Discussion

This is the first post in our new Discussion category, which is kind of a continuation of our old “Dr. Lee’s Talking Point” articles. Although we have discussed the pros and cons of tattoos many times before, one thing we haven’t discussed—and what is actually of most interest to me—is how and why have they suddenly become so popular? It seems that almost every new Asian American model has tattoos these days, and it’s rapidly becoming more commonplace amongst models from Asia itself too (especially Chinese). What’s more, the amount of tattoo coverage has radically increased too, seemingly overnight. And it isn’t just Asians either—it seems almost every other young person I see these days has them, and once again the amount of tattoo coverage seems to be increasing all the time. It’s as if young people are engaged in a kind of tattoos “arms race”. I’m reminded of King Missile’s brilliant song It’s Saturday—young people ‘rebelling’ and ‘asserting their individuality’, by doing exactly the same thing as most other people their age. Perhaps tattoos are the new cigarettes (that’s how young people tried to do these things when I was growing up). Does anybody know how and why this current tattoo craze happened?