I knew if I just did nothing I'd be cool again one day.
And the nothing I did was not getting a tattoo. Apparently, all the kids aren’t doing it now. At least according to this bit in the Graun.
In Australia in 1998, men were three times more likely to have pierced ears than tattoos. Now, pierced ears among men are relatively rare.
Tattoos may well be on a similar path. No longer only for rock bands trying to show off their rebel status, every pop star has a full sleeve. Tattoos have invaded the conservative world of K-pop. Recently a 40-something friend of mine, a barrister, got a tattoo. Safe to say tattoos aren’t that rebellious any more.
The story sort of meanders around all over the place, but the bottom line is the kids these days aren’t getting tatts because boring old farts are covered in them.
But not this fart.
My skin is inkless.
I await my new career as a cover model for teen magazines.
Funny enough, I never got ink except for one drunken night in the barracks; someone did a jailhouse pen ink tattoo on me that thankfully didn't take. If I remember right, the fella used a sewing needle wrapped in thread and soaked with ink from a broken-open Skilcraft USGI pen. I don't even remember WTF it was, and I'm glad it disappeared almost as fast as my hangover.
Since then, I've been tempted, but never did it. This is probably due to lingering memories of my Grandpa and Uncle Bob, who scored a Lady Luck tattoo in some seedy bar in Honolulu before their respective combat deployments. I remember sitting in a very straight-laced evangelical church next to Bob and looking at Lady Luck's boobs, her naked form wrapped for the rest of his life around a bayonet on his forearm. Struck me as odd back then, and I decided to spare my kids that particular experience.
Postscript: Bob is still alive (Korea, 1953), and his tattoo has gone entirely black with advanced age. No more boobs; instead, it looks like a massive melanoma. So, I'm glad I didn't do that.
I don't think it's the old farts being covered in them so much as they're expensive and young people have student debts, precarious employment, no hope of secure housing and other cost of living stuff that means getting a tatt is a luxury they literally can't afford.