Actually, tattoos can signify a trashy, low social class individual, but it can also signify a person who is placing themselves outside the entire social class system. Depends on the person and their intent. Check out the book , "Class" by Paul Fussel. You will never look at people the same way again. Great, humorous study in class dynamics.
You are correct about smoking being a low class signifier, but you left out being overweight.
A lot of thing are low class indicators. Weight is a big one. Some would say so is having lots of kids. If you are going to accuse tattooed people as being low class, you need to look at your own red flags first. Shop at Wal-Mart anyone?
Interesting. In our area, large families are a sign of status among 20 and 30 year old Christians
I would not make that connection, lumping in overweight people with smokers and tattooed/pierced/smokers.
However, as a precursor to what I am about to say, I do believe everyone has a right (or at least should have a right) to do what they want if it doesn’t hurt anyone else.
I don’t mind a tattoo or two on men, arm, leg, chest, etc.
And I don’t find a small tattoo on a woman in an unobtrusive place to be unattractive.
And the fact that I find piercings completely repulsive (and a lot of intrusive tattoos to be quite unattractive) should not have any weight in what someone else does with their body. (I will say that sitting across the dinner table from someone with those damned pieces of metal coming down out of their nostrils is nauseating, but I can live with it as long as eating across from them isn’t a long term proposition.)
But to lump overweight people in with people who smoke, get tattoos, or piercings is not right.
People who are overweight do not deliberately choose to be that way, and in many cases, desperately would like to change.
Some smokers, too, would like to change (and I can give some of them the benefit of being addicted, which would make them more like an overweight person) but that cannot be said of someone with piercings or tattoos which are totally and completely 100% voluntary and intentional.
I have a kind of funny story along those lines. My wife and I went to a movie a few years ago, and the line was moving slowly to the ticket booth. As we got closer, I could see it was what looked like a thin, 16 year old boy with acne and glasses, but he also had what appeared to be a prosthetic on his lip or mouth, probably for some kind of cancer surgery. As we got closer, I was filled with pity for him, because going through adolescence is tough enough, never mind having some kind of physical deformity.
Then, when I got up there, I realized it wasn’t a prosthetic, but a series of about 20 metal rings on the left side of his upper lip, and another 20 rings on the lower lip. Looking back, the way I felt was humorous to me in retrospect, but at the time, I was so irritated I nearly spit. Here I was, feeling bad for this kid because I thought he had a deformity, and it was 100% intentional. I felt like I wasted valuable emotional capital on him!
Now, if I get a job interviewee, and they show up like that, they aren’t getting the job. I don’t care how well they do it, I am not hiring them, period. Same with someone with tattoos on the neck, face, and such. I work in a setting with patients, and I just won’t do it.
I won’t pass judgement on anyone for their God-given physical appearance, but if someone intentionally does that to themselves, I don’t have a problem being judgmental. If I worked in a different setting, it might not matter. But I am not going to have someone like that occupying a receptionist position and greeting patients, no matter what Hollywood would like us to think is common practice.
If that makes me a bad person, I will have to live with that, because I am not going to change.