The Op-Ed by David Brooks in the NYT today said what I've been thinking for some time about the nascent popularity of tattoos. Here are some excerpts from the piece entitled Nonconformity Is Skin Deep:

"The problem is that middle-class types have been appropriating the symbols of marginalized outcasts since at least the 1830's. This is no longer a way to express individuality; it's a way to be a part of the mob. Today, fashion trends may originate on Death Row, but it takes about a week and a half for baggy jeans, slut styles and tattoos to migrate from Death Row to Wal-Mart.

What you get is a culture of trompe l'oeil degeneracy. People adopt socially acceptable transgressions---like tattoos---to show they are edgy, but inside they are still middle class. You run into these candy-cane grunge types: people with piercings and inkings all over their bodies who look like Sid Viscious but talk like Barry Manilow. They've got the alienated look---just not the anger.

And that's about the most delightful thing about the whole tattoo fad. A cadre of fashion-forward types thought that they were doing something to separate themselves from the vanilla middle classes but are now discovering the signs etched into their skins are absolutely mainstream. They are at the beach looking across the acres of similar markings and learning there is nothing more conformist than displays of individuality, nothing more risk-free than rebellion, nothing more conservative than youth culture.

Another generation of hipsters laid low by the ironies of consumerism."

-----David Brooks, 8/27/06 NYT