March 20, 2006, - 1:08 pm
Tattoos: A Sign of Power?
By
The Boston Globe claims that tattoos are becoming a mark of power, even at the office.
A number of white collar professionals are finding that body art is a helpful tool at the office . . . . In some workplace circles, visible tattoos have become the new power suit.
Uh-huh. If your office is the NBA or an advertising agency.
Try going to a respectable office in a non-creative, non-sports industry, and it’s doubtful your body canvas of assorted snakes, skulls, and “I Heart Tom”/”I Heart Roseanne,” will get you a second interview. As , the Coast Guard has updated its rules to keep the overly tattooed out. That wasn’t the case before. Starbucks and Blockbuster don’t allow visible tattoos. For good reason. It’s not very professional-looking.
The New Power Suits?
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Most workplaces aren’t the sets of “Meet the Barkers” or “Prison Break.” The fact is that while they’ve become more of a fixture of pop-culture, and less thought of as the attire of sailors, soldiers, carnies, and convicts, tattoos are hardly a sign of power. In fact, at bar-time, on women, they’re usually a sign of “I’m easy.” (Tramp-stamp, anyone?)
Any one with $200 bucks and an ability to stay still while being repeatedly stabbed with a needle can get a tattoo. How is that a “mark of power”? If anything, they’re a sign of impetuousness.
We’d say the person with the real power is the guy holding the needle.
We have a number of friends and, we’re sure, a number of readers who are tattooed. And we don’t hold it against them or look down on them in any way. But we expect that, someday, they’ll be shelling out the big bucks to get it lasered off at the cosmetic surgeon’s office.
Power? Hardly. Just a needle repeatedly stabbing you for permanent demarcation and likely regret. Would you want, say, your President to be covered in tattoo “body art”? If tattoos are a sign of power, what’s next, multiple nose-rings as the new power-tie?
No thanks. Doesn’t exactly whet your appetite at a restaurant to see the waitress sporting those.
Tags: advertising agency, Blockbuster, Coast Guard, cosmetic surgeon, Debbie Schlussel, helpful tool, National Basketball Association, non-sports industry, President, Starbucks, USD, waitress
Like any G_d fearing Jew, i’m going back the way I came; tattoo-free! There’s nothing more cliche’ and repulsive than some dumb, twenty-something, instant-grati-whore with that stupid tattoo on her lower back that looks like a bat or a ghoul trying to creep out of her ass!!! I often ask them how old they are, and the response is generally 21 or 22. I then ask if they think they’ll want that stupid tattoo when they’re 31, or even better, 41!?! Then there’s always tat-sleeve boy. The typical “misunderstood” suburban, wannabe urban dumb ass that looks like a circus sideshow freak with all that crap inked over his body. The perfect example of this low-brow, knuckle-dragger is Travis Barker. The Slacker Generation is just about to have the keys to the world handed over to them and this is what we’re going to have, a regression from the mean. To requote my favorite saying: “COMMON SENSE ISN’T COMMON!”
Yiddish Steel on March 20, 2006 at 4:05 pm