UI 052: Tattoos... Why and Why Not?

Tattooing in process. Artist: Damien Bart of Bruce Bart Tattooing. Model: Cary Bass. Photographer: Michael Deschenes.

Why do people get tattoos?

Why are they becoming more and more popular throughout American society?

Why does the Bible prohibit tattoos?

Why should a person who doesn't believe in God not get a tattoo?

I have thought about these questions since I was about 4 or 5 years old, a time when we briefly lived in Japan.  I remember how cool I thought these tattooed Japanese men were.  And thats the best way I can recall that feeling... they were cool.  So since I wanted to be cool, I always wanted to get tattooed.  Plus, my mom was vociferously against it, which meant I had to do it right?

But as I matured and was of age to legally go get a tattoo I really questioned the whole thing.

Why tattoos?  What is the appeal?  Why are so many against tattoos (at least 20 years ago)?  What is wrong with tattoos?

Well I have come up with my own hypothesis over the years, and I feel like I am at a vantage point were I can say with a good amount of clarity regarding: A) The Reasons Why People Get Tattooed B) The Reasons Why People Should Not Get Tattooed First let's talk about the easy part,

Why People Get Tattooed

I can explain this desire and behavior based on Human Needs Psychology:

Every person has six basic psychological needs and will think and act in a way to fulfill them.

They are:

1. Certainty: The need to feel safe, secure, or certain about things
2. Variety: The need to feel change, uncertain, or challenged
3. Significance: The need to feel important, special, or needed.
4. Love/Connection: The need to feel a part of a community, family, or bond to another.
5. Growth: The need to feel development emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, or physically.
6. Contribution: The need to feel we have or are more than enough and have something to offer others.

So with a basic understanding of these six needs, we can begin to understand what motivates human behavior (good or bad.)  And we can certainly begin to understand the psychology behind why people get tattooed.  To be clear, I am not suggesting every person with a tattoo gets one for every reason I am discussing... but I am fairly sure they get tattooed with at least two needs being fulfilled strongly.  And the more tattooed they are the more psychological needs are being met - and with greater intensity. So let's just work down the list:

Certainty

One the arguments people make against tattoos actually feeds desire to get one.   "You know that's permanent right?"  I remember people saying this kind of nonsense to me.  Occasionally I had to be a smart ass and quip back, "NO? Really? I was just going to get one to impress this girl I'm takin out on a date tonight.  Geez thanks for the intel!" Not many things in life are "permanent."

Most things are obviously transient in our life.  But now I can own something that will last me the rest of my life.  I can put it on a credit card and not worry about someone taking it back if I don't make payments.  It won't ever be forever lost in the abyss between my sofa cushions.  Wow!  Sounds pretty good.  Finally I have lifetime guarantee that I can be certain of. Do you see how getting tattooed can invoke strong feelings of certainty for some folks?  That simple act of paying a guy to put ink in your skin can cause a person to feel certain and secure - fulfilling that need.

Variety

But what about Variety?

So in case you didn't catch it in the list, there is a paradoxical relationship between our 6 psychological needs.  This tension is what we all experience when we feel conflicted or confused by our actions, desires, or decisions.  Even though we need to feel certain, if we felt absolute certainty we would be bored and miserable - so we crave variety.

If you hear the way many people describe their tattoos you will understand how they are fulfilling their need for variety.  Often they use metaphors like "my skin is a blank canvas."  Well if you think of your skin as just a boring unused canvas (just wasted potential) then a great way to change things up is to start painting on it.  And for many that is exactly what happens.  And then once they have one piece of art, the realize all the other real estate available and wide variety of art they can install on their body throughout their life.  Hence, the issue of "tattoo addiction".  Often people can't just settle for one.  Many tattooist can recognize these folks as soon as they sit in the chair for the first time. And leads me to that is the other part of variety that tattooing fulfills.

If you are bored and want a state change, tattooing will do it instantly.  No longer will today just be another day.  No, the day you go get your tattoo is filled with anticipation and excitement.  No matter if its your first or your tenth, the feelings remain though the intensity may lessen.  There is a rush, a release of endorphins, that comes with the tattoo itself.  The body has an amazing response to the pain.  For some, like myself it is actually relaxing.  For others, it is terrifying.  Regardless of the response... EVERYONE has a reaction to the sound, the vibration, and the penetration of the needles rapidly piercing the skin.  So what ever you were feeling before, it has changed.

Significance

Significance may be the most common psychological need fulfilled by tattoos.  Everyone needs to feel they are special.  Tattoos are a very simple and relatively easy way to feel unique, special, or distinct from others.  You could by clothes and try to appear different,  but someone else will likely have bought the same exact thing.  Or you could by try to fulfill the feeling significance by driving a particular car, but someone else will also be driving that model.  However, that tattoo is special and unique to you.

If a person lives with "significance" near the top of their list, tattooing may be an outlet for them to fulfill that need easily.  I think there are many people in the Gen-X and Millennial crowd who do place significance as their number one or two psychological need.  This is why so many are trying to become famous for fame's sake alone.  And it explains why tattoos are exploding in our society, as each person is trying to make himself look different and special.

Love and Connection

Again we have a tension between becoming so significant that we become a total outcast and our need to connect to another.  Virtually no one gets tattooed in such a way that they cannot connect to any one else.  From people with swastikas tattooed all over their bodies, to a guy with a skull tattooed over his entire face, to the guy that is tattooed like a big cat - they all have a niche they now belong to.  Yep, like tends to like.

Even though the people who have what you may deem outlandish tattoos fit in to a community that appreciates that.  They too have fulfilled a fundamental psychological need.

But what about the rest of the tattooed population?

Well the fact is that same tribal mentality for the "freaks" extends to everyone else with tattoos (the definition of "freak" is extremely subjective).  On the grand scale, many with tattoos feel they are kindred spirits with anyone else with a tattoo ( I really wish someone had informed me of this before I started getting tattooed.) There is a tremendous sense of bonding that occurs through the tattoo.  People believe they bond with the tattooist.  People feel they bond with friends or lovers with similar tattoos.  People feel they bond with loved ones, living or dead, with tattoos.  People feel they bond with others with similar tattoos  (e.g. military, gangs, athletes, musicians, activists, etc.) There is no doubt that some people fulfill their need for love and connection through tattoos.

Growth

Okay maybe you have followed my up to this point, but now you may be asking "How in the world does a tattoo make someone feel 'growth'?"

Have you ever heard of a 'rite of passage'?

For millennia humans of various cultures including modern Americans use tattoos to fulfill their need to feel growth, maturation, status change, or (ironically in the case of the older crowd who begins getting tattooed) - to feel youthful. Our subconscious knows that if we are not growing we are dying.  We will find all kinds of ways to fulfill this need even if it actually is to our detriment. For many people getting tattooed marks a passage in their journey through life.  As Johnny Depp says it "My body is my journal, and my tattoos are my story."  This feeling is true for many with tattoos.

The tattoo for many people is not just a tattoo.  Rather at the time they are getting it is a powerful symbol that, for them, marks a significant shift in their life.  Whether its motherhood, manhood, or the Marine corp the tattoos people get fulfill that need to feel like they have grown and improved.

Contribution

There is no way tattoos fulfill the need to feel like a person is contributing, right?

Wrong.

Remember when I mentioned people metaphorically refer to their skin as a canvas.  Well believe it or not, there are people who feel their tattoo contributes to the world, like an artist does when he paints a masterpiece.

For the tattooed person, they are partners with the tattooist.  In their minds, he couldn't do the work without their canvas, their willingness, their fortitude, their finances, and their ideas about what the art should look like.

Seriously, just as an painter, sculptor, or musician feels like their work contributes to the world by adding beauty or even just controversy - so to is the case for some folks with tattoos. They even refer to their tattoos as their "art collection."  They feel that they are living, breathing, walking art galleries.  They are sharing their art with anyone and everyone around them. For this person, they feel they are contributing to society like an art collector does when they donate works to a museum.

Yep that's me and my arms. Sometimes we have a constant reminder of our past transgressions, so be careful how you act today.

Why NOT to Get Tattooed

Everyone experiences these same six human needs, but not everyone does so in the same way.  Regardless, everyone will find ways to satisfy these needs.  Some ways are good, healthy, and productive.  Other ways are bad, unhealthy, and destructive.

I am of the opinion that tattoos are an unwise, unhealthy, and potentially destructive method to satisfy these basic psychological needs.

Now to be clear, I do NOT think tattoos are immoral.

I do NOT think tattoos are determinative of someone's character.

There are good, ethical people with tattoos.  There are disgusting, evil people without tattoos.

So with that said... As a person who has been tattooed for decades, and who has worked in the tattoo industry let me be candid about brutally honest about tattoos.

As a young secular man, no one could offer me any valid reasons why I shouldn't get tattooed.

I started because

A) I thought they were cool.

B) I thought they made men look intimidating.

C) I thought they would make me feel powerful.

D) Girls thought they were sexy.

E) I wanted to get out of bodybuilding, but still feel special - Tattoos seemed perfect at that time.

Like so many young men, I had 'Significance' as my number one psychological need I was constantly trying to satisfy.  Tattoos seemed like a great (or at least easy) way to do it.  While it was easier than going to the gym, I won't say it was greater.

All they did was feed my significance monster and boost its metabolism.  Rather than focusing on my accomplishments or doing something of merit to feel significant, I found a very easy medium that made me feel significant. This is the trap that so many of our youth fall into.  The easy way is rarely if every the good way.

What if I had never begun getting tattooed?

What more empowering and meaningful ways could I have satisfied my desire to feel significant?

Perhaps, I would have realized sooner that significance should not be number one in my list.  After all, I can look back and realize that what I really wanted was t0 ultimately feel growth and contribution.  But my stubborn arrogance kept me focused on ME, and trying to be something special.

Tattoos, piercings, crazy hair color, or whatever people do to make themselves stand out in a crowd are all distractions from their real issues.  And worse, they are meaningless in regards to making you special or significant.  So you have fire engine red hair - so what?  Any one can do that.  So you have a tattoo - Big deal - while you may think it has tremendous meaning - no one else really cares.

If you want to feel special, then go out an do something that deems you special, important, or significant.  Give to others in a way that really impacts their lives.  Invent something that will change lives.  Accomplish something of merit that you and other can recognize as good.

What good does your tattoo do?  None.

What I am saying for myself and my reasoning behind getting tattooed will hold water for anyone else and their reasons. Everyone who is going to get a tattoo is trying to fulfill one or more psychological needs.  First figure out what needs are not being met.  Then get honest about what can really satisfy those needs in ways that foster long term benefits and meaning.  Outside of cosmetic reasons (ie. post trauma) I can not think of one legitimate argument for getting tattooed.

However, I can think of all kinds of reasons not to get tattooed. For instance:

• Employment.  If you were hiring someone, and all things were equal about two applicants, but you know that one was tattooed and the other not - who would you hire?
• Prejudice.  Both those with tattoos and those without will judge you because of your tattoo.  And guess what? Many with tattoos will think your "art" is hideous.
• If you are a female, you will necessarily be thought of as "easy" and promiscuous regardless of your actual behavior or meaning of your tattoo
• You will get older and your tastes will change.
• What is cool today, is laughed at tomorrow.  Don't believe me, go check out what was cool in your old high school yearbook.  Why do you think your taste now is any better than then - or will be en vogue in another decade?  Or if you are to young for that, then go ask your parents to show you pictures of themselves when they were in their prime - tell me how cool you think they look.
• Have you driven the same car, day in and day out, for the last twenty years?  Would you want to?  Even if it was your favorite car at the time, in five years won't you want the newer model?  Besides your old model is fading and looking pretty worn.  This is what it feels like when you get a tattoo, and then you see someone else who has something similar but much better quality than the one you are stuck with.  It will happen.
• Why do you trust this guy to do a good job with your tattoo?  Having worked in tattoo shops, let me say there are great tattooers and there are TONS of awful ones (ie. terrible outlines, disproportion, misspellings, etc.)  Even the great ones blow out lines and make all kinds of mistakes.  Plus, as in the last example - the artists, machines, and ink keep getting better.  So what ever you get today from that guy, would have been worlds better had you waited 5 years for him and the technology to improve.  And 5 years later, it would be even better.

Tattoos are dissatisfaction, disappointment, and regret waiting to happen.  

I know a lot of people with tattoos.  Some are covered and some have a single patch.  With enough time, and maturation - nearly everyone I know regrets either being tattooed or at least one or more tattoos.

Unless they want you to join the tribe, they will be honest with you and discourage you.  Don't do it.

Learn from my mistakes.  I can't wash my mistakes off, but hopefully I can aid you in never getting them.

I've tried to make a compelling case against tattoos, and how they play on the human psyche.  And I've have made an effort to do it without invoking God or the Bible.  I know that there are many for whom that is irrelevant in their lives.  I was once one of them. But now I realize the wisdom in the Biblical prohibition:

Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD. ~ Leviticus 19:28 (NIV)

If you want to honor the dead or make yourself feel significant or change your state of mind, God has given us many healthful ways to do so.  One of the best ways in through service and contribution to others.

Spare yourself the futile and vain attempts to find a better way to satisfy you psychological needs via tattoos.  Rather do good for someone else.  Accomplish something of merit.  Learn something new.  Create and be productive in a meaningful way, not a superficial way.   Connect to others on a deep and meaningful level, rather than just on the surface.  Everyone has something to offer.

Don't do what is easy or trendy.  Do what is good and right. Remember your actions will influence someone else.  How do you think your tattoo will influence your children or the kids who look up to you?  What good will you do by getting that tattoo?