Now it's more of a statement to not have a tattoo

and I worry about my daughter...at least, hers are discreet.

They don't call ' it "tramp stamp" because it's trendy

or it will make her BECOME a tramp?

And what is your definition of tramp?

But for the life of me I'll never understand the 'cleavage' tattoos...Now I have to work five times as hard not to stare like an idiot

most people had for one reason or another.

Humans, particularly humans with skin easily colored all over the world have pretty much always used tattoos.

Not saying the fairly recent resurgence wasn't spurned at least in part by fads, I just think there is not surprised a fad isn't fading and is in fact seeming to continue to gain acceptance in mainstream culture.

I think that is a good thing, as the sooner it looses the forbidden fruit temptation parents can have more effective conversations with their children if and when they start thinking about getting tattoos.

monkey do" seems to be the rule that applies here. The first regular use of tattoos outside neolithic tribal practice was to mark property, slaves. I wonder how many know this?

... is old movie news reel film of the tattooed identification numbers the Nazi's wrote on their death camp victims.

A tattoo might mark you as belonging to one tribe or class, it might mark you as "adult", it might mark you as "convict."

It might be decorative: In an era of lots of light brown clothing perhaps you want something to make you stand out, since there's nothing else distinctive about you.

That's what I often tell my kids when they're talking tattoo. "I want to stand out." "Yeah, you're right. That would make you special when, really, there's nothing at all unique or special about you at all--your tastes, what you do, how you think, your goals, your abilities and talents. So you get that tattoo because it'll make you a person when you utterly fail to have anything else going for you." Can't say that to everybody. Too many would agree. Then again, "too many" would be "more than zero", and the number's far more than zero.

But most of them have a really, really strong negative reaction. I respond, "So you're saying you already stand out?" They say "of course." "Then why do say you need a tattoo to stand out. You already stand out."

It confuses them. Then I tell them the real reason they want a tattoo is to blend in. "You don't want one to stand out. You want one to be part of a group. It's just more group conformity--your choice of tattoo within the group matters a bit, but it's really the presence of the tattoo signalling that you're one of them that you need." Some miss the point. Some get it.

Modern tattoos aren't decorative. In some cases they're to mark the kid as belonging to a tribe. In some cases it's pathological, they don't like who they are and want to change it.

A massage therapist had one on the inside of her upper arm. It said "Allergic to penicillin".

As far as decoration, I don't get it.

Burn victims, people who have lost their eyebrows, the color to their lips, etc.

That seemed to change as younger Gen-Xers entered adulthood in the 90s.

I was in HS in the mid 90s and nobody I knew had a tattoo...Now I'm working on a college campus and more than half of the incoming freshmen I'm working with are inked...Some pretty heavily...

refusing to get tattoos like sensible people and thus putting their careers in jeopardy by refusing to fit in with mainstream ideals.