# Will there be a point in the future where tattoos are so common they are no longer cool? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 26, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904 "2016-09-26T02:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904/101 "2016-10-05T01:12:42Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > No, I have a good idea of the history, and you are quite wrong. Care to explain how? Is tattooing not a longstanding tradition in New Zealand, Polynesia, North Africa, West Africa, Thailand, etc.? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904/102 "2016-10-05T01:26:20Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Care to explain how? Is tattooing not a longstanding tradition in New Zealand, Polynesia, North Africa, West Africa, Thailand, etc.? …Egypt, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Siberia, Taiwan, Greece, Rome, Persia, Great Britain, Romania, Yugoslavia, Russia, Denmark, North America, Central America… It wasn’t only brown people, and it wasn’t only poor or disreputable people. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904/103 "2016-10-05T02:29:26Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Care to explain how? Is tattooing not a longstanding tradition in New Zealand, Polynesia, North Africa, West Africa, Thailand, etc.? Hardly “huge chunks of the the world”, more like small isolated outposts. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904/104 "2016-10-05T04:03:36Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > No, I have a good idea of the history, and you are quite wrong. Is this “good idea of the history” anything like your mistaken ideas on the history of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904/105 "2016-10-05T04:45:12Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Is this “good idea of the history” anything like your mistaken ideas on the history of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy? well since I proved you wrong- yes.😛 ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904/106 "2016-10-05T12:19:15Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Hardly “huge chunks of the the world”, more like small isolated outposts. Who are you, Rudyard Kipling? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904/107 "2016-10-05T12:32:07Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Who are you, Rudyard Kipling? Point and set to sven. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904/108 "2016-10-06T13:30:27Z")
Well, in fairness to **DrDeth** , tattoos are quite unpopular amongst the English upper crust of a certain age. So he’s got that going for him. 🙂 OTOH I think \*\*joyfool \*\*was projecting a bit when she asserted that since tattoos are popular in mainstream western culture today that they will necessarily remain so forever going forward. Fashion doesn’t work that way. Bluenoseness (bluenososity?) is generally on the wane today, but IMO that’s always temporary. What \*will \*change is what future bluenoses are bluenosed about. Maybe tattoos will escape the bluenoses’ baleful glare. Maybe they won’t. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904/109 "2016-10-06T14:39:41Z")
> [@joyfool](#): > > Man, some folks that don’t have tattoos are really concerned about people that do. Kind of like how, back when Crocs first became a fad, they somehow had many seeing red. I doubt it’s concern - it’s just people being people. I don’t really get the whole “I did this for me, I don’t care what anyone thinks” crowd getting bent out of shape about unwelcome opinions - you’re free to do what you want, and no one’s allowed to comment? That’s delusional, and naïve. Part of choosing to wear tattoos, piercings, mohawks, neon nail polish or getting you hair done at Supercuts using a coupon is accepting that people are going to comment. Be nice if people didn’t, but to quote **Pushing Daisies** “that would be a different universe, and something _else_ would probably suck.” Of course, grousing about people grousing about your life choices is also part of the human experience, so please, continue. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904/110 "2016-10-06T16:26:08Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > I agree. Also, tattoos were never the thing that could change someone from uncool to cool, just like putting on a leather jacket or some other cool piece of clothing would change someone from uncool to cool. An uncool guy who gets a tattoo won’t become cool, he’ll just be an uncool guy with a tattoo. Exactly. And one hopes the uncool people will first try something reversible like a new hairstyle or the leather jacket before the realization hits them. But they will not fool the actual cool people. (And IMO the really cool people, at the same time, will not feel they have to stop doing something they truly like just because now lame poseurs are getting into it, too.) What may fade away perhaps will be the opinion itself that people are doing it “to be cool”. Bodymods are not for me, but if you feel they are for you, knock yourself out. If others tell you they don’t like it you can just disregard their opinion but they can still tell you so. However I’d rather look forward to people becoming more discriminating about the quality of the ink they get and rather going without than doing it badly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-a-point-in-the-future-where-tattoos-are-so-common-they-are-no-longer-cool/766904.md?page=5)