How Does Tattoos Affect Popular Culture

When people think about 1945 they think of wars won and new technology that makes our lives easier today. However, there was a popular culture or movement that boomed throughout the United States and is still popular in today’s culture; tattoos. Tattoos have been around for centuries with the earliest known man Otzi who was predicted to live around 300 B.C. and he had tattoos still inked to what’s left of Otzi. However, tattoos had different meanings throughout the years and change meanings to the people who get them. Although tattoos have a long history of different meanings the different interpretations of the tattoos represent the popular trend and culture of the time. The United States went through many changes and improvements ever since 1945 experts such as Elizabeth LaRue, Don Ed Hardy, Cristian Petru Panaite, and Derek John Roberts all have commented on the ever changing trends on tattoos. Popular trends that …show more content…
About 45 million Americans have tattoos, and each tattoo has a different meaning. Tattoos could be to remember someone, to commemorate a won battle, or to express interests that someone has. Each tattoo however represents who someone is. According to Derek John Roberts author of Secret Ink: Tattoo’s Place in Contemporary Culture he states that “,to cover one's tattoos would be to deny one's true self”. This quote shows that in today’s popular culture it’s common to get a tattoo that represents who someone is, and to hide it would be the equivalent of hiding themselves from who they are. In today’s popular culture it is widely celebrated and encouraged to be able to express one’s self freely and proudly, and tattoos let people do that through beautiful art. Although a lot of tattoos are copied or repeats of the past, like sailors today getting WW2 tattoos, it still represents who that person is and what they