I quite like the idea of the armed forces tattos and can undertand the reasons for the Hells Angels form. They show you belong, like a rite of passage.
They also make me involuntarily react with concern in many situations where I see them. I guess this is the result of the press promoting the gang aspects of them. My reaction to people who have had fashion tattos as I call them is "sad fashion victim". A bit like wearing Victoria Beckham Jeans.
I think the aspect of tattos that is interesting is when they came out of the underworld and clan sides (hells angels, gangs) and into the "marketing" side with the Nike Swoosh moment. They then went "celeb" and it all got out of hand.
Clay Timon of Landor is reputed to have been in the vanguard of of this and was part of the program that identified the value of tatt's to the marketing organisation of large companies such as Nike. At this point the wannabes start to have Tatts of their own using the swoosh on their arm to emulate the high profile sports personalities Nike sponsored. I hear the sound of sheep
This could be a total shaggy dog story but some people I talked to a few years ago explained about the very word "branding" being stimulated through the first introduction to body art. Some Harley owners were asked why they had the Harley wings painted onto their body as a permanent tatto. They responded with the statement that they liked their "brand" (like a cow) as it showed they had the strength to take pain in order to be identified with what they aspired to. It was tough, unashamedly so.
So if the aspirational product/vendor/lifestyle you like is that important to you that you are willing to have your body branded like a cow then it must be good. So the goal of a vendor was to become a brand, if marketing have done their job so well that people will have their bodies disfigured for life to be identified then they have been successful. How odd is this world ?
So who's first for a Morgan Tatt then, we must have a few takers on this board.....perhaps a Henna one for a starting point.
Maybe Simon could organise a discount for a group booking at a quality emporium and provide the logo used for the window stickers.....form an orderly queue
