The other day I was in the supermarket and I noticed an American fellow covered in tattoos. Of course, it's a pretty common sight these days. But I noticed something about this fellow and it made me think back to what I have noticed about other heavily tattooed men.
This guy sort of strutted around. You know, chest puffed out, lots of swagger and bravado, etc. It was as if he was walking through the prison yard and he wanted to make sure he was sending the right message to his...fellow travelers.
There seem to be two types of men who get heavily tattooed. The beta males who want to appear more masculine. They most often fail – Hey, they are what they are. And the alpha males who are over-invested in their masculinity and they need others to know it. The guys come closer to their goal; it's sort of an in your face aggressiveness. The don't mess with me prison yard meme. And I guess that's fine, if you are actually in a prison yard. But it looks a bit out of place in the supermarket.
And yes, I think these guys have turned themselves into memes. I mean, I know some legitimate bad asses. Believe me, they don't need a bunch of tattoos to convey the message. And I've certainly never seen them strut around. Not once. In fact, all legit bad asses that I've met are pretty low key.
I can only assume this peacocking is what peacocking is always about: Women. I've seen recent polls that confirm young women think men with tattoos are more masculine and dominant. And I know that there is a certain type of woman who likes the Andrew Tate, aggressive male persona. Nowadays these women are easy to spot because they often have their own share of tattoos. Though mind you, not in every case.
I've made the point before that the degeneration of men that we see today largely stems from the abandonment of standards by women. That is, if women did not like this behavior, then men would not behave this way. Men would not dress like thugs and act like thugs if women did not want thugs. Or at least thug wannabes.
Now there is at least one other element of the strutting tattooed man worth considering. Acquiring so many tattoos is a fundamentally narcissistic pursuit. One might argue that one or two tattoos are a personal artistic indulgence or remembrance. But to get a sleeve or more, that has the look at me quality of the true narcissist. Tattoos have become a manifestation of narcissism: Look at me, look at me!
The self-esteem movement, followed by social media proliferation have turned a whole generation into raging narcissists.
Tattoos were sure to follow.