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Tattoos and Society Essay

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A persons’ image is vital when meeting someone for the first time. Our peers, employers, family, superiors, even strangers that you walk past can automatically judge someone, and imagine how they present themselves to the world. Tattoos have been predominantly linked with a rebellious attitude and pictured on out of control stereotypes such as rock starts, bikers, sailors, and disobedient teenagers who want nothing more than to hack off their parents. With a new coming of age generation and a step into a more lenient and liberal society these types of patrons still participate in body art but so do doctors, lawyers, or just the run of the mill house mom. Tattoos signify religious beliefs, cultural influence, or each individual’s sole …show more content…

Tattoo artist were mainly middle-aged men, who worked at the hole in the wall tattoo parlors. Body art also became known to be seen at circuses, and “freak shows” sometimes being next to people with disabilities or natural born wonders (DeMallo). Until the golden age of tattooing, which took place in the twentieth century, when parlors were actually next to things like barber shops, and retail stores. Margo DeMallo describe body art at the end of the sixties as “fragmented into different forms that corresponded to different social groups: servicemen, gang members, convicts, bikers, and working class men and woman” (DeMallo). Not only have attitudes towards tattoos changed from their historic start but also the reasons for getting them. As time progressed so did the art of the tattoo, it has largely always been a favorite of individuals serving in the armed forces but outcast archetypes began to use tattoos as an outlet for artistic expression and shock value. Biker gangs all along the West Coast used tattoos to signify which gang they belonged to. Rock stars began to paint themselves with tattoos to illustrate their outlaw ways. Rock n’ Roll was the devils music to those unfamiliar ears listening to it in the mid 20th century and so anything deemed “cool” by them were from then on out banned by most middle to upper class citizens. It was not the act itself of painting your body it was what it represented. Teenagers acting out

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