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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

It used to be that tattoos were a marker of some combination of lower class, military, sports, etc. But you'd pretty much never see them in general on most middle/upper-class professionals. That changed with developers etc. over the past couple decades. Not shocking that might reverse. Not personal commentary but just an observation.

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I think society's attitude towards people with tattoos ebbs and flows over time too. I think with the recent political happenings we might be in a bit of an ebb.

> lower class, military, sports, etc.

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

“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.

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.

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

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

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 really like my tattoos but this is why I've chosen to have them in easily covered areas.

Tattoos say different things to different people in different times. Right now tattoos are fine in most white collar settings but this won't always be the case.

It would have seemed weird 20-30 years ago. Now, pretty normal, especially in developer and adjacent settings.

My understanding is that it was an upper class thing in the late 1800s.

Fashion goes in cycles and all that.

Middle and upper class professionals have plenty of tattoos. They just have them in places that are easily covered up when they're at work.

well if the capitalists get their way, we'll be lower class soon enough! :D

oh that evil capitalists ..., pfff

Yea, their objective is to optimize labor costs and increase profit margins. It is an objective that is diametrically opposed to our well being in the long run.

Don't confuse a state of affairs where the capitalists are having difficulty replacing us (thus reducing pressure on us) with a general beneficence, their relationship to us is purely transactional and we are disposable. Have solidarity with your class.

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