Mikayla Leskey | Arts & Entertainment Editor
Tattooing is an art form that has been disregarded for decades, even though the form itself has been around for centuries. Dating back to 3370-3100 BCE, tattoos were used for mapping systems and things they just enjoyed, allowing the modern world an inside look of how humans lived and their stories from so long ago.
Nowadays, tattoos are pretty controversial, especially in religious spaces. Those who abide by Christianity usually find tattoos to be against their religion, believing it to be a disgrace against God as it disfigures the body that God made. Seeing as Christianity is one of the biggest religions out there, this opinion on tattoos extended past centuries of dissing tattoos.
Up until the 1970s and 80s, tattoos were most commonly found in biker groups, soldiers, sailors, and other non-conformists. But with the Rock and Roll scene becoming more and more popular, people began to crave individuality, especially when artists like James Dean and Marlo Brando began openly showing off their tattoos.
Tattoos jumped in popularity, and people from every age group, ethnicity, and class began getting tattoos. Eventually led to a reality TV show, “Ink Master”. Whilst controversial in its own right, the show promoted tattoos and gave an inside glimpse into the art form and why tattoo artists fell in love with the process. It more or less humanized tattoos even more, letting people understand why others got them.
A lot of people believe tattoos should only be for something significant, that it’s so important you need to get it tattooed on your body. That it must have some deep, complex meaning. However, with the rise of Millennials and Generation Z, they more or less changed that thought process. Most people among the age group, whilst probably getting something meaningful, also have a tattoo just because they want it.
Personally, I have one just because I thought the design was cool. My other three have some meaning but are not as complex as people might think. The same goes for a lot of my friends, some of them have deep, meaningful tattoos right next to ones they wanted just because.
Don’t get me wrong, tattoos are permanent. You should think about them and make sure you really want that design before getting it or dropping hundreds of dollars on it, but you don’t need to have some complex meaning to get a tattoo. This is also probably self-explanatory, but they’re painful. You need to make sure you can actually sit through one and maybe not get a full sleeve or rib piece before you know what the pain is actually like.
Tattooing is an art form that is often overlooked for one reason or another, but they’re also some of the most permanent art you can get. Whether you like tattoos or not, you should at least respect the artists doing it like you would a painter or a sculptor. Their work is no less important, sometimes even more important depending on the person.
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