The sunset on tattoos
I live in a coastal community where many homes are large and expensive, and in areas that are public housing. Some have manicured lawns and sculptured shrubs. The others have long grass and wild bushes. Some have fountains the others have derelict cars.
Down the street and in the shops you see other distinctions too. On sunny days it is easy to see who has tatts and who doesn’t. It not a matter of social class or money. Tattoos are found in all sorts of houses, and many cost a huge amount of money. It is a matter that some people feel they need tattoos and others don’t.
Many people associate tattoos with an aberrant personality. Some tattoo designs carry a meaning and tell you something about the person and his or her background. People who have decided on tattoos want to proudly declare who they are. Most ordinary people have a strong sense of identity they do not hide. The tattooed person also wants to let others know who they are and what they believe in.
People have tattooed their bodies for centuries and across many cultures. In 1991, a 5,300-year-old man was discovered in the Alps preserved in the ice in a crevice into which he seems to have slipped. He had more than 50 tattoos on various parts of his body, and he is the oldest human ever found to have tattoos.
In Egyptian and Roman tradition slaves were tattooed to identify them if they escaped. Some Chinese practised tattooing to identify members of triads. Some Pacific Island cultures used Tattoos to identify class, tribe and nationality. In concentration camps on the 20th Century, numbers became an obsession of the Nazis.
Having or not having tattoos should not cause for value judgements: a good person/ bad person; a mature/immature person. But all habits have a reason. What is the reason for getting painful and expensive tattoos?
I first came upon tattooing as a regular feature among prisoners when I was a prison chaplain. The main reasons mentioned were excess time, boredom, signs of toughness, identification with fellow prisoners. They were all the reasons mentioned in conversation. Incidentally, asking about the meaning of a tattoo was one of the best ways to open a serious conversation.
As a parole officer, I noticed a disproportionate number of young people going into prison already had tattoos. For them it was a badge of honour, a sign of identification with a group of social rejects and often of a person who was at that time going through a phase of confused self-understanding.
One psychologist asking a wide swath of people who have tattoos why someone would get something permanently imprinted on their skin concluded four basic reasons:
• Tattoos represent a loved one, living or passed away
• Religious reasons including crosses and the face of Jesus or Mary
• Military tattoos representing patriotism
• A dumb mistake just “because” a friend did it
Tattoos grew into prominence again after the year 2000 with a new millennium. The old World War II servicemen were dying off with their faded pin-up girls and anchors and aircraft propellers. Now a new generation was inking in Chinese and Japanese characters and symbols understandable only to those initiated like them. Many were delicate confined to an ankle, a neck, a breast. Others fully covered legs, arms, chest and back. They were inter-generational, often on 50 year old mothers and 15 year old daughters. Football players identified themselves and their teams. Even cricketers have arms of tattoos under white shirts.
Some of the old reasons still apply: too much money, to much free time, boredom, personal expression, youthful impulsiveness, drunken mistake, or something they did on an overseas holiday. Good tattoos aren’t cheap and cheap tattoos aren’t good.
But maybe the fad is ending. Maybe all who want to have tattoos already have them. But I have noticed in a number of Tattoo parlours, fewer people waiting. And I have noticed a number of tattoo shops closed, either because they are not profitable or else the police crack down on business activities of bikies who were highly represented among owners has ended the business. I have kept a keen eye on backs and necks, arms and legs while walking in the shopping malls and I have noticed fewer young people with tattoos. Of course some will still have them for all the above mentioned reasons, but as a fashion statement they may have passed their used by date. I know within the juvenile detention centres, LOVE and HATE will still appear on knuckles. But maybe more people will think they have grown beyond the stage of a butterfly on the breast, an eagle on the back, and Thai religious symbols on their arms. The old saying is still true: think before you ink! The tattoo will last as long as you do, even though fashions and reasons don’t.
REV THE HON.DR GORDON MOYES, A.C. M.L.C.