On February 10, 2010—a year and a half ago—I had a post titled, "Dumb question: What's up with all the tattoos?" In it, I asked: "In a society that generally seems to make even the most inevitable change with the alacrity of molasses—just ask gays in the military—how does such a basic social more transform itself, apparently permanently, over a decade or two? In short: What's up with all the tattoos?"
On Monday, I got the answer, from a Gary S. He concedes, "I'm late to the party. But this question is easy."
Tattoos correlate with the resurgence of paganism in America. I just went to an annual event in a teensy town in north central Arkansas. This used to be a gathering of farmers, families and old folks. Now? You could not look anywhere and not see tattoos. All but the old timers had them. I'd say close to 99% were awful, ugly, and seemed randomly splotched here and there upon the body. Yeah, sure, there's one or two people out there who love and adore their precious tat, people who spent years contemplating the style and art and location. This ain't what I saw last Saturday. It was disgusting. People no longer have any respect for their bodies. Again, this coincides with America's movement from the Bible and into the arms of paganism, vampirism, witchcraft, and all other forms of mysticism and eastern mystery cultism. Don't like the Bible thumping? Enjoy your new pagan America. It is only now dawning. Wait a few more years. The wickedness is only getting started.
Thoughts?
Damn. I knew there had to be some logical explanation. I’m only surprised it comes from a pagan outing in Arkansas. Or am I?
Curious how the only alternatives to “Bible thumping” are apparently “paganism, vampirism, witchcraft, and all other forms of mysticism and eastern mystery cultism.” I know we Canadians are weird, but we don’t do much Bible thumping up here (to the detriment of our lost souls I’m sure). And yet we’re also not all vampires and mystics either. Yet the tattoos do seem to be increasingly popular up here as well.
So maybe he’s left out one other category of non-Bible-thumper. Maybe you’re not all becoming pagans and vampires. Maybe it’s even worse than Gary thinks: maybe you’re becoming Canadians 🙂
I like Reuben’s analysis! Eh?
Reuben’s analysis is reliable, is it not?
Fixed the spelling in the second post, Rueben.
Because I care.
You know I’m reliable because I don’t have a single tattoo – yet…although I used to have an earring.
(True story: my mother admits she meant to spell my name R-e-u like most people do, but got it wrong on the birth certificate and so my name has essentially been a typo ever since. Even when I google myself it defaults to showing me the listings for Reuben.)
I started the misspelling, and I know better! Sorry, Rueben.
Rueben, I’ve always looked as not having tattoos as my core competency too.