Post: #26

Not just that but America is fundamentally a shame driven society, and has been since the original shame-ethos that protestant settlers brought with them. For generations Americans have been conditioned to react strongly to shaming so lets use it.

Post: #27

I don't mind tattoos at all, and what people decide to do with their own bodies is their prerogative in my eyes, but for some people, they've become a "hack" of sorts, Let me explain...

There's a lot of things people are trying to "hack" these days. For instance, fame. Fame use to be something earned through some sort of accomplishment, but since the advent of the internet and reality TV, we have people trying to be famous simply for "being famous". Attention. As discussed several times in this forum, instead of going out into the real world and garnering attention through accomplishment or simply by making the effort to interact with people, people are creating online, very-well constructed versions of themselves to in search of "likes". I'd argue that the online dating is an extension of this. Tattoos have become a way of standing out without actually doing anything to stand out. Instead of standing out based on accomplishment and merit, people are choosing the quick and easy route by getting inked up. Now of course it's hard to generalize, and I know high caliber people with plenty of tattoos, but the overarching theme is that this mentality is manifesting itself in several ways, with the explosion of tattoos being one.

These "hacks" though, will never replace the reward of genuine achievement.