In Case You Missed it, the Tattoo Fad is Over

[spidermike007]

I sure hope so, it could not have come too soon, so many of the tattoos that I'm seeing really feel like a paint by numbers kind of deal, with people utterly desperate to fit in and belong to some sort of clique. 

 

I do occasionally see some young sexy women that have some original and distinctive tattoos, and they can be quite beautiful. Otherwise it's just overdone and overplayed. 

[Hummin]

1 minute ago, spidermike007 said:

I sure hope so, it could not have come too soon, so many of the tattoos that I'm seeing really feel like a paint by numbers kind of deal, with people utterly desperate to fit in and belong to some sort of clique. 

 

I do occasionally see some young sexy women that have some original and distinctive tattoos, and they can be quite beautiful. Otherwise it's just overdone and overplayed. 

Just sad to see Milus Cyrus tattoos, one of the most beautiful girls I have seen, managed to make such horrible tattoos on her self. And maybe even more sad, is all those wannabes who follow the trends set by their heroes. 

 

Most tattooed people, thought it was a good idea because they see someone they admired doing it. Wannabes 

 

 

 

 

[Oliver Holzerfilled]

OP is late to the party.  This shift started almost a decade ago.

 

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/tattoos-arent-cool-anymore

[GammaGlobulin]

5 hours ago, Walker88 said:

silliest fad of the last two decades

 

Silly, yes.

 

Yet, still very enduring.

 

[Keep Right]

Nothing says tramp more than a tat on a woman, no matter beauty, education or status. Its like putting a "sold" sign on a woman or "expired" sign. Once she gets the tramp stamp, everything changes for the worst.

[Smokey and the Bandit]

7 hours ago, Woke to Sounds said:

... And in related news big beards are DONE.

 

Clean shaven is the new beard.

How about bald heads???🙄 For men, not women!

[madone]

It is threads like this that truly expose AN as god's waiting room.

A forum full of geriatrics discussing the world as if their opinions were in any way relevant to those that come after them.

 

at least for a change you arent on about COVID or Trump

[Yellowtail]

Wow, how things have escalated. Long hair, no bra, earrings, small tats, crazy hair color, piercings, no hair, big multiple tats. Now kids have cut off their penis to get any attention.

[Yellowtail]

Just now, madone said:

It is threads like this that truly expose AN as god's waiting room.

A forum full of geriatrics discussing the world as if their opinions were in any way relevant to those that come after them.

 

at least for a change you arent on about COVID or Trump

You're all tatted-up, yes? 

[madone]

1 minute ago, Yellowtail said:

You're all tatted-up, yes? 

 

zero ink here boss. though my last 2 partners had tats and it would be easier to count which of my friends, like me don't have ink. 

 

I don't wear a beard, jewelry, or even hats unless it's bloody cold -- just not my thing.

 

on others though? why not?

  

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, madone said:

 

zero ink here boss. though my last 2 partners had tats and it would be easier to count which of my friends, like me don't have ink. 

 

I don't wear a beard, jewelry, or even hats unless it's bloody cold -- just not my thing.

 

on others though? why not?

  

Why not indeed. Do you still have your penis? 

[bannork]

Most modern tattoos are as ugly as hell but you're unlikely to get a tattoo wearer to agree.

Who's going to own up to deliberately disfiguring him/herself?

 

 

[FriscoKid]

OP Summary:

 

The post argues that the tattoo fad of the last two decades is finally dying out, with comedian Pete Davidson leading the way by removing his own tattoos. The author dismisses tattoos as a passing trend that made people think they were unique while actually following the crowd. Historically, tattoos were seen as marks of outsiders—sailors, criminals, or specific cultural groups—but became mainstream as celebrities, athletes, and regular people embraced them. The author mocks the idea that tattoos are art or hold personal meaning, comparing them to cheap decorations rather than museum-worthy masterpieces.

 

As trends peak before fading, tattoos became increasingly ridiculous, with reality TV competitions and middle-aged expats in Thailand getting inked in misguided attempts to seem youthful or attractive. Davidson’s decision to remove his tattoos is framed as the beginning of a reversal, where tattoo removal might become the new trend among upscale youth, leaving only those who can’t afford it—like aging expats—stuck with their ink. The author sarcastically dubs Davidson a “First Remover,” signaling the supposed downfall of the tattoo craze.

[Yellowtail]

What I think is truly hilarious, is old guys with new tats. 

[Hummin]

58 minutes ago, madone said:

It is threads like this that truly expose AN as god's waiting room.

A forum full of geriatrics discussing the world as if their opinions were in any way relevant to those that come after them.

 

at least for a change you arent on about COVID or Trump

Do magas and conspiracy theoreticals have Tattoos? Nooooo

 

Covid vaccines is dangerous, and the ink they use, could be anything in it. Just think about it, you volunteer to take 10k to hundreds of thousands of punctures in your skin with ink from various sources.

 

Incredible 🤗🤔😂

[save the frogs]

1 hour ago, Hummin said:

Covid vaccines is dangerous, and the ink they use, could be anything in it. Just think about it, you volunteer to take 10k to hundreds of thousands of punctures in your skin with ink from various sources.

OP mentions Lupus. Never heard that before, but AI confirms this.

So there is some health risk involved, although maybe it's not very high. 

 

 

 

[save the frogs]

You can put patches on your jean jacket if you want to make a statement with art. 

 

 

 

[Hummin]

15 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

OP mentions Lupus. Never heard that before, but AI confirms this.

So there is some health risk involved, although maybe it's not very high. 

 

 

 

This was for the conspiracy breed, who believes anything and everything is mixed and places in the vaccines. 

 

Tracing devices etc etc

 

Would had been much easier to put in anything else like 

 

Ink for tattoos, piercings, Silicon implants, botox, lip fillers you name it. Lipsticks, bodylotion, shampoo, shaving cream, foot cream. Food

 

Just anything else than vaccines wouldn't create any response at all. 

 

Wake up

[save the frogs]

4 minutes ago, Hummin said:

Tracing devices etc etc

No need to implant tracking devices through vaccines or tattoos or shampoos.

 

MIT is building robotic insects that can track you.

 

 

[Hummin]

⁴

20 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

You can put patches on your jean jacket if you want to make a statement with art. 

 

 

 

Agree and say it by t-shirts

 

 

[Keeps]

7 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

What I think is truly hilarious, is old guys with new tats. 

And those that think they have some profound statement in Chinese symbols inked on their arm when it actually says "Beef with Green Peppers in Black Bean sauce"

[digger70]

19 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

TLDR.

Tats are for criminals, losers and tramps (for the most part). A single hidden or unobtrusive tattoo can have meaning for the wearer. Never, in my opinion, will tattoos enhance the appearance of the wearer. They can be both a curiosity and a turn off.

 

Yes It Can be , It's All a matter of Opinion . 🙏

[GinBoy2]

I always think of tattoo's this way.

 

I wore clothes in the 1970's which I thought made me look pretty damn sexy.

 

Of course wearing those same clothes today would make me look like a total idiot.

 

But clothes can be consigned to the garbage can, and a new wardrobe can be purchased to fit the the time and your age.

 

Not quite so easy with tattoo's which tend to live with you forever

[Mason45]

When I first hit Pattaya in 1995 any female with a tattoo was a total slut. Being a newby I had a 30 day rooting fest. Even then I never seen any females with tattoos.

[Snackbar]

Brainless

 

 

[newbee2022]

22 hours ago, Walker88 said:

It’s all over but the burning. Say goodbye to the silliest fad of the last two decades: tattoos.

 

Yes, tattoos have existed for thousands of years. In civilized society the bearers tended to be losers or sailors, which I guess is kind of redundant. Yes, certain ethnic minorities or faiths got tatted to reflect their culture or belief system, but tatts were still fringe in the wider world.

 

Around 20 years ago tatts became a fad. Suddenly they appeared everywhere, as those who ‘wanted to be different’ began doing what everyone else was doing. The author Charles Mackay might have called it “Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”. Celebrities got tatted. Athletes got tatted. Beta Males got tatted. Regular Joes and Janes (or maybe Noahs and Chloes) got tatted. Society began to get so “noisy” that one couldn’t tell a Hell’s Angel from a librarian.

 

Let’s be honest. NOBODY looks better with a tattoo. Now some folks swear their tatts have ‘special personal meaning’, but it’s difficult to guess what that might be when a geeky affluent kid growing up in Greenwich, CT and attending Choate or Phillips-Exeter sports a Maori Warrior tatt. In the old days, those of us who had events or experiences with ‘special meaning’ took a different approach, rather than getting stuck with a needle and injected with ink that can cause such autoimmune reactions as Lupus: we committed things to memory. I guess we assumed that if the memory ever failed, no tattoo would be able to remind us, as we’d forget what ‘special meaning’ that tatt commemorated.

 

Some aficianados also like to argue it’s “art”. Well, if tatts are art, then the Louve should have “Tigers Painted on Black Velvet” and “Dogs Playing Poker”, as they are equivalent in terms of importance and uniqueness. To the best of my knowledge, the Louve does not carry such works, nor does the Met or Hermitage or The Prado. (Okay, some museums do carry stuff by Damien Hirst, so I guess even curators make mistakes.)

 

In late stage fads, things get extra silly. TV shows sprang up that combined two then-current trends, such as competitions where losers are “voted off” the show, and with the competition being the application of tattoos. A second evidence of the tattoo apocalypse being upon us was when aging and beer-bellied expats in Thailand began getting tatted, assuming the ink might make them the babe magnet they found themselves not to be when they moved to the Kingdom to “live the dream”. They would have been better off spending the dosh on a gym membership, unless they could afford the historical and quintessential symbol of Mid Life Crisis: the Porsche. Nothing screams “I blew my life” louder than a guy with an enormous gut sporting a barbed wire tatt around flabby biceps or a flame tatt on wrinkled forearms. And what’s with the old man leg tatts? Nobody is going to confuse a pensioner with a Vory v Zakone.

 

Enter a celebrity named Pete Davidson, apparently a graduate of the US TV show Saturday Night Live, and passed-around boyfriend to other celebrities like Kim Kardashian. He was everyone’s boyfriend just as Taylor Swift was everyone’s girlfriend and Olivia Culpo was every NFL Players’ squeeze. (sidenote: Swift got Travis Kelce, a definite first ballot Hall of Famer, while Culpo finally settled for the gifted, but oft-injured Christian McCaffrey.)

 

This Davidson fellow was knee deep in the tatt fad and was walking cacophony in the helter skelter way he had chosen to get himself stuck. (Article with pics attached).

 

Recently he came to his senses. He began a process of burning off his youthful indiscretions and trying to make his skin look peaceful again. One pic in the attached article allegedly shows what his tabula rosa looks like now, though in the age of both Photoshop and AI, one has to retain a little skepticism.

 

Because Mr Davidson has a platform, his actions are likely to have consequences, perhaps setting a new trend toward unadorned and non-defaced skin. If so, upscale youth will adopt it, as I’m sure Mom and Dad will be happy to pay. At some later date, bargirls who pull in 200-300K baht a month might visit the ever-expanding number of tatt-removal clinics now seen in Bangkok. I fear a time when the only remaining tatted will be non-babe magnet expats on a pension, as they will be unable to afford the laser removal fee. Insult to injury.

 

In tech, those early to adopt the newest trend are called “First Movers”. As the tatt fad comes to an end---and not before time---Pete Davidson will likely be called a “First Remover”.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/pete-davidson-revealed-body-looks-235614517.html

 

One of the best threads I've ever read on AN.👍

Thank you for your research and opinion.🤗

( when I posted something similar about tattoos a year ago I received a lot of negative reactions. Maybe times are changing fast)

❤️

[Walker88]

Of course folks are free to adorn themselves with any and all the ink they want. Up to them. I also have a way I wish to make my body look, and undoubtedly many would take exception to it. I'm a 'natty' gym rat, and I enjoy having a six pack and definition, even though it's hidden from view under my garments. I guess getting tatted is less work and perhaps less painful than hours in the gym. Tatts are others' choices, fitness is mine.

 

Folks are free to have an opinion about tatts or fitness. In fact, it is not possible to NOT have an opinion...whether about tatts or pink hair or Chang wifebeaters or the architecture of a new building. Even being totally indifferent is an opinion of sorts. Many state their opinion that they like tatts, while others---like me, as noted in my original post---think nobody looks better with a tatt and most bearing them look downright silly. I use the term "noisy", in the way I might use it to describe, say, Victorian interior design vs traditional Japanese interior design.

 

That I think tatts look like crap means nothing to those who find them fetching. Those who might argue I should keep my opinion to myself fail to realize how ironic that is on a Forum, the purpose of which is to state opinions......about politics or circumcision or different beers or an expanded list of pronouns or whether it's wise to date a bargirl or if one should or shouldn't get vaxxed. Perhaps the site should provide a safe space and coloring books to those gentle snowflakes offended by an opinion to which they take exception.

 

When something was a fringe practice for thousands of years, and then suddenly became mainstream, that screams FAD. When TV shows are made about it, with competitions leading to "voting off", similar to cooking shows or drag queen performances or seeking a job with a former Game Show host turned President, it screams FAD. When a celebrity known for his heavy use of ink decides to go through the pain of burning it all off, that suggests endgame. When tatt removal parlors begin to emerge in different parts of Bangkok, that, too, suggests endgame. When I get SPAM that offers me a chance to get rid of the tatts I don't have, that also suggests endgame. The tide seems to be changing. Cocktail party chat or beer bar chat might soon shift from showing off one's latest ink to regaling others with how much it hurt to burn the stuff off.  Watch. I think it's coming. My Pete Davidson example is the canary in the coal mine. The truly trendy will try to be one of the First Removers.

 

That is my opinion, too. I could well be wrong and might end up being the last holdout on the planet with unadorned skin, like a character in the movie "The Body Snatchers", yet to be assimilated by invading aliens. Won't I then be the freak!

 

There is an oft tossed-around term to describe people who latch on to current trends and adopt something they never considered back before the fad: sheeple. Everybody knew tatts existed 20, 30, 50 years ago, but few chose to get them. Suddenly half the people decided they had to be a part of something they never previously considered. That is a fad, and the adopters could be reasonably called "sheeple". I don't like that term, and much prefer "lemmings", especially since just as lemmings suffer the consequences of their 'follow the crowd' behavior, studies showing ink can cause some to develop autoimmune diseases and those with colored ink can develop cancer, says ink might have a negative cost.

 

Those who joined the crowd, enjoy! Just be honest about your lack of individuality and your need to 'fit in'. We all choose the way we either wish to stand out or fit in. Even if I absolutely loved mullets or powdered wigs, I wouldn't wear either, so I admit to lacking total individuality. I saw tatts as a young kid, as my grand dad had an anchor on his arm he got on a port call during the war. Had I found such things appealing, I could have added one, too, but didn't. Tatts weren't yet a fad. Few others added them at that time either. Then the fad hit, and in my view, society is a lot less aesthetically pleasing because of it. Still, those who did or want to join the crowd are welcome to knock themselves silly. As they say in Thailand, up to you.

 

Now back to "other opinions" on this vehicle whose purpose is to state opinions.

[newbee2022]

1 hour ago, Walker88 said:

Of course folks are free to adorn themselves with any and all the ink they want. Up to them. I also have a way I wish to make my body look, and undoubtedly many would take exception to it. I'm a 'natty' gym rat, and I enjoy having a six pack and definition, even though it's hidden from view under my garments. I guess getting tatted is less work and perhaps less painful than hours in the gym. Tatts are others' choices, fitness is mine.

 

Folks are free to have an opinion about tatts or fitness. In fact, it is not possible to NOT have an opinion...whether about tatts or pink hair or Chang wifebeaters or the architecture of a new building. Even being totally indifferent is an opinion of sorts. Many state their opinion that they like tatts, while others---like me, as noted in my original post---think nobody looks better with a tatt and most bearing them look downright silly. I use the term "noisy", in the way I might use it to describe, say, Victorian interior design vs traditional Japanese interior design.

 

That I think tatts look like crap means nothing to those who find them fetching. Those who might argue I should keep my opinion to myself fail to realize how ironic that is on a Forum, the purpose of which is to state opinions......about politics or circumcision or different beers or an expanded list of pronouns or whether it's wise to date a bargirl or if one should or shouldn't get vaxxed. Perhaps the site should provide a safe space and coloring books to those gentle snowflakes offended by an opinion to which they take exception.

 

When something was a fringe practice for thousands of years, and then suddenly became mainstream, that screams FAD. When TV shows are made about it, with competitions leading to "voting off", similar to cooking shows or drag queen performances or seeking a job with a former Game Show host turned President, it screams FAD. When a celebrity known for his heavy use of ink decides to go through the pain of burning it all off, that suggests endgame. When tatt removal parlors begin to emerge in different parts of Bangkok, that, too, suggests endgame. When I get SPAM that offers me a chance to get rid of the tatts I don't have, that also suggests endgame. The tide seems to be changing. Cocktail party chat or beer bar chat might soon shift from showing off one's latest ink to regaling others with how much it hurt to burn the stuff off.  Watch. I think it's coming. My Pete Davidson example is the canary in the coal mine. The truly trendy will try to be one of the First Removers.

 

That is my opinion, too. I could well be wrong and might end up being the last holdout on the planet with unadorned skin, like a character in the movie "The Body Snatchers", yet to be assimilated by invading aliens. Won't I then be the freak!

 

There is an oft tossed-around term to describe people who latch on to current trends and adopt something they never considered back before the fad: sheeple. Everybody knew tatts existed 20, 30, 50 years ago, but few chose to get them. Suddenly half the people decided they had to be a part of something they never previously considered. That is a fad, and the adopters could be reasonably called "sheeple". I don't like that term, and much prefer "lemmings", especially since just as lemmings suffer the consequences of their 'follow the crowd' behavior, studies showing ink can cause some to develop autoimmune diseases and those with colored ink can develop cancer, says ink might have a negative cost.

 

Those who joined the crowd, enjoy! Just be honest about your lack of individuality and your need to 'fit in'. We all choose the way we either wish to stand out or fit in. Even if I absolutely loved mullets or powdered wigs, I wouldn't wear either, so I admit to lacking total individuality. I saw tatts as a young kid, as my grand dad had an anchor on his arm he got on a port call during the war. Had I found such things appealing, I could have added one, too, but didn't. Tatts weren't yet a fad. Few others added them at that time either. Then the fad hit, and in my view, society is a lot less aesthetically pleasing because of it. Still, those who did or want to join the crowd are welcome to knock themselves silly. As they say in Thailand, up to you.

 

Now back to "other opinions" on this vehicle whose purpose is to state opinions.

Can I have more "insights" from you? I like your style bringing things up to the point, showing people the mirror to realize the reality. Thank you so much. ❤️Go on writing and accept negative emojis🤗

[GinBoy2]

2 hours ago, Mason45 said:

When I first hit Pattaya in 1995 any female with a tattoo was a total slut. Being a newby I had a 30 day rooting fest. Even then I never seen any females with tattoos.

When I was a kid tats were the realm of drunken sailors and women of ill repute.

 

I think it was the early 2000's when the whole tattoo thing exploded. Even the smallest town seems to be able to support a couple of tat shops

 

And thinking of drunken sailors one of my best friends was one of them.

 

Shore leave in the Philippines, girlfriend, now wife for 40 years, Patricia, Patty. Of course the tattoo artist inked it as 'I love Pat'

 

He got a lot of grief for that lol

[Woke to Sounds]

17 hours ago, Smokey and the Bandit said:

How about bald heads???🙄 For men, not women!

Bald scalps a la Captain Picard a helluva lot better than the Mr Burns look buddy!

 

Cheers