Was that ever really a thing? I though it was a joke that the big, tough, tattooed sailor is actually, on closer inspection, a momma’s boy. So would actual sailors normally have something more manly written there?
More likely his girlfriend’s name, as documented by the noted historian, Norman Rockwell:
Sailors who got a tattoo saying “Daddy’s Boy” found it sent the wrong message.
I wonder if tattoos are on the same “path” as cigarettes?
A long time ago, smoking cigarettes was a manly thing; not many women smoked. More and more women started smoking in the 1970s. And then a point was reached where most smokers were women (1990s?). And today? Few people smoke cigarettes. So perhaps this means the popularity of tattoos are on the decline…
Social custom almost always recognizes a broader range of generally acceptable fashion choices for women than for men. The disparity cited by the OP shows tattoos following the same rule once they broke out into the mainstream.
Women can get away with anything. Like a lawyer I knew who dyed her hair a different unnatural color every two weeks. Any male lawyer who had done that would have been thrown out of court by the judge for undermining the dignity of the court.
This is my experience as well.
Also, for women under about 35 who have had a miscarriage, it’s apparently a thing to get some reminder of the lost “baby,” like the date, or the intended name. I don’t think this is something women of my mother’s age would have ever contemplated doing. Miscarriages did happen, but so did child loss (we’re talking the 1960s); people reserved grief for born children.
Another thing in my experience in the Orthodox Jewish community is that men stay in the community, while a lot of women leave and come back. Many remain Jewish, but attend Reform or Renewal congregations, then become what is called “Ba’al T’shuvah.” Both men and women who were raised as non-Orthodox Jews come to Orthodox communities as Ba’alim T’shuvot, but it seems like the women are more likely to have some small tattoo, that isn’t considered in need of removal if it doesn’t show under tsnius (a specific concept of modesty) clothes.
If the Jewish community is at all like other religious communities, women who leave stray further, maybe because they are a little more oppressed to begin with (and IMHO, Christian fundies are even worse on the women oppression front: Orthodox Judaism is somewhat more equal in its oppression), and so are more likely to do something verboten, like a tattoo, even if it’s just a small one that can be their own private rebellion.
Also, when I was interpreting in the women’s music festival circuit in the 90s, lots of lesbians were getting tattoos, but they were very subdued and small. It just goes to the idea that more women get a single tattoo, but more men get large numbers of tattoos.
I doubt it. There aren’t the same health concerns with tattoos that there are with smoking.
What I think is probable is the inevitable march of fashion. At some point, I feel teenagers are going to look at their tattooed parents and collectively decide that tattoos are old-fashioned. Young people will either have to take it a step further with something like scarification or go back the other way and make the natural look the new form of adolescent rebellion.