Tattooing cultures (involving both genders) have been widespread on every continent since antiquity. Maybe its those without tattoos who are the odd ones out?

I always thought that tatoos originally were for displaying group affiliation or rank.

Wow. This post is way beyond opinionated. It is just dumb. Please, will someone point me to the evidence linking bad decision making with tattoos? And by that I mean, other than your granny or your old man telling you that tattoos can only be bad ideas.

Given the data on divorce (40% to 50% on first marriages, depending on the source), it would seem that marriage would be a far better bad-decision-making marker.

hey, i left this comment over at half sigma's site:

if tattoos are an example of prole drift, then everyone's been infected. here in DC, i'd say 70-80% of the in-demand women have a tattoo somewhere on their bodies. the higher class and the prettier girls tend to have smaller ones in unexpected locations, probably because they innately understand the eroticism of a tattoo on a hot female body is better administered with a subtle touch than a hammer blow.

something about slightly concealed tattoos that are tasteful enough not to be unpleasant to look at, hidden piercings, and tiny ornaments like nose studs that are discovered upon closer inspection makes a girl even hotter. anything that suggests a girl is wild and uninhibited can be alluring because it leads guys to fantasize about what other crazy things she'd be into.

of course, some tattoos and piercings are completely repulsive, intentionally so or otherwise, but the majority of tats sported by girls in their peak attractiveness years leave a neutral to slutty impression with most men (sluttiness in a woman being a synonym for negative only if the man making the judgement is considering her for a long-term partner). unlike universal signals of female attractiveness -- hourglass figure, symmetry, big eyes, clear skin, youth, nice breastesses -- i don't see any male consensus on the impact of modest tattoos on a woman's sexual attractiveness. i certainly have never been dissuaded from bedding a woman just because she had a tramp stamp.

there is also the "trial by fire" aspect of getting inked. i was watching a girl get an elaborate tattoo along the side of her belly (a very sensitive area) and she was in tears, clutching her boyfriend's hand and biting down on a piece of cloth. for many people who bore easily by the daily buzz of living, the pain of the tattoo needle helps them feel alive. these types tend to get new tattoos every couple months. when pain is a source of stimulation it becomes addictive like a drug. moreso when you can advertise your pain to the world like a moral exemplar of stoic suffering.

examples of sexy tattoos:
small butterfly or similar just to the side of the pubic bone.
band around a finger or toe.
on the ass, one cheek.
back of neck, only seen when hair is lifted out of the way.
small one on upper thigh.
ankle.
wrist.

examples of slutty tattoos:
huge tramp stamp pointing future penises in the direction of her womanhood.
anywhere on the boobs.
upper arms.
belly, especially around the bellybutton.
side of neck (eww).
directly on the pubic area.
shins or calves.
large wingspan tattoos across the back.

as for the attractiveness of tattoos on men, there is a female consensus in my observation: chicks of all stripes generally dig them as badboy status markers and indicators of a good lay (at the very least) as long as the tats aren't a) gay looking, b) blatantly redneck or conformist (confederate flag, barbed wire or tribal, naked woman) or c) the name of an ex or artistic rendering of a contemporary male role model.

chicks dig jerks, now more than ever before, and the tattoo is a quick and cheap way to gain some badboy street cred. the tat is especially effective on the man when he reveals it "by accident" -- let's say by rolling up the sleeve of his hugo boss shirt on a hot day to expose an inner forearm tattoo -- much like a wealthy man can turn on a woman much more powerfully by not mentioning his wealth and letting her discover it for herself.

Tattoos on women (and for men for that matter) repulse me. They are as ugly as sin. I constantly long for the pre-tattoo era when the women were pretty and feminine and the men were nice and sensitive. I hate tattoos so much that I don't even like to leave the house anymore, I just don't want to see them.

>>Please, will someone point me to the evidence linking bad decision making with tattoos?

I think I read on Sailer's site, a couple of years back, that a tattoo tells the world: "I sometimes do stupid and impetuous things, with little regard for the future." Why is a tattoo a bad decision? Look at a tattoo on a 50-year old, or even a 40-year old. It's a horrible thing, as the skin sags. And it only gets worse as the years go by.

I'll bet the tattooed population is more guilty of other lapses in future time orientation, like running up a credit card; getting married impulsively; cashing out of an IRA when changing jobs and incurring the penalty and taxes; etc.

I hate to play devil's advocate here, but there I go.

tommy shanks,

>Impetuous
Non-sequitor. I have two tattoos. It took me 1 month to prepare and decide for the first one, including meaning, theme, location, size and color. The second one, the best part of 6 months. Impetuous people get tattoos in an impetuous way. Cautious people get tattoos cautiously.

Let me give you another fallacious comparison: "people without tattoos have a fear of commitment".

>Saggy Skin
Think about it for a second. Saggy skin does not look good on anyone. With, or without a tattoo.

>Bet
You bet I would ask for evidence of this. I can give you evidence of the contrary. I went to college and there were plenty of aerospace engineers and airplane pilots that had tattoos as well. I myself have two advanced engineering degrees, property, and a continuous career since I finished with school.

Jay,
>pre-tattoo era
"Tattooing has been a Eurasian practice at least since Neolithic times." -Wikipedia

>I hate tattoos so much that I don't even like to leave the house anymore, I just don't want to see them.
I totally understand, I feel the same way about sneakers and elastic-waist pants...

" Wikipedia defines prole drift as the migration of upper class practices down into lower class use."

So maybe tattoos are an example of bourgeois drift?

Please, will someone point me to the evidence linking bad decision making with tattoos?

http://www.aolcdn.com/red_galleries/teeth-mike-tyson-400a071807.jpg

[Edit: ParaPundit fixed the link]

Anecdotal, perhaps, but still. . .

"Tattooing has been a Eurasian practice at least since Neolithic times." -Wikipedia

Back to the Stone Age...

You'd be surprised at how many "normal" high-status women of the MTV generation have tattoos. I've never been a big fan of the whole idea myself but that is probably because I'm a total prude (I'm also the kid that didn't smoke pot either). One thing that sucks about tattoos is that most of them don't look very good after 15 years. They usually become blurry and the color starts to become less vivid, or even worse, the color changes. So the beauty of even a well done one is usually only fleeting. There are some serious limits to what a YAG laser can do to clean them up. It's also not the best thing you want your kids to see. It probably suggest to them that you did the kind of stuff that you tell them not to ever do when you were their age. Although I'm sure there's many good mothers with nasty tattoos, such tatoos don't exude "good mother". I've never pursued a woman for sex that (at least as far as I could tell at the time) that I didn't think could someday be an acceptable mother of my children.

Tattoos I can handle (my wife has a small one on her ankle) and piercings are gross but I guess I could possibly look past it. But the one thing that really turned me off in my dating years was smoking. I have no idea why this became so popular among women my age. I recall once being very excited about a very beautiful woman being very interested in me (perhaps I was such a loser back then for being so impressed by an "alpha" woman's romantic attention). However, it didn't take long to figure out the full meaning of what it meant to be dating a smoker. I dumped her for smoking only and purposely avoided smoking women ever since.

I guess some would say it would be good to "toughen" up my good-guy image with a tattoo or something (I've long been off the market so this is all hypothetical). Perhaps the idea to the socio-biology crowd is that it would show that I have high testosterone or something. However, I think unless I looked like a Vin Diesel type, it would be "off code" and probably turn any decent woman off. I think the adage that women are attracted to "bad boys" is just that "good boys" often are just plain boring. The only women I've ever met that seemed to actually be more attracted to "bad boys" than "good boy doctor types" were just plain skanks. I think of them when I see the Valtrex commercials on TV.

I know that this is unfair and harsh, but it is the truth.

>>Back to the Stone Age...

A time they also spent doing other horrible things such as starting to write, continuing to make pottery and fully developing farming. But hey, it would take a few thousand years more until they started mutilating their children (female and male) genitalia in the name of an invisible big-brother-in-the-sky. Now that is what I call good parenting!

I agree with Roissy about tattoos on women. Small ones in certain places can be quite sexy. Even the "trampstamp" can be sexy, if it is small.
Large tattoos, especially those on the breasts, arms, or legs, are simply obnoxious. I fail to see the attractiveness of these kinds of tattoos and I do not understand why women go for these. And I am definitely not a prude. I simply dislike poor taste.

Do tattoos indicate one as a "real" man. It seems to me that a real man should go about his life and business without regard for what pop-culture defines as a real man. A manly man knows what he wants in life and goes about getting it regardless of the vagrancies of pop-culture trends. A real man is secure enough with who he is that he simply does not give a s**t if people consider him a real man or not, because he know that he is and if other people don't notice it, its their problem and not his. At least this is my definition of a real man.

I do not have any tattoos and will never have them. I consider the idea of marking up my skin, permanently, to be quite repulsive.

My wife has no tattoos, in Japan they are still seen by many as the simple of the mafia, and she is afraid he parents will beat her (she is a grown woman but still...). Her sister got a belly button ring in college, when she came to visit us in New York and her mother saw it and started hitting her with broom. My sister-in-law was 21 at the time. :-)

I have four tattoos, but most people don't know, because they are on my upper arms/shoulders and back. So unless I take off my shirt you can't see them. I agree with Roissy that women can get excited by them when they don't expect them.

I like "conservative" tats on women, I agree with Kurt about "obnoxious tats"...they turn me off and I consider them ghetto/trashy etc.

I do have a Russian Ex who is now married with children who has a tat on her forearm...she is still hot, but she was also Eurotrashy...so...not really the marrying kind (as her track record proves).

You are a foolish person.

I have always had too much Wanderlust and too little money even to consider a tattoo: travelling is so much more fun. When I see them on someone else I wonder why they would not spend the dough on something more enjoyable, or give it to the poor.

When I see them on a fat woman, I wonder what she was thinking ("Hmmm, how can I make myself even less attractive and less of a catch than I already am???").

One of the refreshing delights of my time in China was the paucity of tattoos on the ladies, at least visibly so.

I would like to read interviews with people who have had tattoos for more than 40 years.
The above posts are interesting but seem to reflect the thinking of only those that are in the age group who would even think about a tattoo.

Quit judging and hating on people with tattoos...I dont give a F *ck what you think or say but piercings and tattoos is the new trend in style.Sad for you but true...so you can take your snobbish oh i think i'm better than everyone attitude outta here because ink is in. Sure old fashion people people think its trashy but this is 2008 goin on 2009 who knows the future can hold tattoos as a sign of beauty if it is done professionally.It also shouldn't be by how a woman looks outside with tattoos or piercings it should be how the personality is too and how she thinks...and if she has piercings and tattoos consider that a bonus...So f*ck you people who think tattoos and piercings are nasty...your snobbiness towards it already is stupid and useless so why keep going on bitchin about it like its a disease??Because ITS A FORM OF BODY ART!! well you know what people without tattoos and piercings are boring and probably didn't have the fun they need in life, while you type of people are always like "eww look at that person..or "omg i can never do that to myself" That is just scraming out "I'M BETTER THAN EVERYONE AND WHAT I THINK IS THE BEST FOR EVERYONE ELSE TO THINK" Well pfffft take that shit outta here bcuz you are WRONG AND NEGATIVE TOWARDS THIS TOPIC.And people that have piercings and tattoos always think "i dont give a F*uck what people think of my tattoos and piercings what matters is that i like them and i know in my own mind what is right and what is wrong piercings and tattoos are just taboo in life and i will die with them proudly so F*ck people who are so judgeful and grossed out by them and think they are better than everyone attitude thats why we got them"..Even people with piercings and tattoos have jobs and careers so don't make me start on that.

Lady Dragon....I can see where you get the Dragon part of your name from. You sound like a spoiled brat teenager with a chip on your shoulder. Personally, my opinion is that tattoos are a turnoff on women. But even more of a turnoff is when a woman rants on the way you did in your post. I feel sorry for whoever ends up marrying you. I just thank the Lord it won't be me.

Well, I suppose I can consider myself one of the lucky few at this point in my life, because I am 1. Very well educated. 2. Pretty darn attractive and in good shape 3. Have raised 4 children already 4. Am enlightened enough to reject stereotypes and 5. have a large and beautiful tattoo that follows the curves of my body-and I'm not finished by a long shot! and 6. don't care about my 'fuckability' rating. I know exactly who I am. This is my body art, and I like it. As with anything in this life, people are going to judge you on one thing or another-so why worry about it? What other people think of you is none of your business as they say. But my dont we expend alot of energy doing just that? Having been in the medical field for 30 years I can tell you this-we're all going to get old, wrinkly, sick, die, and rot in a box or wind up in an urn somewhere. And when you get to any of those points, who the heck cares what you're skin looks like? ha! seriously. What IS going to matter is how kind you've been to others in this life. period.