The Pros And Cons Of Tattoos

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Today, about 10% of the American population has one or more tattoos (Bradley University). With the growing number of adults that are getting tattoos, acceptance has been on the rise throughout the American population. Traditionally, tattoos have been viewed as forms of rebellion. Even with the rising acceptance, adults are still swayed from getting tattoos because of the fear that it may impact future job prospects. However there is still a conservative population who believes that all tattoos are bad. My paper will aim to change a conservative person’s mind about tattoos by deconstructing their view that all tattoos are bad.
People often assume that just because a person has tattoos, they must be gang related and/or a criminal. However, …show more content…

Tattoos in Ancient Polynesian traditions marked the various ranks and statuses of people (Losch). This is the case with anything; we assign meaning to different things. An example of this is a suit. Traditionally, suits are associated with people who have positions of power. Hoodies, on the other hand, can be worn by anyone. It traditionally means comfort and is in no way associated with power or professionalism. But what if a CEO, such as Mark Zuckerberg, wears a hoodie? Contrary to popular belief, people violate norms…seem powerful (Hutson). There is power is breaking social norms. Therefore, although tattoos are traditionally associated with criminals in Western culture, this nonconformity and breaking of rules will actually make the person seem more powerful. Tattoos are a powerful symbol. Although each tattoo is unique in design, overall, the person who wears them is seen as rebellious. The trick to changing society’s mind about this is to accept the fact that tattoos are rebellious; but this does not have to necessarily mean that they are bad. What makes a tattoo bad is the person underneath the tattoo. The parts of the body are quite distinguishable from the self (Mead). This means that the body is a separate entity from a person’s true self. Therefore, in order to change someone’s mind about tattoos they must get to know a portion of a person’s self before deeming them to be bad. They cannot just judge a person as being bad based on their body. Once they get to know a person’s self, then their previously held ideas about the person will be deconstructed along with the reality that tattoos are inherently

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