# Tattoos and gay Americans **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 23, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162 "2010-04-23T23:46:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/1 "2010-04-23T23:46:20Z")
Sorry, another question on American culture. If you saw any of the recent X-Men films, you will have noticed that they are a metaphor for the gay movement ("Have you tried not being a mutant?) In one part of the movie, the proud, campaigning mutants give out to Magneto for not having tattoos - all the mutants have prominant tattoos. I didn’t really notice it at the time, but a joke on a tv show (Tattoos on men are for bikers, ex-cons and gays) reminded me. Is there a trope about American (I’ve never noticed it in Europe) gays having tattoos? It seems an odd stereotype. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/2 "2010-04-24T00:01:15Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/3 "2010-04-24T00:05:16Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > 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. Oh, I know that he was tattoo’d (he shows it in the film in the scene above). I’m wondering if the tattoo thing was some weird extension of the gay mataphor? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/4 "2010-04-24T00:15:58Z")
No. There isn’t any general thing about being gay and having tats. At least, not that I’ve ever seen or heard of. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/5 "2010-04-24T00:27:31Z")
I know gay guys who have small, tasteful tattoos . . . about as frequently as anyone else. Nothing like a gang member, though. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/6 "2010-04-24T01:16:02Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/7 "2010-04-24T01:25:09Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/8 "2010-04-24T03:30:58Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > 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. Only if he was at the one complex that used tattoos: Auschwitz. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/9 "2010-04-24T12:18:28Z")
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](http://marvel.wikia.com/Max_Eisenhardt_%28Earth-616%29) is Magneto’s history for the Earth 616 timeline. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/10 "2010-04-24T13:32:27Z")
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) ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/11 "2010-04-24T22:19:36Z")
> [@Shade](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Jump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@Jump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jump)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/12 "2010-04-25T08:13:43Z")
> [@Shade](#): > > 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) 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. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/13 "2010-04-29T18:54:52Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > That is not true - other camps besides Auschwitz tattooed prisoners. 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).” [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum](http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007056) “The Auschwitz Concentration Camp Complex (including Auschwitz 1, AuschwitzBirkenau, and Monowitz) was the only location in which prisoners were systematically tattooed during the Holocaust.” [Jewish Virtual Library](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/tattoos1.html) “Despite the perception that all Holocaust prisoners were given tattoos, it was only the prisoners of Auschwitz after 1941 who were branded this way.” [Jewish Virtual Library (cite 2)](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Tattoos.html) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tattoos-and-gay-americans/537162/14 "2010-04-29T19:59:47Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. [Classic _Non Sequitur_ strip](http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2006/06/11/)