People with tattoos have always been viewed suspiciously and with many negative connotations. This is partly because of the historical associations of tattoos. In the ancient past, full face tattoos were used to bring fear into the hearts of anyone who encountered them by all sorts of ancient peoples. Also, criminals and gangs often used tattoos not only as a means of identification to each other, but also to show whether they had been successful in their intentions. A knife tattoo was meant to show that the bearer wanted revenge. A sheathed knife, that he had taken his revenge!

In general, tattoos were to be found on bad men, who had run away to sea and done bad, unmentionable things. No one of any refinement or delicacy would have a tattoo of any kind. Another factor is the permanence of tattoos. Because of the tattooing process, where ink is injected subdermally, that is, under the skin’s top layer, a tattoo is totally permanent and cannot be removed unless a laser is used. This also means that if you have made a mistake and need to remove your tattoo, then you have to get them slowly removed a little bit at a time.

In these more enlightened times tattoos are much more accepted. They can be beautiful works of art as the tattooists have much better equipment and different colored inks to make fantastic pictures. It is only a few people who have enormous tattoos all over their body, and nowadays, many people have a discrete tattoo somewhere on their shoulder or their back. The subjects can be anything from little hearts, birds, small pictures of animals to names.

Psychologically tattoos can be ways of showing your intense feelings for someone. There is surely no more intense way of showing someone that you love them than having their name permanently written on your body. People, probably especially men, have the names of their children tattooed on themselves too. In a way it is a kind of submission. By having someone’s name written on you, it means that you are accepting ownership. This is reminiscent, perhaps subconsciously, of the old slave trade when slaves were tattooed by their owners.

Having a lover’s name tattooed on yourself is also predominantly a very young thing to do. You very rarely see two middle-aged people meet, fall in love, and then rush out to get themselves tattooed! It is kind of a very teenage thing to do. Because of course, there is nothing more seemingly permanent to young people than their own youthfulness and long life! They will live for ever and love for ever and everyone should know it. Until they fall out, then they are stuck with having ‘Kevin’ or ‘Samantha 4 eva’ written on their arm in bright blue ink. Someone that they never want to see or be reminded of again. Ah, the foolishness of youth!

Tattoos can now be extremely stylish and sexy. There are many celebrities who are covered in tattoos. They now mean that the person is uber-cool and belongs to the right ‘tribe’ by having the right sort of tattoo in the right place.