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apercu

> lower class, military, sports, etc.

I think I'd put "counter culture" rather than lower class.

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“Lower class” matches. There was a time that tattoos were seen as something for sailors and convicts.

Not really for the last 30 years?

"There was a time"? Which I think pretty much matches.

There's probably a lot of intersection. Don't really disagree. Though counter-culture folks I went to school with in engineering/etc. still didn't tend to have tattoos.

Not until the very late 80s and 90s. Prior was dirt bags, bikers and sailors.

lower class worked quite nicely actually

No it was definitely for the lower class only.

Now it’s “counter culture” to not have a tattoo. They are so common. They have become a sign of conformity.

I would describe me and my environment as pretty normal middle class and I do not know a single person who has a visible tattoo.

I don't know where you live or what generation you are in. In my country, it seems that every young woman has a tattoo.

I think a majority, perhaps nearly all, of my daughter's friends have tattoos (early 20s). Not huge ones... a little flower on the ankle, etc. This is in the Pacific Northwest, though. They really got big here, to the point I agree it's a little rebellious of a young person to not get a tattoo.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/15/32-of-ame...

38% of women vs 27% of men. The number would be higher for young women.

I have had multiple tattoos since the 90's. None visible, so what's your point?

(Also, my mom and dad both have masters degrees).

Watch An Officer and a Gentleman sometime. (Pretty decent movie.) There's a scene where the Richard Gere character shows up to training (I guess) and he has a tattoo covered up. As I recall the drill sergeant rips the bandage off and basically mocks him for it with the implication being that officers don't have tattoos.

Ok, but that screenplay was written in the late 70's and came out in something like 1982.

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