On the modern tattooing phenomenon:
…a tattoo differentiates and individuates, while at the same time allowing identification with masses of others. A tattoo allows you to rebel and conform at the same time, eat your cake and have it too. The names of tattoo parlours – Evil in the Needle, for example, or Revolution Ink – often reveal a kind of antinomianism which does not quite have the courage of its lack of convictions.
Since his devastating essay on tattoos, “Exposing Shallowness,” I can never get enough of Dalrymple writing on this bovine phenomenon. Today, to brand oneself with a tattoo is to instantly proclaim one’s conformity. Yet the branded see themselves as models of individuality! Herds, herds of “individuals” roaming everywhere today! Such is today’s diabolical disorientation.