Magneto’s origin, if I recall correctly, involves being sent to a Nazi death camp, where presumably he would have had an id number tattooed on his arm. That, plus the fact that Jewish law forbids tattoos (Lev. 19:28 is the source) would probably make him have a distinctly negative reaction to tattoos.
Not that I’ve heard of. If it lends any credibility to my saying so, I’ve lived in Boystown for 10 years, and both places I work have probably 30% or more gay and lesbian employees. I would think I would have come across some correlation by now. I have more tats than most of the gay people I know.
My recollection was that in the 1970’s and early 80’s gays were slightly more likely than straights to have tattoos, but they were usually fairly discreet and easily hidden. That’s based on persona observation and is in no way scientific data.
Then tats got trendy.
Any correlation between tats and sexual orientation that might have existed does not exist any longer.
That is not true - other camps besides Auschwitz tattooed prisoners.
However, in the Marvel universe Magneto was, in fact, held prisoner at Auschwitz. He wound up n the Sonderkommando, the Jews who were forced to run the gas chambers
Here is Magneto’s history for the Earth 616 timeline.
I thought the bit where he shows his tattoo’d number and says he will not be tattoo’d again is one of the most chilling things I’ve seen.
FWIW, my impression is that the X-men (and the films) were not JUST an allegory for gay rights, but as a descriminated class could be used for any number of parallels, and see no particular reason to associate the bit with the tattoos with a gay metaphor. (That is, there could have been one I didn’t know, though it seems there isn’t, but I didn’t expect it)
Right. It’s generally been much more about race, though in recent years there’s been more of the “have you tried not being a mutant” gay metaphor stuff added into it.
The third film (i think…) isn’t about much more than the gay analogy. There’s no way any of the really obvious stuff could apply to any other “class”. A cure? Shame to parents when they discover the “problem”? Aspects of pride and being hidden/closeted.
I’ve heard and read repeatedly that the Auschwitz complex was the only location that identified prisoners by tattoo, both in the Auschwitz Museum and elsewhere.
“During the Holocaust, concentration camp prisoners received tattoos only at one location, the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, which consisted of Auschwitz I (Main Camp), Auschwitz II (Auschwitz-Birkenau), and Auschwitz III (Monowitz and the subcamps).”
“The Auschwitz Concentration Camp Complex (including Auschwitz 1, AuschwitzBirkenau, and Monowitz) was the only location in which prisoners were systematically tattooed during the Holocaust.”