Tattoos: Celebrity Inspired?
COM 150
March 14, 2010
Melissa Paganini
Tattoos have always been a topic of interest throughout society and within cultures. In the past tattoos have generally been associated with gangs and various types of rebels, but in the western hemisphere they are becoming more and more popular with average people like lawyers, doctors, and teachers. Some people ask why one would get a tattoo in the first place. Maybe for religious or cultural reasons or for times in their life they would like to permanently be reminded of. Celebrities are some of the most common people to get tattoos now, which has some asking if the media and celebrities are inspiring regular people to get tattoos. If someone's favorite celebrity gets a "tat" are they more willing to get one than they would have been before they knew their idol had one? These questions are asked all of the time and most people can only answer personally for themselves, but some tattoo artists have said that tattoos are sometimes celebrity inspired.
Different cultures have always had different reasons for getting tattoos. In Japan tattoos are still thought of as disrespectful and the person wearing them thought of as a bad influence on society because in the past tattoos were strictly for the inmates and gang members of Japan to show their conviction for jail time. Although Japan's ideas of tattoos are not so well, in small villages like the New York tribe of the Algonquians, who were native Americans that had tattoos to show respect for the tribe and to show patriotism during war. A story we all know to well is the Jewish genocide thought and delivered out by Hitler and German military members which brought tattoos to an all time low. The Jewish people were tattooed with serial numbers to keep up with the death rate in the Auschwitz concentration camp. This wave of tattooing was a sad point in history and far from the ideas of tattooing today. In the far past...