With tattoos becoming mainstream among millennials, the conversation around body art is changing.

by Anna Meyer

photography by Hailey Brumley

Moms hate them, and the old lady walking past you in public gives you the stink eye when she catches sight of it on your body. People will feel the need to remind you that your potential job pool will turn into a shallow puddle of unemployment, and even if you do get hired, you may be told to cover up in a way that other employees aren’t asked to do so.

We’re talking about tattoos and the people who choose to have them, and why getting some ink is a choice that people can make for themselves without it destroying their life. More and more people are making the decision to do so, as noted in a 2010 Pew poll that says around 38 percent of Millennials and around 32 percent of Generation Xers have tattoos. You’ve probably heard of all the reasons why you shouldn’t get them (unemployment, regret, being mistaken for an irresponsible punk), but what about the reasons why it’s a good choice? Why, really, it’s not that big of a deal that some are making it out to be?

Getting a tattoo is something that has been compared to getting piercings or plastic surgery. You’re making permanent changes to your body and its appearance, and it’s done for a multitude of different reasons. Aesthetic desires, memorializing a lost loved one, attributing a loved artist or lyric, or even to cover self harm scars or mastectomies; each tattooed individual has their own purpose for adding images and/or words to their body.

With all of the unique motivations and goals that are out there, why should we focus on only the negative aspects around getting tattooed? We can instead look at the facts like tattoo artists often being the first to point out abnormal skin conditions on their customers, as noted in a study from the NYU Department of Dermatology. Tattoo shops and their artists can be the first step in getting people with skin conditions and cancers into a doctor’s office for treatment, making the artists important allies to medical professionals.

Plus, as mentioned previously, women who’ve undergone mastectomies have found immense comfort in inking their bodies to reclaim what cancer has taken away from them. As quoted in an article from Babble highlighting women and their beautiful chest tattoos, one breast cancer survivor, Pam Huntley, found that “getting my tattoo was the culmination of a three year dance with Breast Cancer. The tattoo changed my mastectomy scar into my shield.”

Previously on our blog, we featured S.E Curtis’ beautifully put thoughts around being a young woman with tattoos and the kind of experiences that come along with it. People pushing their own opinions on a tattooed person’s body, and even inquiring about the very personal reasons why they have the ink that they do, becomes a never-ending battle. When it comes to others pressing her about what the images will look like when she’s older, it becomes an even deeper issue.

“Asking me to regret them or fear what they might look like is asking me to regret being a woman and having a body that changes with time,” Curtis writes. (Seriously, go read this post. I’ve never agreed so whole-heartedly with another tattooed woman about the reasons why she did it)

Getting a tattoo isn’t necessarily an act of rebellion, it’s a form of self expression. Our bodies are like blank canvases that accumulate stories over time. We’ll get laugh lines from the years of smiling with friends, scars from falling as a kid on the playground, and stretch marks as our bodies grow with us in age. Tattoos are just another mark made that can tell the desired parts of the story in the lives of the tattoo-ed.

This idea is documented in a series created by Isaac Fitzgerald and Wendy MacNaughton called Pen & Ink, where they tell the stories of people and their tattoos. It’s a fascinating way to take an intimate look into humans and their stories, and the Pen & Ink Tumblr is one worth scrolling through.

By changing the way the mainstream views tattooed people, and accepting them for their art, the better off we’re all going to be. Nobody wants to feel judged for such a personal decision.

For most tattooed individuals, their ink is a physical reflection of who they are. It can show whom they’ve loved, where they’ve been, and what they find beautiful. Tattoos aid people in defining who they are through an art form that’s no different than personal style or dress. Everyone is different, and our bodies reflect that. For some, their tattoos reflect this.

Anna Meyer is The Riveter’s Editorial Brand Assistant. She is a Minneapolis native currently pursuing journalism and creative writing at the University of Kansas. She enjoys experimenting with charcoal drawing, plastic toy cameras, and she’s most likely waking up early for yoga this weekend. Follow her on Instagram.

Hailey Brumley is an intern with The Riveter and a stylist and model in the Minneapolis area. Check out what she’s up to on Instagram.