Can someone please explain the fashion for tattoos?

[speakout]

I don't get it.
I am an older mum, with two young adult kids. They both have tattoos.
Doesn't float my boat, and they know I am not keen, but they also know I support their choices- their bodies, not my place- so noconflict there at all.
Truthfully I don't understand the appeal, the motivation.

Can anyone explain why tats are appealing?

Why should they have to? Just get on with your life without them.

Same as anything. People like different things.
My other half likes bungee jumping. I don’t. Don’t see the appeal.

I'm nearly 40 and have loads. I simply like how they look. Some have a deep, personal meaning and I really like the process of having them done.

That simple.

I don't understand why some women get their hair bleached every 6 weeks, get their legs waxed or spend £40 on acrylic nails but I say crack on if it makes them feel good!

I totally support the rights of anyone wanting to ink themselves- just interested in the fashion for doing so.
It seems most young adults now have tattoos- when I was growing up most people did not have them.
I am just curious as to why tattoos are such a craze- things were not always that way..

Like a pp said, why do people do anything?

False nails?
Bleached hair?
Short hair?
Long hair?
Piercings?

Because they like it?

It's not a craze, humans have tattooed themselves for hundreds of years, if not longer.

The stigma of them in recent years has faded, and now people with visible tattoos aren't seen as foolish, crazy, dirty, ex-cons, whatever. I work in an office and loads of people have visible tattoos on their arms or back of their neck. I have them on my legs and ankles, so they are visible depending on my trouser/sock length.

Nobody cares. It's better that way, don't you think?

A better way?
Surely breaking the shackles of popular fashion crazes is a better way?*

Your bias is showing clearer than my tattoos ever do, love.

I guess most of the other things you have listed are more temporary though.
Tattoos are one of the few things you can do to your appearance that are permanent
(I wouldn't love it if either of my kids covered themselves in tattoos, but I don't dislike them in general)

I am not your love.

People are expressing themselves and their journey through life on their body. It's artwork that only you have and it's everywhere with you.

Personally I love seeing the self expression, the same as the clothes we wear, piercings, makeup and so on.

You only go through life once and this body is really all you have. I also think it's rather poetic that the artwork only exists on you so when you die it no longer exists.

Because people are sheep. Same applies to any fashion.

I'm not sure tatoos are "fashionable" anymore than say piercings.

Do you have your ears pierced? If so why?
And if it is fashionable to have your ears pierced surely breaking the shackles of this popular fashion craze is a better way?

Since the beginning of humans, we have done things because of fashion, culture, religion or just because we want to.

I don’t think tattoos are a recent thing. Most people I know have them.

Don't get tattooed then.

Why does anyone like anything? Make up, clothes fashions, having nails done, having a nice car, having a nice house.

Personally for me, I had had many issues with my body throughout my life. I didn't like what i saw in the mirror often. I saw lots of faults.

Now I have lots of tattoos that I love, mostly botanical designs. Now I look at myself and see beautiful things that I love. I'm happier looking at myself. I see beauty in many of my tattoos.

Lots of people probably think my tattoos are horrible. What they think doesn't matter. It's how I feel that matters.

(Note: I have a degree, a mortgage, and a well paid professional job where my tattoos have never been an issue, many of my colleagues including our CEO has tattoos.)

People told me it was just a fad and me falling for 'fashion when I got my first tattoo 20 years ago. It isn't a fad, it isn't a 'current fashion' it's a choice that people can make if it appeals to them.

“Because people are sheep. Same applies to any fashion.”

^This. Most older people I know who have tattoos now regret them.

It's an acceptable form firm of self harm that I will be judged less harshly for.

It stopped being cool when you could get one at Selfridges.

Thankfully neither of my 20 somethings have succumbed but they do have the cartilage (ear maiming) piercings.

To add, none of my tattoos are about fashion, they all have meaning to me, they commemorate moments or events in my life.

They are all in places that can be covered except for the one on my ring finger that I have instead of a wedding ring because I really hate the fashion for jewellery which is newer and has less historical meaning than the practice of tattooing.

To be fair, most older people with regrettable tattoos have probably got shit ones. Have you seen how insanely talented so many tattoo artists are now? Why do we hang artwork on our walls? Because we like to look at it, because it says something about us, because it says something to us. Some people like their artwork on their skin.

Sorry that doesn't read right. I mean that the only people I've ever met who regretted their tattoos are people who wrote their ex's name on them and people who got poor work done.

You've all missed the point completely. OP didn't ask why YOU in particular have tattoos, im sure most of them are lovely, and some disastrous, more though why, has this become a fashion, why so acceptable, why so attractive and who was the very first person to bring it to the mainstream.
We all know tattooing has been around for hundreds of years , but there must have a been a shift from tribal achievements marked by tattooing through it being the mark of a sailor missing his love at sea and everything in between. There must have been a shift in culture possibly by a 'celebrity' of the time to make it acceptable- fashionable - like fake tans are, Hair extensions, piercings
I think it's amazing to questions the why and where's.

In that case, Google is your friend
.en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tattooing#:~:text=Formal%20interest%20in%20the%20art,meaning%20than%20for%20previous%20generations.

It seems, in the UK it was King George V in about 1898, who made it popular and acceptable and fashionable.

Yes, as a PP said, I have met a few older people who regret them now.
Personally dislike tattoos intensely and I tend to 'see' the tattoo first and then the person. However, once I get to know the person, I don't really 'see' the tattoo, if that makes sense.
I have a friend who has a tattoo done regularly of very random things including cocktails she likes, flowers she likes- so many. Cannot understand it but look past them.