I got my tattoos so my kids wouldn’t want them. It didn’t work.
Reminds me of the guy who was in the tailgate spot next to ours about ten years ago. He was in the service during the Korean war and got a very large sailor themed tattoo all around one leg. Apparently his wife had made him cover it up for years since it was unacceptable. After a couple of years seeing “the kids” getting tattooed and not being ashamed, he started wearing shorts to the games. His wife still seemed embarrassed, but he was tired of trying to hide that much ink. It was pretty impressive looking.
I’ve been back in America for eight weeks now, and I’ve noticed a big spike in people sporting tattoos. A lot more than when I left the country in 1994. Been back for visits since then, even here to Hawaii, but never noticed it. There does seem to be a sharp rise.
It became fashionable in Thailand to get a tattoo, but generally those are smaller and not as intricate as I’m seeing here now. In general. Exceptions, of course.
I’ve often wondered why temporary tattoos (anything from a few weeks to a few years, whatever the technology allows) never got to be a big thing.
Are you thinking of henna tattoos?
It has nothing to do with “regrets of the elderly”. I suspect many tattooed ancients think they look just great.
Onlookers however may have different opinions.
My uncle, who is about 75 years old, has a large scar on his forearm. When I was a little kid, I asked him what happened to his arm, as young children will do, and he replied, “I had a tattoo removed.” His whole demeanor said to me, “Don’t you EVER get one.” Back then, he had to have the tattoo surgically removed and the denuded area covered with a skin graft. :eek:
IDK what that tattoo was, and my dad (his brother) doesn’t either, and has said he probably doesn’t want to. :dubious:
In the late 1990s, I was in a book club with (among others) a dermatologist, and the topic came up one day and I said, “You probably make a lot of money doing tattoo removals”. She replied that it was one of several procedures that she would not do unless the person paid cash, as in greenbacks, up front, something she had learned the hard way that she had to do. She actually did more pro bono work, usually for ex-convicts or gang members who wanted their face and hand tattoos lasered off. Even today, most places are not going to hire someone with a penis tattooed on their cheek, KWIM?
(face cheek, that is 
)
I’ve seen elderly people, mostly women, with some very impressive and NEW body art. They were well beyond an age where it would impair a job search, and chances are, it was something they had always wanted to do but didn’t because of various societal constraints.
I’ve heard many times that people should never get a commemorative tattoo of any kind for at least 5 years after the event. That makes sense to me.
ETA: I did clinicals on an Indian reservation, and until about 1960, it was very common for the women to tattoo all their sex partners’ names somewhere on their body. I’ll never forget the woman whose demeanor reminded me of my grandmother, who always wore pastel muumuus, who had “RICHARD” emblazoned on her forehead. One of the physical therapists also told me about a woman who had several dozen names on her body, and she had giggled and said, “Oh, yes, I was very popular in my youth.”
A Google search of Laser Tattoo Removal in Las Vegas yields only eight hits, but I suspect there are more. Last time I was there I noticed a couple in an area that’s not near the Google pins and mentioned it to the buddy I was with, something like “There’s a tattoo removal place on every corner”.
Henna is one option. I understand there are other types of temporary tattoos (not Cracker-Jack-box wet-&-sticks 
), but I don’t know anything about them, really.
The only thing IMHO that looks worse than a 30 year old woman plastered in tattoos is a 60 year old woman plastered in tattoos. The older woman looks like a dried up booze hag. Same comments about men and pony tails, but those of course are easily cut off.
Maybe it’s drunken tourists getting most of the tattoos in Vegas and don’t have them removed until after they get home?
Back in West Texas, I was at a party one night at which a visiting band from Los Angeles attended after their gig. A punk band. The lead singer was bald and covered head to foot in tattoos. Not fake or temporary tattoos either but real ones. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy, and I always wondered what would happen if some day he decided he wanted to change course in his life and become something like, say, a banker. Hippies, yes, they can just shave and get a haircut, but it would be near impossible for guys like this. I don’t see any sense in locking yourself into a narrow course early in life.
Those suck anyways. I put some on the back of my Kindle for decoration and within a week or so they completely faded
And where did you get the idea that ink on the back of your shoulder could “mean something”?
Heh. This is the art that I had tattooed on the back of my left shoulder.
It means a lot. To me. I’d be surprised if anyone else could guess even a tiny fraction of its meaning, or even whether the word on the banner is being used as a verb or noun.
You know how people look at the clothes or hair their wore 20 years ago and say “I looked like such a dork!” Why would you make it permanent?
Has to be something about independence, mobility, freedom… several motifs of buoyancy working together against the anchor. Whatever it “means to you,” you’re obviously using popular imagery.
But my point actually has nothing to do with whether anybody else understands, or even sees, a given tattoo. What I’m saying is, the idea itself, that a tattoo, any tattoo, can be a vessel of personal signification… is a received cultural meme. There is no such thing as a perfectly independent and personal decision to get a tattoo.
Of course, the same is true of most things that all of us do, every day.
Apparently what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. 
Kinda like all the beer that folks rent for a few hours and then leave in Vegas before they fly home.
Regardless of the city, there appears to be at least some opportunities in the removal business.