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Why am I (and others of an older generation) so horribly prejudiced against perfectly normal people covered head-to-toe in tattoos and piercings? Why do we cling to our outmoded beliefs that tattooing of that extent reveals low-life trashiness?
Well, cases like this, for one. Add in drugs (but of course drugs were involved) and it's a mess. Why, how can I look at the photos of this productive member of society and think to myself "that's a crazy dangerous person?"
Because he is a crazy dangerous person.
Also, while I'm at it, let me give out about the members of my own sex who hook up with crazy dangerous guys and still persuade themselves that this is the human equivalent of a velvet hippo cuddlebug pitbull who won't ever bite their own face off:
So let me get this straight: he's covered literally to his head in tattoos, he sells drugs, he's a drunk and a junkie, he's violent with the criminal conviction to back that up, and he just straight-up violently murdered a guy with a samurai sword over a disputed drug debt. But he's such a loving partner and father!
I honestly don't know why some women are so stupid. Yeah, loving and devoted up to the minute he swings at you with a sword, you silly girl.
Back to my main point: people covered in tattoos and/or piercings are the human equivalent of aposematism, change my mind.
In some cases and otherwise to some degree, yeah. Tattoos signal any of the following:
Nobody will ever convince me that the one-billionth "tribal" tattoo or chinese lettering down the spine of a non-chinese-speaker is meaningful or artistically valuable.
as @Iconochasm said. Hits the nail on the head.
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.
Only one tattoo? How big? How tasteless?
It's not all tattoos, it's the "covered head to toe in badly drawn, stereotypical crap" tattoos.
And now I realise I've wandered into the minefield of deporting immigrants based on tattoos: no, that's not a gang symbol or a drug symbol, he just, er, likes nature which is why he has plant leaves tattooed on his hand! 😁
The tattoo that was in the news was plausibly a drug symbol, but it was specifically being identified as a gang symbol based on arguments that were a real stretch.
If we are talking about the “Maryland Dad” then yeah the guy just coincidentally hung out with MS-13 gangbangers and the tat just looked like an MS-13 tat by happenstance.
But the thing is, it didn't look like an MS-13 tattoo. It was made of symbols and in a fit of pareidolia people made the symbols match MS-13.
If it actually was a MS-13 tattoo I'd expect we'd have heard of other gang members using it.
Yeah that's probably the best description I've heard of the tattoo fiasco. Trump's take on it was outright embarrassing.
I still think the guy's probably up to no good, though.
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