For something as innocuous as a little ink below the skin, tattoos are pretty much a public-relations nightmare.
The uphill battle tattoos face to widespread acceptance is thanks to cultural associations with all kinds of unsavory elements.
Yes, there’s a bad-boy chic element that wears tattoos — pirates and musicians such as the late Amy Winehouse, for instance. Unfortunately, so did Holocaust victims and prisoners in Russian gulags, which doesn’t exactly present an image of wholesome savoriness.
Nevertheless, tattoos are in little danger of disappearing, if the six-year run of TLC’s “Miami Ink,” “London Ink,” “LA Ink” and “NY Ink” is any indication.
That lingering sense of counterculture-ness may be at the core of why many people get tattoos and why they remain taboo in some circles, but plenty of people see them as an emotionally significant, viable means of artistic expression.