[HN Gopher] More people are getting tattoos removed
___________________________________________________________________
More people are getting tattoos removed
Author : speckx
Score : 88 points
Date : 2025-05-08 16:37 UTC (6 hours ago)
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| ramoz wrote:
| I'm in LA and it's a very big trend here atm. My thought is some
| cultural influencers are leading the way but I'm not really in
| tune.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| It seems mostly like induced demand from the equipment being
| cheap and readily available these days. People have always
| regretted their tattoos after getting older, but it was never a
| thing in the 90s or 2000s to just go down to a local clinic and
| have it done for a few hundred bucks. It was something you just
| heard about rich/famous people doing every now and then.
| RadiozRadioz wrote:
| If there is anything that's a constant in life, it's that nothing
| is a constant. Tattoos have a permanence that is rarely matched
| by one's character - many people don't seem to realise that.
| kube-system wrote:
| I'm not sure, in my experience, the older people I know with
| tats have exactly the personality that goes along with it.
| bn-l wrote:
| None of the millennials I know who got tatted during the
| height of the fashion wave match the character* of being
| tattooed. And some of them really went all out. Truly amazing
| what the desire to conform to our tribe will make us do to
| ourselves.
|
| (*statistically a drug addict, criminal or prostitute)
| im3w1l wrote:
| Maybe I shouldn't be telling on myself like this, but I
| think tattoos look really cool and the only reason I'm not
| getting one is because how many people look down on them.
| ravenstine wrote:
| This is why I likely will never get a tattoo of any kind, other
| than the fact that I simply have no desire for one. Some people
| become themselves early in life, but I feel like I different
| person every year that goes by. I don't even like the kinds of
| clothes I used to wear not that long ago, so I know I would
| soon hate any tattoo I'd get.
| schwartzworld wrote:
| It all depends. I got a couple of tattoos 20 years ago and
| I'm not that guy. But seeing those tattoos connects me to who
| I used to be, and even if I wouldn't go get them now, I could
| never regret them.
|
| It also helps that my tattoos are wholly original, i.e. not
| based on some trend, and that I chose the subject matter
| specifically because I didn't think it was possible to hate
| it later on (a dinosaur and a 4d hypercube). Like, am I ever
| going to hate dinosaurs? I've loved them for 40ish years
| already.
| RandallBrown wrote:
| I kind of want a tattoo because I'd like to know what it
| feels like to get one. I don't think I'll ever get one
| though. I have a hard enough time deciding what kind of art
| to hang on my walls.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| Don't believe the people who say it's not that bad
|
| It hurts a ton. It bleeds a lot
|
| It wasn't intolerable pain, but it's not "not that bad"
| either
| kamarg wrote:
| Really depends on where you get it done. On your forearm?
| Not that bad. On your scalp? Hope you take a stick to
| bite down on while you get it done.
| noxer wrote:
| You can get one that's only visible under UV light, but
| given the topic here it might be relevant to know that
| these are much harder to remove and also if they age they
| may become visible under normal light and/or stop
| fluoresced under UV light.
| crab_galaxy wrote:
| I got a 'meaningful' tattoo on my 18th birthday. I don't
| fully relate to it with the same passion 20 years later. I
| still like it though for different reasons. It's a snapshot
| of who I was and what I stood for when I got it. Tbh I don't
| regret it at all and mostly forget I even have the thing. I
| think I'm lucky to have a mindset to appreciate that
| permanence, a lot of people end up regretting 'meaningful'
| tattoos once they lose their meaning.
| dvh wrote:
| "Nothing lasts forever, only change" --Genghis Khan
| tough wrote:
| change is the only constant
| pixelpoet wrote:
| except from vending machines
| gardenhedge wrote:
| Some people get them as things they have done or experienced.
| In that sense it doesn't matter if they change in life because
| their story hasn't.
| nineplay wrote:
| It depends on one's outlook. I know people who's attitude is
| both "boy that was a dumb tattoo to get at 18" and "dumb 18
| year old me is still me, and I don't want to remove that tattoo
| any more that I want to remove that part of myself".
|
| Obviously circumstances may change if the tattoo is offensive.
| ramoz wrote:
| Your second perspective captures my personal take. I feel
| indifferent about the actual ink at this point. It's more
| about a personal/symbolic mark of who I am, who I was, maybe
| who I'll be - all the same person. No regrets.
| owebmaster wrote:
| For many of us keeping a reference to not change/forget some
| things is a strategy not a mistake.
| mystified5016 wrote:
| Yup, that's what all my tattoos are. They're markers of
| things I've done, experiences had, and mistakes made.
|
| If when I get older and those memories mean less to me, the
| tattoos will become markers of who I was and what was once
| important to me. I could see myself getting some of them
| removed, but I don't think it's likely.
|
| Because of the way my brain is, it's difficult for me to stay
| attached to the past. Having permanent marks on my body makes
| the past unforgettable, inescapable. I like to think it's
| made an improvement on the person I've become, but of course
| it's impossible to know.
| mtrovo wrote:
| You know, as much as I want to agree, it feels a bit shallow to
| look at life that way. I've got tattoos, sometimes people ask
| me "What does this represent to you?" and honestly I never
| really know what to say because I don't overthink them. What I
| do remember is where I was, what I was doing, and my whole vibe
| back then. It's a cool reminder that nothing stays the same and
| that I'm a different person now. It's kind of like asking your
| grandpa the story behind a scar he has.
|
| Now lately I feel like the speed on which trends are born and
| die, the non-stop over sharing, and that constant itch for
| "what's next" is really pushing us all to become these kind of
| formless blobs, scared to show any real "edges." For example:
|
| - Cars all kinda look the same now and are mostly some shade of
| grey. Same deal with phones and pretty much all tech.
|
| - Buying clothes with bland colors with almost no originality
| with the expectation that it will probably be in the bin the
| next season.
|
| - The whole clean girl aesthetic on putting in a ton of effort
| to look like you put in zero effort.
|
| - And don't get me started on how sad beige parenting is not a
| joke
|
| You only live once, there's no scoreboard at the end. Just do
| what you want with your life. More often than you'd probably
| like to admit, nobody really cares that much anyway.
| NegativeK wrote:
| I got my tattoo when I was about half my current age. I
| wasn't too worried about not liking it later -- I'd wanted
| the idea for a few years, and I figured that it'd be a good
| memory if I changed later.
|
| I didn't change later. I had another artist expand the design
| about ten years ago. And while it had some meaning when I got
| the first round, I've realized over time that it means a
| whole lot more to me as I've learned more about myself.
|
| But when someone asks me what it means, I just shrug it off.
| I'm not sharing that kind of thing with people.
| nurettin wrote:
| I am a disembodied text, you can tell me.
| Wojtkie wrote:
| I approach it the same way. My tattoos don't "mean" anything,
| and honestly I find the ones that have "meaning" to not be
| that great. My tattoos do remind me of where I was in my
| life. I also stick to American traditional style since they
| tend to age pretty well.
| RankingMember wrote:
| I agree with you about overthinking, but the second half of
| your comment is very broad-brush. If you went back in time to
| any era of vehicles or other artistic objects, you'd find
| they all had a similar feel reminiscent of the era. There are
| plenty of cool modern cars/clothes/etc.! For example, look at
| Toyota with their wacky 3 cylinder turbo AWD Gazoo Racing
| Corolla or Hyundai with their angular Ioniq. I will say the
| arms race going on re: vehicle height/size is a pox on car
| design, kind of like sealed beam headlight requirements and
| afterthought add-on 5mph bumpers were a pox on car design in
| their respective eras.
| __s wrote:
| Gray shift is real https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful
| /comments/j7yfqb/oc_...
| mvdtnz wrote:
| Yeah when people ask me what my tattoos mean I give the
| truthful answer - owls are cool as hell, I like the
| horror/skull aesthtic, gas masks look badass etc.
|
| Not everything needs a deep meaning.
| ramoz wrote:
| I don't regret or fancy my decade old tattoos.
|
| They symbolize a past life to me basically, and that brings
| meaning and unique introspection to me in a way.
| 6stringmerc wrote:
| A guy in jail once described his tattoos as "a permanent
| reminder of a temporary idea" and I found it insightful.
| ryoshu wrote:
| I got inked twice before I made a commitment to my third tattoo
| on my wrist so it would be plainly visible. I committed to
| never working with or for someone who refused to hire a person
| because of something like a tattoo. Sometimes the commitment
| goes beyond the ink on the skin.
| ladidahh wrote:
| I think for some people, at least myself, tattoos are a
| narrative, it's such a bizarre process, half art and half
| science, that each session, wether it was in a punk house with
| no electricity or an upscale art gallery on the other side of
| the world gets ingrained a little deeper. They're like little
| time machines, I can remember who I was, where I was, who I was
| with. And I'm guessing I'm in the minority here, but I can't
| stand the look of a fresh clean tattoo, the stick and poke in a
| dorm room, the 20 year old one done in a studio that wasn't too
| concerned with checking ids, the one that was done way too
| deep, in the dark, and healed into a puff sticker like scar
| consistency, that's what I love. I've considered a few times
| going in and getting some of my more visible ones removed, and
| the occasional must wear long sleeved shirt wins every time, no
| matter what I gain or lose, I like my garbage art time machines
| UltraSane wrote:
| I don't have tattoos because I could never commit to having any
| specific image permanent on my skin. I have considered getting
| a public key tattooed though.
| crabsand wrote:
| a qr code for your home page may be another option
| eightysixfour wrote:
| The idea that your character is able to be quantized to a
| moment in time instead of the history of your life is bizarre
| to me.
|
| For the vast majority of people who haven't suffered some kind
| of brain damage, life is append only and the current state is
| completely dependent on the history. You have markers of your
| past good and bad decisions all over you.
| goda90 wrote:
| It seems like the market has filled up with body art that fits
| someplace between permanent tattoos and the little toy temporary
| tattoos that are basically stickers. Stuff that lasts for weeks,
| months, or years before fading away. Encouraging people to try
| those out first before committing to something permanent would be
| wise.
| failrate wrote:
| It turns out that those ephemeral tattoos did not fade out in
| time and are extremely problematic when trying to laser remove
| them. The company that originally started that tech is gone,
| and the "ephemeral" tattoos they created are still around.
| gamblor956 wrote:
| I think the parent is actually referring to the sticker
| tattoos that wash away within a few days (or all at once if
| you use shampoo).
|
| They're pretty great for vacations and events.
| eightysixfour wrote:
| They specifically said "stuff that lasts for weeks, months,
| and even years. There are temp tattoos that do that, but
| the tech wasn't great.
| elric wrote:
| More people have tattoos, so it's only natural that more people
| would get tattoos removed. Doesn't strike me as particularly
| surprising.
|
| It's a lengthy, expensive, and often painful process. Getting
| shoddy work covered might be a better deal in some cases.
| jsbisviewtiful wrote:
| Right - The tech/procedure to remove bad tats is also getting
| less expensive and more available. Very misleading headline imo
| ghaff wrote:
| It used to be that tattoos were a marker of some combination of
| lower class, military, sports, etc. But you'd pretty much never
| see them in general on most middle/upper-class professionals.
| That changed with developers etc. over the past couple decades.
| Not shocking that might reverse. Not personal commentary but just
| an observation.
| tehjoker wrote:
| well if the capitalists get their way, we'll be lower class
| soon enough! :D
| Buxato wrote:
| oh that evil capitalists ..., pfff
| tehjoker wrote:
| Yea, their objective is to optimize labor costs and
| increase profit margins. It is an objective that is
| diametrically opposed to our well being in the long run.
|
| Don't confuse a state of affairs where the capitalists are
| having difficulty replacing us (thus reducing pressure on
| us) with a general beneficence, their relationship to us is
| purely transactional and we are disposable. Have solidarity
| with your class.
| kube-system wrote:
| I think society's attitude towards people with tattoos ebbs and
| flows over time too. I think with the recent political
| happenings we might be in a bit of an ebb.
| apercu wrote:
| > lower class, military, sports, etc.
|
| I think I'd put "counter culture" rather than lower class.
| ghaff wrote:
| There's probably a lot of intersection. Don't really
| disagree. Though counter-culture folks I went to school with
| in engineering/etc. still didn't tend to have tattoos.
| travisjungroth wrote:
| "Lower class" matches. There was a time that tattoos were
| seen as something for sailors and convicts.
| apercu wrote:
| Not really for the last 30 years?
| ghaff wrote:
| "There was a time"? Which I think pretty much matches.
| voidspark wrote:
| No it was definitely for the lower class only.
|
| Now it's "counter culture" to _not_ have a tattoo. They are
| so common. They have become a sign of conformity.
| jansan wrote:
| I would describe me and my environment as pretty normal
| middle class and I do not know a single person who has a
| visible tattoo.
| voidspark wrote:
| I don't know where you live or what generation you are
| in. In my country, it seems that every young woman has a
| tattoo.
| kbelder wrote:
| I think a majority, perhaps nearly all, of my daughter's
| friends have tattoos (early 20s). Not huge ones... a
| little flower on the ankle, etc. This is in the Pacific
| Northwest, though. They really got big here, to the point
| I agree it's a little rebellious of a young person to
| _not_ get a tattoo.
| voidspark wrote:
| https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/15/32-of-
| ame...
|
| 38% of women vs 27% of men. The number would be higher
| for young women.
| paidsearchguy wrote:
| lower class worked quite nicely actually
| vorpalhex wrote:
| I really like my tattoos but this is why I've chosen to have
| them in easily covered areas.
|
| Tattoos say different things to different people in different
| times. Right now tattoos are fine in most white collar settings
| but this won't always be the case.
| gamblor956 wrote:
| Middle and upper class professionals have plenty of tattoos.
| They just have them in places that are easily covered up when
| they're at work.
| bawolff wrote:
| My understanding is that it was an upper class thing in the
| late 1800s.
|
| Fashion goes in cycles and all that.
| GuinansEyebrows wrote:
| more people have tattoos that, given other social indicators,
| would probably not have gotten (as many) tattoos as they might
| have in the past. it's definitely been something of a fad over
| the last decade or so that seems to be ebbing a bit (at least
| according to friends of mine who tattoo - bad for them, but
| that's life).
|
| we saw the same thing over a shorter period with stretched ears -
| a lot of people did it at the height of its popularity but have
| since let their piercings close (or resorted to surgery if they
| were past that point).
|
| tbh, i don't really care if "squares/normies" get tattoos or
| weird piercings (or get them removed), but i do kinda welcome the
| return to "otherness" that it used to confer. i like having
| tattoos and piercings for their own sake. even though 99% of my
| tattoos are extremely stupid and i wouldn't get them today, i'm
| happy to keep them as a reminder of where i was in life when i
| got them.
| ravenstine wrote:
| > tbh, i don't really care if "squares/normies" get tattoos or
| weird piercings (or get them removed)
|
| EDIT: I think I misinterpreted your statement, but I'll leave
| my response anyway just because. I thought you meant "get" in
| the sense of understanding them.
|
| I appreciate you saying this offhand for some reason, even
| though I don't think you were trying to give credit to others.
|
| Naturally, I am both liberal and perhaps libertarian in the
| sense that I think people have a right to get tattoos and I
| don't have a problem with people having them.
|
| What has long bugged me though are the numerous people who
| clearly get body modifications in order to attract validation
| from others. If one isn't in their unspoken club, they become
| super defensive and accusatory.
|
| For example, as much as I have no interest in getting tattoos,
| I will compliment people on their tattoos that I appreciate.
| When inevitably asked in response why I don't have any tattoos,
| I tell the other person that I simply have no desire for one.
| When that answer isn't accepted, I sometimes (mistkenly) admit
| that I don't like them _in general_. This triggers a lot of
| tattoo people, even though my choice of words doesn 't actually
| suggest that I hate _all_ tattoos or _their_ tattoos.
|
| On an even more intense level, it's verboten in my society, as
| a man, to openly state a preference for women _without_
| tattoos. I never bring it up unless prompted, yet I often get
| so much blowback for this. The word "judgmental" always gets
| slung my way. It's pretty clear that something else is going on
| here when people get this defensive over something that is
| fairly trivial.
| hooverd wrote:
| Could be that they're understanding your preference as a
| normative statement. You're probably not the first person to
| mention how they would look better without tattoos, even if
| that's not exactly what you meant.
| tuna74 wrote:
| How do you get people to ask you about your preference for
| tattooed vs "natural" women?
| ravenstine wrote:
| Some people like to show off their new tattoos and ask my
| opinion, or I will just compliment someone on a tattoo they
| have that caught my notice. And sometimes that leads to
| "You got any tattoos?" or "You ever gonna get a tattoo?"
|
| As far as the woman thing goes, guys have a tendency to
| talk about women, and sometimes the topic of tattoo'd women
| comes up. I've been on this planet for nearly 40 years, so
| while this isn't really a common conversation, I've
| encountered it enough times to notice recurring themes.
| BoxFour wrote:
| The article touches on this only briefly at the end, but I wonder
| whether the popularity of tattoos is beginning to wane. After
| more than a decade of a cultural embrace of tattoos, we could be
| starting to see the fashionability of tattoos decline (and then
| I'm sure it'll be back in a couple decades).
| mnky9800n wrote:
| But this is also why face tattoos are more popular. Face
| tattoos are still considered "hardcore" of whatever. Before
| just having a tattoo anywhere made you an outsider. But then
| emo happened and everything that was cool was commoditized and
| now the modern world is the way it is. Or something. I don't
| know how you feel but I think we should blame the world on emo.
| gosub100 wrote:
| "you are unique, just like everyone else"
| hooverd wrote:
| I haven't seen a good-looking face tattoo yet.
| brokegrammer wrote:
| What about Mike Tyson's. Looks pretty good to me.
|
| Head tattoos are quite cool too. This Youtuber's
| (https://www.youtube.com/@Gratitude.Driven) tattoos are
| pure art for example.
| hooverd wrote:
| Mike Tyson's is very clean, but personally I just don't
| like "tribal" tattoos unless you're Maori or part of a
| cultural that does them. They seem more cohesive somehow.
|
| Ok, I do like her head tattoos.
| mnky9800n wrote:
| Chakotay.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| It's generally an indicator of poor impulse control. Lack
| of taste comes with the package.
| dingnuts wrote:
| this guy probably thinks Green Day is emo lol
| deadbabe wrote:
| I will wait to get tattoos until the state of the art advances to
| a point where you can regular change them out without much
| hassle, and they look just like the real thing.
| RankingMember wrote:
| I think temporary tattoos will eventually just get good enough
| to allow you to accomplish the same end.
| brokegrammer wrote:
| I got a tattoo to cover a birth mark a while ago. I used to be
| nervous about people seeing the mark before, now I enjoy people
| looking at my tattoo instead.
|
| I think tattoos are cool because it's art where your body is the
| canvas. Pure human evolution really. I'll be getting more tattoos
| soon.
| gardenhedge wrote:
| I didn't realise you can do that. Is the mark incorporated in
| the design or actually covered?
| schwartzworld wrote:
| Flat birthmarks are fine. I was told you can't tattoo over
| raised ones, although I suspect this might be more about
| detecting skin cancer than anything else.
| brokegrammer wrote:
| Yea my tattoo artist told me that some skin surfaces can't
| be tattooed but mine was just a weird looking pattern.
| Could be about skin cancer or macrophages that feed on the
| ink.
| BizarroLand wrote:
| I've seen a video of one person doing birth mark tattoos
| with pigment that matches their skin color to effectively
| disappear them. I'm sure if you got a tan or something
| they would look like a color negative of the originals
| but for casual appearance that might be something worth
| looking into.
| brokegrammer wrote:
| I got it covered but I thought about getting a more elaborate
| design at some point. I wanted something minimalist as my
| first tattoo to see how it does. Now that I like tattoos I'm
| gonna experiment more in the future.
|
| It's definitely doable and could be a boost in confidence for
| some people, like it was for me.
| vunderba wrote:
| During the height of my adolescence, I had pretty bad acne and
| jokingly wanted to get a constellation tattoo connecting the
| pock marks to distract from it.
| ir77 wrote:
| all the tramp stamps and terrible back tattoos from early 2000s?
|
| i see more aging hipsters than ever with sleeves and they seem to
| keep adding, so i wonder if this is "genre" specific.
| guywithahat wrote:
| Tattoos come and go in fads, and it's weird how some people
| will insist their quirky line tattoo is an ephemeral trend
| platevoltage wrote:
| You get a tramp stamp because your drunk friends decided it was
| a good idea. You get a sleeve when you've thought about it for
| a while, and budgeted for a $1500+ expenditure. I think it's a
| different mindset.
|
| The only people I know who got a sleeve lazered off did it
| because they wanted to replace it, not because they wanted to
| be ink free.
| JohnMakin wrote:
| And I only recently got my first tattoo around 40. Not sure this
| article makes it clear what is driving this trend? Tattoos come
| and go out of style even in my own life (when i was young to
| young adult, it was bad, then it was good, now seemingly bad
| again). If I don't like my tattoo in 20 years I really don't
| care, you can always replace it with more work if it fades.
| Probably will get more. It isn't very expensive. It's a form of
| expression I can't really get anywhere else - I like looking at
| my tattoo and dont particularly care what anyone thinks of it.
| PcChip wrote:
| I'm 40 now, and have always wanted a tattoo but could never
| decide what I should get. I was thinking something linux or
| maybe vmware related because I love both of those things. Very
| glad I didn't get anything vmware related now!
| failrate wrote:
| I had a similar issue, so I just got something small and
| essentially random. Now that the seal is broken, thinking of
| more tattoos is easy.
| opan wrote:
| A tattoo of proprietary software or really any company seems
| kind of sad and dystopian to me. Nothing against vmware in
| particular. I recall an old meme collage of a bunch of people
| with Apple tattoos that was not putting them in a favorable
| light.
|
| Maybe a Sun logo could be an exception, they're not around
| anymore, so it feels more like nostalgia or grieving instead
| of "this company owns me". I wasn't around/aware when Sun
| was, also, so they feel more like a mythical thing from a
| story to me than an old company.
| paidsearchguy wrote:
| You're too smart to write on yourself
| H3X_K1TT3N wrote:
| I used to want the visual c++ 6 icon lol
| rambambram wrote:
| I had the same idea about a linux tattoo. Then I decided I
| could also design a new linux t-shirt or sweater for myself
| each year.
| parpfish wrote:
| I'd assume that the driving force is just "more people have
| tattoos"
| prmoustache wrote:
| This, back in the days having a tatoo was a symbol of
| rebellion against a norm. Now that everyone and his mother is
| law has one, it has become a symbol of submission to the norm
| and establishment.
| 6stringmerc wrote:
| I laugh that my most obvious form of rebellion is not going
| with the trend of getting any ink or piercings.
|
| Those large gauge ear plugs didn't age well AT ALL.
| hluska wrote:
| A friend of mine tattoos in my city and we were talking about
| this a few weekends ago. He mentioned three related things that
| contribute to removals he's aware of.
|
| Tattooing got immensely popular and a lot of people who
| shouldn't not have taken on apprentices took on apprentices.
| The quality of apprenticeships dropped and artists were getting
| put on skin way before they were ready. Many artists never
| learned proper technique or placement.
|
| Styles changed so people were getting their first tattoos in
| visible places. When he started tattooing, artists wouldn't do
| a first tattoo somewhere visible unless the client had a very
| very good reason. It always took dialogue. Now you can walk
| into a shop, point to flash and get it out on your neck or
| hand.
|
| And finally, realism hit tattoos.
|
| So in his opinion. You take a lot of artists who shouldn't have
| been putting ink into grapefruits not skin. Put them to them to
| work on highly visible realistic looking art on people who
| don't know enough about tattoo to know whether they're making a
| mistake. And you end up with a lot of people staring at visible
| art that didn't heal properly, with blown out lines and poor
| placement.
|
| I didn't get tattooed until after another good friend had
| finished his apprenticeship- I'm very glad I waited because I
| love my art and will slowly keep getting more. But I feel bad
| for people who fell into that trap of getting an unqualified
| artist to put bad art on their bodies.
| opan wrote:
| I think you meant "should" and not "shouldn't" both times
| used here, if I'm understanding what you're trying to say
| correctly.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| > Not sure this article makes it clear what is driving this
| trend
|
| People who got inked in the 90s tattoo boom are now wearing
| blurry smudges unless they were careful to minimize the fine
| detail.
| araes wrote:
| > Not sure this article makes it clear what is driving this
| trend?
|
| Technology improvements leading to better removal quality,
| reduced removal times, less post-procedure pain, and better
| word-of-mouth response is a suggestion.
|
| Up until the 2010's the range of Quality(Q)-switched lasers was
| the main tool available. They produce pulse widths in the
| nanosecond range and can remove multiple colors. Big
| improvements over the Argon and CO2 laser systems from pre-80's
| / 90's with less scarring. However, often still had long,
| painful recoveries between sessions (depending on the tattoo).
|
| In the 2010's, the various picosecond pulse-width laser systems
| came out, and they usually require less sessions than the
| Q-switched procedures people are used to, and the reports tend
| be of less pain and discomfort after the removal procedure
| (described like getting a bad sunburn). Probably both have
| resulted in better word of mouth, and larger numbers
| recommending getting removal.
| resource_waste wrote:
| I find it pretty damning that AI Art will not put tattoos on
| beautiful people(unless specifically instructed).
|
| I think everyone knew this to be true, but we are polite to
| people who have tattoos.
|
| On the flip side, there are people who claim 'I don't care what
| they think'. And this is just an anti-social attitude in disguise
| of rebellion. It genuinely doesnt matter, people make split
| second judgements that DO affect you, even if you claim you don't
| care.
|
| I've been at busy events and decided to talk to a decently
| dressed person over the person wearing raggy clothing. We notice
| patterns, often subconsciously.
| hooverd wrote:
| I think tattoos can quite often look nice, so no, not everyone
| "knew this to be true."
|
| Just say what you believe instead of trying to launder your
| opinion as generally accepted truth.
| resource_waste wrote:
| Do you have any photos of someone before and after tattoos
| that make them look more beautiful?
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| I don't have any tattoos but I'd rather be judged for something
| surface level than for having a belief like "let's all aspire
| to be the default Stable Diffusion idea of a person."
| resource_waste wrote:
| Silly.
|
| You prefer to be less beautiful and judged negatively on
| surface level appearances?
|
| Yeah sureeee. I prefer to make less money, have less friends,
| and have less influence too /s
| roboror wrote:
| Some people get tattoos or dress in a nonconforming way
| specifically to filter out people with this line of thinking.
| resource_waste wrote:
| Suppose they 'filter out', and as a result, they don't get a
| job that they interviewed for. They wanted the job, or they
| wouldn't have applied.
|
| They don't get approached at a social event, yet they
| attended to meet people.
|
| They can say as many times "Its a filter", but the filter
| only hurt them. Not the other way around. Its a 'Grapes are
| sour anyway" situation.
| ausbah wrote:
| how is it anti-social to not to engage with someone whose
| overly judging you? seems like a pretty universal response.
| sure everyone has first level impressions, but I'm not going to
| put my energy into someone who never outgrew the child level
| thinking of leading head first into surface level impressions
| resource_waste wrote:
| >I'm not going to put my energy into someone who never
| outgrew the child level thinking of leading head first into
| surface level impressions
|
| Less opportunities for you because you are (intentionally)
| ignorant of human nature.
|
| As mentioned, people make split second judgements. It doesnt
| matter if you are the top 5 smartest people in the world,
| people do not have the resources to 'vet' everyone. We look
| at patterns and realize that people with Face tattoos are
| less likely to be excellent.
|
| This is textbook idealism. That is the way the world Ought to
| be. That isnt how the world Is. We are shaped by experiences.
|
| There is something a bit reinforcing on this topic. The
| people deliberately violating social norms claim they 'don't
| care'. I imagine the smartest people are aware this stuff
| does matter, so they don't violate social norms.
| guywithahat wrote:
| I assume OP means antisocial in the clinic sense, not social
| vs introverted
| hooverd wrote:
| There's a lot of bad tattoos out there. It's something people
| should give more thought to, but tattoos can look really good if
| they're done well.
| didgetmaster wrote:
| The Dr. Seuss story about the Sneetches comes to mind.
| maxdemarzi wrote:
| I've had tattoos removed and currently removing two more. They
| are all 20 years old, very faded, blurry they honestly just
| didn't look good any more.
|
| The first removal 5 years ago would leave me bleeding and require
| bandage changes for a week.
|
| The new tattoo removal lasers leave you feeling like a sun burn
| for two days. No blood, no bandages.
|
| It will become way more common.
| bn-l wrote:
| Are the new lasers very painful when applied ?
| carlhjerpe wrote:
| The darker the ink the more it hurts, however if you apply
| the expensive recommended creams beforehand it is very
| bareable, anyone can endure a 20 minute removal session.
|
| Pretty much if you could do the tattoo you can get it
| removed, first times hurt a bit but I have vague memories
| that it hurt like hell when I got it done black-out drunk in
| Aiya Napa, Cyprus as an 18 year old as well.
|
| If you're thinking about removing a tattoo pain should be
| really low on your list of considerations, I genuinely mean
| it (both because sessions are short and it doesn't hurt much)
| kragen wrote:
| > _" Suits make a corporate comeback," says the New York Times.
| Why does this sound familiar? Maybe because the suit was also
| back in February, September 2004, June 2004, March 2004,
| September 2003, November 2002, April 2002, and February 2002.
|
| > Why do the media keep running stories saying suits are back?
| Because PR firms tell them to. One of the most surprising things
| I discovered during my brief business career was the existence of
| the PR industry, lurking like a huge, quiet submarine beneath the
| news. Of the stories you read in traditional media that aren't
| about politics, crimes, or disasters, more than half probably
| come from PR firms._
|
| https://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html (April 02005)
| planck_tonne wrote:
| Great article, thanks for sharing. Though what I liked about it
| has nothing to do with tattoos.
|
| Towards the end he talks about how people trusted blogs and
| online content more because mainstream media was fake and
| biased.
|
| The final paragraph:
|
| > PR people fear bloggers for the same reason readers like
| them. And that means there may be a struggle ahead. As this new
| kind of writing draws readers away from traditional media, we
| should be prepared for whatever PR mutates into to compensate.
| When I think how hard PR firms work to score press hits in the
| traditional media, I can't imagine they'll work any less hard
| to feed stories to bloggers, if they can figure out how.
|
| This is where we are now. It's even worse, I guess. Publishing
| online is essentially free, so they don't really have to try
| hard. And we are left with the work of separating the wheat out
| of this tsunami of chaff. The future of the Internet looks
| bleak TBH.
| tom89999 wrote:
| I am thinking what all that stuff written and drawn on people
| should tell me? I cant even talk to them while commuting, they
| only stare in their phones. What is it my business when the litte
| daughter was born or a half readable scribbling above the boobs
| is there? I dont get many tatoos, some of them you see around the
| world in the same manner. Some are complete bullshit. But well,
| as long as people have money for getting and then removing them,
| all is fine.
| CompoundEyes wrote:
| My grandma used to have a copy of "The Sneetches" by Dr. Suess I
| read as a kid. A guy rolls into town and convinces all the
| sneetches critters that they ought to have a star put on their
| stomach to be special with a machine he built. Then when everyone
| gets one they don't feel special so he offers a machine to remove
| them. Chaos ensues.
| silisili wrote:
| This is one of my favorite stories, because you realize later
| how many things in life this applies to. Once the 'others'
| start doing something, the originals don't do it anymore! You
| see it in everything from food menus, to devices, to clothes,
| etc.
| fmxsh wrote:
| Tattoos as fashion: The height of youthful confidence; when one's
| 20-year-old self presumes to know what one's 40-year-old self
| will desire.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| It's really easy actually
|
| You just pick something really cool when you're 20, and then
| you resist turning into a boring person who hates what you used
| to like when you're 40
| kbelder wrote:
| It's called "Peter Pan Syndrome".
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| Naw
|
| It's just having the maturity to realize that you don't
| have to stop having fun just because you're getting older
|
| It's also important to have the maturity to realize that
| there is a time and place for embracing your inner child
|
| I have a tattoo of a sword buried in molten rock on my
| bicep. It was kind of inspired by the bonfire from Dark
| Souls. I don't tend to go around showing it off at work
| events or whatever.
|
| I absolutely do not regret it even though it is admittedly
| kind of a childish tattoo. I think it's cool. I show it off
| to people that I think will also think it's cool
| zingababba wrote:
| I got my entire arm blacked out like 20 years ago, back before it
| became a subtrend. Back when I did it I think I had only ever
| seen it one other place and that was some guy featured in BME.
| Whenever people ask me about it I tell them the truth, which is
| when I did it I was obsessed with taking things to their logical
| extreme, and blackout to me at the time was the logical extreme
| of tattoo, which is covering your skin in ink. I've since had my
| other arm done with an extremely colourful trippy design. The
| contrast is immediate but the story for me is one of life stages,
| and not just any life stages but my life stages. I don't care
| what the current fashion is, they're staying.
| kristopolous wrote:
| Since tattoos themselves have greatly increased what's really
| going on here?
| imzadi wrote:
| I think social media has done what it does best, skewing people
| perspective. Look up almost any tattoo artist on social media and
| you'll see a portfolio of beautiful work. Artists never post
| their bad tattoos (Ariel DeJesus excluded). It makes it seem like
| everyone is giving and getting amazing tattoos. Then when someone
| gets a tattoo and it's just average, they are disappointed.
| 9283409232 wrote:
| When the president of El Salvador started throwing people in
| concentration camps based on tattoos, I said gangs will adapt and
| just stop getting such prominent tattoos. I wonder if that has
| something to do with this.
| armandososa wrote:
| I'm surprised nobody has mentioned how these days having a
| tattoo, no matter which, is a potential one-way ticket to a
| prison in El Salvador. That's a very good reason to having them
| removed.
| guywithahat wrote:
| That only applies to non-citizens, like Garcia, and I don't
| think his MS-13 tattoos were the reason for his removal, he was
| sent home because he was here illegally and had prior charges
| (such as beating his wife)
| armandososa wrote:
| Of course it has nothing to do with his tattoos.
| platevoltage wrote:
| No, it doesn't. When you are denying people due process, that
| means they can accuse you of being a non-citizen, even when
| you are.
|
| If everyone doesn't have the right to due process, no one
| does.
| guywithahat wrote:
| I've never gotten tattoos, and it's in part due to the fact
| nobody I respected growing up had them. People act like they're
| ubiquitous but tattoos are still a class signifier, and you can
| still miss out on jobs or other opportunities if an employer sees
| your tattoo(s).
| atoav wrote:
| If the pool of people having tattoos grows (and it does), so does
| the total amount of people removing them.
|
| The more interesting question is how the percentages changed --
| although that very likely just tells you something about the
| quality and availability of tattoo removal services.
| wewewedxfgdf wrote:
| Imagine deciding in your early 20's back in the 1990's to put on
| that awful floral shirt and those jeans torns and ripped with
| paisley patches. Your mullet hairstyle, your 10 earrings.
|
| Now that's your fashion decision _for the rest of your life_
| because you thought this is such a cool look, you 'll wear it
| until you die.
|
| That's tattoos.
| PeterStuer wrote:
| That is absolutely how I feel about it. And even if you don't,
| the world changes. Someone I know got his band logo tattooed, a
| big HP. Then a decade later 'Harry Potter' becomes the iconic
| HP with a similar style font ....
| RankingMember wrote:
| Hilarious. I'm imagining he gets the "Michael Bolton from
| Office Space" experience a lot if it's somewhere on his body
| that's easily visible. "So who's you're favorite character?"
| magicalhippo wrote:
| Having a well-made tattoo is one thing. But most of the kids with
| tattoos these days seem to just have a bunch of random small
| tattoos sprinkled all over with no discernible rhyme or reason,
| and that I just don't get.
|
| That said, I'm old enough that most of those could be my kids, so
| I realize I'm an old fart at this point.
| Balgair wrote:
| One good one I heard is that before you get a tattoo, go to the
| local water park. You'll have ample time waiting in line to
| look at what your hypothetical tattoo, or a close enough one,
| will look like on all sorts of bodies and skins.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Whatever happened to Inkbox (temporary tattoos)?
|
| Acquired by BIC in 2022 https://corporate.bic.com/en-us/news/bic-
| acquires-inkbox
| UltraSane wrote:
| Ed Sheeran is the poster child for bad tattoos. As rich as he is
| he got tattoos from some very bad artists.
| platevoltage wrote:
| I waited until my late 20's to get tattooed. One of the few good
| decisions I made as a young person.
| jmward01 wrote:
| If you like 'em get one. If you don't like it later, remove it.
| Sounds good to me. I always take ideas to the extreme to see if
| they still make sense. It seems like over time tattoos are
| becoming less permanent and it isn't inconceivable that they
| could become exceptionally transient meaning add/remove at will
| (or even become 'live' interactive displays). Does that change
| their meaning or value? Some people wear a belt buckle or jewelry
| for decades because of sentimental value even though they can
| easily change things. I suspect in a future where this is
| easy/normal we will see even more variety, expression and
| meaning.
| BizarroLand wrote:
| If there were microdot e-ink tattoos (whatever their equivalent
| would be in human machine interface systems, anyway) I would
| strongly consider getting one. You can do a lot with a 64x64
| matrix especially if you can change it with a usb powered
| overlay device or like a laser at a specific light frequency or
| something.
| jmward01 wrote:
| Output is cool, but I think the input possibilities are
| pretty high too.
| huhkerrf wrote:
| I've looked into getting my tattoos removed after reading about
| Pete Davidson, of all people.
|
| Then I looked into it, and it seems to be pretty hit or miss.
| Some people have great outcomes, some people end up with
| something that looks even worse than what they started with. It
| can take years for the removal process, and you won't know if
| you're going to end up with a good or bad result until the end.
|
| That doesn't even touch on the price.
|
| So, for me, I'm just going to cover mine up, and accept that I've
| only got a few more decades with them anyway.
| lifestyleguru wrote:
| When I woke up from study-job-relationship marathon lasting
| 2005-2019 and looked around I realised everyone have tattoos
| including underage and doctors, including face tattoos. Luckily
| this is passing.
| h2zizzle wrote:
| Multiple members of my family have tattoos or brands. I've just
| never felt the need to permanently mark my body like that, so I
| feel like I'm considered somewhat boring or vanilla for not
| getting one myself. Of course, they don't know that I'll be first
| in line should novel in-vitro genetic manipulation technology
| become available. We'll start with growing a tail and work from
| there. Turns out, when it comes to body mods, I'm less, "Ew,"
| more, "Go big or go home."
| elmolino89 wrote:
| I am not sure I want to have the same painting or a poster on the
| wall not even for the rest of my life but for 5-10 years. Apart
| from maybe a tattoo with one's blood group frankly I am puzzled
| by the idea of getting even the most artsy-fartsy tattoo anywhere
| on my body.
| pedalpete wrote:
| I live above a tattoo shop with a big window that people get
| tattoo'd in so everyone on the street walking by can see. I've
| been calling it the window of future regrets.
|
| The owner has a removal studio not far away.
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