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The Spectacle Blog
Elie Kerrigan is right to question the widespread and melancholy practice of tattooing. Formerly relegated to downscale and male derma, the once dying art has rebounded with an inclusive vengeance. One more sign of cultural devolution.
Ugly images, and messages considerably less than universal or uplifting, are popping up everywhere. Even the ladies (women, persons, Mz., choose your designation) are getting into the act. How humbling it must it be to a contemporary lothario who finally gets where he has been longing to be (the final frontier, so to speak) only to find that the tattoo artiste has beaten him there.
This loathsome and only painfully reversible practice in the past was concentrated in certain trades, many of them maritime. Dock wallopers and sailors have long helped keep the tattoo parlors open. My Navy shipmates of long ago were not immune to the temptations of this tribal practice. Often after several bottles of false courage taken in some down-at-heels Mediterranean saloon, they would seek out the local artiste to have their girlfriend’s name permanently inscribed on their bicep. The sad part was seeing these poor sods after they had received the Dear John letter. The tattoo may be for life, but Laverne is now walking out with a gunner’s mate in San Diego.
Most of today’s decorated young people will not be receiving a Dear John letter. But their sad assignment will be explaining to their own children why Mom or Dad has a really rude message on his/her forearm.
View all comments (13) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Larry Thornberry
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/09/17/the-tattooed-generation
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2Anglico| 9.17.12 @ 10:46AM
I can't wait to see the comments on this.
mike 3/505| 9.17.12 @ 11:50AM
Lothario coming in second place....Larry....You done good this time....but you owe me a keyboard!
Mike
wombat1| 9.17.12 @ 12:01PM
At my local gym, all too many failed attempts at "self-expression" are on view. Tolerable I suppose, in the young and fit- but grandpa's panoramic shoulder- to- shoulder mural of the Mexican Revolution doesn't look so good when the muscles lose their tone.
It's the tattooed women that are really sad- when they get a few miles on them, they start to look like a faded Grateful Dead album- if they're lucky.
But all too often, here comes mom, three or four head of kids in tow, tattooed like a bos'un's mate- down both arms to the wrist, on her calves and coccyx, maybe across the back of the neck to0.
And just as Mom is going the way of all flesh , all the stars and flowers and unicorns of yesteryear are going the way of all tattoo ink- fine lines become broad smudges, clever swirls become blobs, and the colors fade. And you're right- kids ask the darndest questions.
And that's why everybody wears hoodies out here in California, even in the summer. Not to show solidarity with Trayvon, but to hide those silly, ugly tattoos.
Cobalt| 9.17.12 @ 12:13PM
"Even the ladies (women, persons, Mz., choose your designation) are getting into the act."
Kat Von D had a TV show called "LA Ink" which ran on TLC for four years.
http://www.katvond.net/
Bob Grant| 9.17.12 @ 12:32PM
"Most of today's decorated young people will not be receiving a Dear John letter. But their sad assignment will be explaining to their own children why Mom or Dad has a really rude message on his/her forearm." .....
In the age of Narcissism, the parents to which you refer will not consider it a sad assignment but will double down and be proud of their Faded Glory. They will have at the ready all sorts of amusing little antidotes about their tats as they prepare their little ones for their own tattoo "christening".
Narcissists never admit mistakes. They dig in their heals.
Want proof?...look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania ave.
geronl| 9.17.12 @ 1:22PM
I have no idea why people scar themselves with the ugly things.
Derek Leaberry| 9.17.12 @ 1:38PM
At least our young are excellent text messagers.
Grant Johnson| 9.17.12 @ 2:22PM
(Not an original observation on my part, but I forget to whom it is attributed):
A society improves and becomes stronger when its lower classes emulate the upper classes. Conversely, the society decays when its upper classes emulate the lower classes.
Guess which way we are going?
Bob Grant| 9.17.12 @ 7:23PM
Sounds like Charles Murray.
Cpm| 9.17.12 @ 3:18PM
When I was young the only people with tattoos were swabbies and convicts. I guess we aren't as narcissistic as today's generation.
JimP| 9.17.12 @ 7:05PM
Chaste women don't get tattoos. So, guys if your gal has a tat now you know what she's really like.
Paul A'Barge | 9.18.12 @ 10:40AM
ya da ya da yanki dank http://dianecapri.com/wp-conte.....nberry.jpg