Part II. Tattooing as it is now.

With the explosion of tattooing, there are trends growing in every direction. I see a paradox of trends occurring. There is, on one hand, a 'throwaway fashion' element of people using fashionable (or even 'anti-fashion' ) tattoos to attempt to transform themselves into something that (maybe) they are not, in order to convey certain social and cultural messages. Which in this digital world, I am not sure if these messages are compatible with the furiously fleeting pace of social fashion trends.... However, I also believe there is a wonderful counterweight to this. With the increased societal visibility and acceptance of tattoos, I think more people feel empowered to literally take their body into their own hands. I meet a lot of people now who, in years before would have felt that having tattoos was something unattainable for them- 'something that other people did'. So now, these are the people doing it for deeper reasons; it is often a private or even secretive act that is about their relationship between the inside- their body, their mind, their vessel- and the outside- everything going on in the world around them. Part II Tattooing as it is now. With the explosion of tattooing, there are trends growing in every direction. I see a paradox of trends occurring. There is, on one hand, a 'throwaway fashion' element of people using fashionable (or even 'anti-fashion' ) tattoos to attempt to transform themselves into something that (maybe) they are not, in order to convey certain social and cultural messages. Which in this digital world, I am not sure if these messages are compatible with the furiously fleeting pace of social fashion trends.... However, I also believe there is a wonderful counterweight to this. With the increased societal visibility and acceptance of tattoos, I think more people feel empowered to literally take their body into their own hands. I meet a lot of people now who, in years before would have felt that having tattoos was something unattainable for them- 'something that other people did'. So now, these are the people doing it for deeper reasons; it is often a private or even secretive act that is about their relationship between the inside- their body, their mind, their vessel- and the outside- everything going on in the world around them.