When my two buddies and I were doing a film podcast, I told them that when we get to 50 episodes I’ll get a tattoo of our pod. Well about near ep 70 I was like, well shucks, guess I should keep at my word.
Now I have a lovely film themed podcast tattoo on my right upper leg.
It’s fucking cool - reminds me of my hanging with my buds - and of the 200 or so hours of content I made (that maybe seven people - including us - ever listened to).
Most tattoos I shrug at. Some are really cool. Most are meaningless - but most often then not the meaningless ones are nicer, cooler, doper, neater than the meaningful ones.
Most people look like shit anyway - from their features to their clothes … I’m not sure how much effort into caring (or hating, from the thread vibes) I’m supposed to give.
I think this is actually the healthiest way to relate to tattoos.
What you’re describing isn’t “meaning” in the grand, symbolic sense — it’s more like indexical memory. A marker that points back to a specific time, a group of people, a version of yourself that existed for a while. That’s way more durable than most of the over-explained symbolism people try to pack into ink.
The thing about “meaningless” tattoos often being better is spot on too. When someone isn’t trying to communicate a thesis, they end up making aesthetic decisions instead — composition, scale, typography. I noticed this when a friend was figuring out lettering for a tattoo tied to a dumb inside joke; the only thing we really cared about was whether the font felt right. We ended up messing around with tools like this one just to see how the same words changed vibe depending on typography
Not because it was important, but because it was fun — and honestly that’s probably why it’ll age better.
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I think this is actually the healthiest way to relate to tattoos.
What you’re describing isn’t “meaning” in the grand, symbolic sense — it’s more like indexical memory. A marker that points back to a specific time, a group of people, a version of yourself that existed for a while. That’s way more durable than most of the over-explained symbolism people try to pack into ink.
The thing about “meaningless” tattoos often being better is spot on too. When someone isn’t trying to communicate a thesis, they end up making aesthetic decisions instead — composition, scale, typography. I noticed this when a friend was figuring out lettering for a tattoo tied to a dumb inside joke; the only thing we really cared about was whether the font felt right. We ended up messing around with tools like this one just to see how the same words changed vibe depending on typography
Not because it was important, but because it was fun — and honestly that’s probably why it’ll age better.
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