older/younger didn't have any ink. By 1998 about a dozen people I knew socially had gotten one or more tattoos. A good friend of mine got a Polynesian tribal tattoo on his arm. By 2000-01 damn near every other dude who thought he was hard had tribal ink. But the covered head to toe in ink trend didn't hit until about ten years ago, I'd say. I don't recall arm sleeves being ubiquitous until about 2005. Now, it's rare to find someone 16 - 45 without ink at all.

Scotian's right: before someone with an arm tattoo would be someone you shouldn't fuck with. Now everyone from soy eating cucks to steroid gym bros to ignorant simpletons (I'm looking at you, women with "inspirational" quotes all over you) look like walking quilts. I had two smaller tats in discrete areas done back in the early 00's and I decided around '05 that was it. No more. It was a trend I didn't want to be a part of anymore once I saw how widespread it was.

You know, all those elderly people in about 25 years or so with faded, wrinkly, poorly maintained shit all over their saggy skin are gonna look awful.

When did johnbozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz make a comeback?

I view most people with tatoos like I view most people who ride Harleys with the full leather, scruffy beard and bandana look.

1% of them are bad asses who have killed someone, run guns or pimp hoes. The rest are just accountants, office workers, gas station attendants etc who are just following the heard in an attempt to look cool.

A big problem I see is tattoos, like all fads, eventually go out of fashion. Some people I know with the really passe ones like tribal designs, armbands or Chinese letters do some real mental gymnastics trying to prove what special meaning the tatoos have instead of just admitting they are dorks.

I'm glad I didnt get one in the era when it was the cool thing to do or I would probably have to stare at a picture of Fred Durst on my chest or some shit every morning.

Tattoos used to be a sign, military types aside, of being a member of an outlaw culture. Permanent markings on your skin set you apart, permanently, from the mainstream.

Now they have the same relation to being an outlaw as virtue signaling has to being virtuous.

I still think a few choice tattoos can be very helpful for those trying to shed the beta nice guy image. For me a visible forearm tattoo combined with a little lifting definitely changed the way girls reacted to me.

Could have just been placebo/confirmation bias though. Around that time is also when I started reading this forum.

I unfortunately fell to the stream.
Then again, my old man and his brothers has been sailors so it was kind of a given that a kid that grew up hearing and reading stories of voyages,adventures and questionable action would want to get into that kind of stuff as soon as he was able. I always adscribed great symbolical power to the dumb things as a kid, and as an adult...well probably self esteem issues,heh.

Then again, I am quite happy that at least my tats are of my own design and are located in areas where they are somehow not immedialtely visible and I can always spin a story with em.

Quote: (05-30-2017 11:04 PM)Germanicus Wrote:  

You know, all those elderly people in about 25 years or so with faded, wrinkly, poorly maintained shit all over their saggy skin are gonna look awful.

A comment I've always made about tattoos is that in a few decades we're gonna see grannies walking around the park with their grandkids while bearing a tramp stamp tattoo. The mental image of that to me is hilarious.

At my BJJ gym this little kid was asking me why I didn't have any tattoos like most of the guys training there and I said that not having a tattoo was my tattoo.

Gramp Stamp

Mid-30s. I grew up super conservative Christian, would have never gotten a tattoo.

Since divorce and red pill, I could see getting one, but I've never had any reason to get one.

BJJ been doing a few months, I could see getting one representing. I even sort of want to. But I predict I probably never will, because I don't think anything will define me enough to get a tattoo. I suppose if I'm still rolling regularly in 10 years and it's become a huge part of my life, it could happen.

"Ye shall know them by their fruits" ...I guess I don't see tats as my fruits.

All that said, I could see the mindset in getting one, even as a grown ass adult. Many things that are counter-cultural become more mainstream eventually. What's wrong with that?

I don't see the tribal tattoos as much anymore. Now the fad seems to have moved on to inspirational quotes. I even saw a guy at the gym with "I Love you Mom" on his upper arm.

If you're gonna do it: be in good shape and place it strategically. George Clooney's flame going up his neck in From Dusk Till Dawn looks badass. Russian mafia members - same thing.

I've never got one because I don't care enough to about anything to actually write it on myself.

I'm curious to know what the younger generation coming up now think of it. I thought the trend was to rebel against what your parents have, so for example, if your mum has inspirational quotes written on her or a sleeve, doesn't it follow that they would reject this?

Scars are tattoos with cooler stories. If I do something worth remembering that didn't mark me, then I'll get one.

Quote: (05-31-2017 12:36 PM)IvanDrago Wrote:  

I view most people with tatoos like I view most people who ride Harleys with the full leather, scruffy beard and bandana look.

1% of them are bad asses who have killed someone, run guns or pimp hoes. The rest are just accountants, office workers, gas station attendants etc who are just following the heard in an attempt to look cool.

To your point, George Carlin - and this was 1997!

^^^^

Hahah fuck off ! I don't ride just weekends, but I don't dress like a biker.

Been on 2 wheels since I was a kid - so I love riding, it's in my blood.

But I'm not retarded enough to ruin my life and become a 1%'r - fuck that.


These Jon Bozz threads are a waste of space on the forum.


Who gives a fuck if you have tattoos or not - it's personal preference at that point.

Quote: (05-31-2017 02:52 PM)Ski pro Wrote:  

I've never got one because I don't care enough to about anything to actually write it on myself.

I'm curious to know what the younger generation coming up now think of it. I thought the trend was to rebel against what your parents have, so for example, if your mum has inspirational quotes written on her or a sleeve, doesn't it follow that they would reject this?

I dont think enough time has passed to know.
Women getting tattoos became mainstream in the first decade of the 00s....tramp stamps and then full sleeves. I think it will take another decade before most of the children of those women reach adulthood.

So in 2030 more or less, will they reject tattoos themselves to not rebel against Mom? Let's hope so. But what will replace it? Widespread tongue forking? Lip disks? No one knows.

Quote: (05-31-2017 03:51 PM)azulsombra Wrote:  

So in 2030 more or less, will they reject tattoos themselves to not rebel against Mom? Let's hope so. But what will replace it? Widespread tongue forking? Lip discs? No one knows.

Some vegans use branding iron for attention whoring.

I used to watch wrestling a lot back in the late 1980's. None of the wrestlers had tattoos. About twenty years later, they all had them.

I wonder if this is how Clint Eastwood really feels about tattoos. This is really hilarious in a very subtle way:

Nothing is more horrifying than seeing a hot young girl with a tattoo. Is like seeing graffiti on a classical building.

Late 90s early 2000s with tramp stamps and those vines around your biceps is the first time I saw a lot in public.

The exact tipping point was 1995. Pam Anderson barbed wire tat. White suburbanites then ran with it.

"At this point what difference does it make?"

I'm judgmental and I hate seeing people with STD. Stupid Tattoo disease. Their time, to me, is worthless.