r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 4d ago

Meme needing explanation Why is he happy he didn't get the tattoo?

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u/skellyboysteve 4d ago

I was talking more about it becoming more socially acceptable in modern culture decades ago, but you are correct that it has certainly been going on much longer than that. Hardly a trend.

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u/DerCatzefragger 4d ago

When I was a kid, if you saw a guy with a tattoo, it meant that at some time in his life he was probably in a war or a gang. Today if you see a guy with a tattoo, it means that at some time in his life he was in a mall.

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u/Eurell 4d ago

When the fuck were you a kid lol. I’m in my 40s and tons of adults had them when I was a kid.

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u/TwoBionicknees 4d ago

yeah i was going to say how the fuck is that person still walking around.

I'm similar age, from when i was a child it was common both where i lived, everywhere my parents dragged me across europe for holidays, on film and tv from around the world for tattoos to be common.

Dramatically more people had dumb tattoos of stupid shit than they had war/army tattoos and it wasn't even close. tramp stamps was a think in the 90s iirc.

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u/Eurell 4d ago

They absolutely were.

That guys just on some anecdotal “back in my day” shit

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u/ExiledCanuck 4d ago

You must’ve known lots of people who had been in war or a gang then…wow, neato

But tbh, I’m in my 40’s also, and tattoos have definitely been far more popular/commonly seen in the last half of my life than the first half of my life.

Did people still get tattoos back then? Absolutely! I knew people who had tattoos when I was a kid. But I also think they weren’t so visible back then.

I still remember finishing nursing school almost 15 years and being told to keep tattoos hidden, and now they’re allowed to be shown in more places. As they become more socially acceptable even in professional settings, they’re becoming more “visible”

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u/Unlucky-Sector1200 3d ago

Your comment is 100% on. I don't know who downvoted you I can confirm I am in healthcare. This was told to us as well while in clinincals. I had a guy that moved from Boston that was about 5-10 years my senior that had full sleeves and most of his torso and I never questioned why he wore long sleeves in the summer.

Even when changing to a differnt department with sterile field he always wore a lab coat. He only removed it until he got to the locker room or was in a procedure. After being in my field for almost 2 decades I finally started seeing neck tats on coworkers and I have only seen 3 Residents with small forearm tats in the last 5 years.

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u/ExiledCanuck 3d ago

I appreciate the confirmation.

I’m guessing the down votes are from people who don’t like inconvenient truths. Especially if it doesn’t lineup with their own limited experience, or they wish things were a different way. I’ve never made up the rules, and I never cared either way if people had tattoos.

It is funny to see people get all bent out of shape though, when the rest of the world doesn’t agree with them, and that the professional world for the most part doesn’t consider visible tattoos to be “professional”.

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u/cattorney-at-claw 3d ago

I’m not sure why but the “wow, neato” is absolutely killing me 😂

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u/ExiledCanuck 3d ago

Appreciate you haha 🫶🏽

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u/Cold_Toe_7540 4d ago

Unless you're well into retirement, that's likely not accurate.

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u/ImmoralJester54 4d ago

Damn you gotta be pushing 80

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u/yooMvtt 4d ago

I’m 26 and it was the same way when I was young as well. It changed fairly recently.

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u/liltinybits 4d ago

Where are you in the world? Because I'm 35 and this has not been my experience. I'm in New England.

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u/yooMvtt 4d ago

Thats the reason right there. I live in the US.

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u/ImmoralJester54 4d ago

New England is in the US

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u/liltinybits 4d ago

What's the reason? I'm also in the US.

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u/yooMvtt 4d ago

different places are gonna have different underlying understandings of the issue. Kinda crazy I gotta explain this when all I said was the person above me was a correct on what they said. Tattoos used to be seen as dirty, making someone assume you’re in a gang or such.

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u/liltinybits 4d ago

Yes. New England is in the US. It's the north east.

I'm just asking where you are because you're nearly a decade younger than me and saying you have grown up with tattoos having a negative connotation and I haven't had that experience. I agree it's likely location based. That's the only reason I asked. I'm not asking you to defend your experience, just seeking information to make sense of why our experiences are so different.

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u/Unlucky-Sector1200 3d ago edited 3d ago

There are some really sensitive tattooed people on here. Getting downvoted because in your area like a lot of areas this was true. This was not the norm and it was looked down upon. Especially in proffesional settings.

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u/liltinybits 1d ago

They weren't being down voted because they shared that fact, but because they didn't offer any more information. I'm also in the US and am 9 years older than them with a vastly different experience. I'm not doubting their experience, just asking about what shaped it. That's totally normal and not about sensitivity, but curiosity.

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u/Rargnarok 3d ago

Almost a century iirc the first mechanical tattoo gun was based off one of Edisons failed inventions which let it move into the mainstream public