[In the past] one saw a face tat and thought: Aryan Brotherhood or gang member or sideshow performer. Famous face tattoo wearers of the recent past, like Mike Tyson, Charles Manson and the drug-addled skateboarder Jay Adams, conformed to the stereotype of the rough character....August 3rd: "Rick Genest, Tattooed Model Known as Zombie Boy, Dies at 32":
“A lot of kids are doing it to make themselves bigger on social media,” said Travis Hardy, 30, a creative director in Los Angeles who works with musicians. “It’s kind of corny.” Last month, he a got a lightning bolt tattooed under his left eye. “I don’t need that,” Mr. Hardy said, referring to others’ quest for attention. “This isn’t for followers or comments.... There’s no turning back. There’s no normal job or whatever... I’m going to continue to creative direct or write treatments for music videos or stage design. I’m not going to turn around. This served as a stamp: I believe in myself.”
When he was a teenager he was told by doctors that he had a brain tumor and that he would need surgery that would leave him disfigured for life. [But instead he received a laser treatment that was not disfiguring.]..._____________________
He then began getting tattoos. His first was of a skull and crossbones on his left shoulder. Then he had his face tattooed to resemble a skull. He decided to shave off his mohawk and had his head tattooed to resemble a brain....
Lady Gaga approached him in 2011 to participate in the “Born This Way” video,** in which she wore makeup that resembled his tattoos....
Mr. Genest wrote in The Mirror that he was proud of achieving his boyhood dream of becoming “a freak.” “And yes,” he wrote, “Please do stare, I like it.”
* For real.
** Here's that video, and, obviously, he was not born that way. It was a later, intentional imposition on his physical being... as was the death, if Lady Gaga's initial tweet is to be believed.
(My screenshots from "Born This Way." To see the Zombie Boy part of the very long "Born This Way" video, begin at 4:11.)
ADDED: Here's the ad Genest did for a tattoo-covering product:
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74 comments:
Mental illness goes mainstream in the NYT.
Their children will be so proud. Looking forward to Dad taking me to practice.
BTW, people with facial tattoos should not be able to collect a dime from welfare.
The problem with this article; is that it refutes its own premise
Face Tats go mainstream! And to prove it; Here's a bunch of outlier unknowns with them!
The hooray-for-face-tattoos Style piece must have been written before the obituary, but it was published after it, and there was no acknowledgment of the troubled mind that might lie underneath the tattooed face. It was so important to appear hip. I'd connect this to the hiring and keeping of the opinion writer who'd published fuck-white-people tweets. The desperate, stumbling pursuit of coolness by a stodgy old institution. Grim!
...or a portrait of Anne Frank on the cheek-to-neck region (and then tattooing a marijuana leaf on Anne Frank's cheek.
"I'll get a tattoo of a butt that has a butt-shaped tattoo on it, and I'll get it right on my butt! That would be cool."
In twenty years; when it's grandma and granddad with all the ink;
will their grand-kids think: Oh GOD! tats are SO COOL!
or will tats become like a Harley-Davidson: Something that PROVES you're old and out of it?
The desperate, stumbling pursuit of coolness
When I was young, my dad was a Pabst Blue Ribbon drinker. I think I was drinking Rolling Rock.
Jump forward a couple of decades. I discover the wonders of PBR in a hipster bar. I was like, "Dad, PBR is awesome. I had no idea your beer was so cool. You were cool and you didn't even know it!"
And my father said, "What's PBR?"
Now my dad is drinking Amstel Light. And I sometimes drink Stella, and sometimes drink Corona. But if I'm at a bar, my first impulse now is that American classic, PBR. Made hip I think by that psycho, Frank Booth.
Anyway, cool people don't chase cool. Let the cool come to you! That's the cool way.
Last night at Aldi, there was a cartoonishly normal looking guy and his freaky girlfriend with two very large piercings on her face, one through the septum, which I find so revolting I can't remember where the other one was, but it wasn't a typical place. At least they can be removed.
Person of color(ed ink.)
Meade
You are old enough to know that it is "peoples of color" not person of color.
Body dysmorphia is a terrible condition.
Let’s quit pretending it might be otherwise.
Could it be that tattooing was his way of self-medicating for depression, like cutting, and he ran out of skin? Regardless, I blame the laser.
"There’s no turning back. There’s no normal job or whatever." Right, so this is a way to make yourself permanently unemployable in anything other than Lady Gaga videos. After that, maybe suicide is the only way out.
The Tattoo Artist That Works Next To The Adult Bookstore says...
I remember the exact moment when I sold part of my soul.
No, I don't remember the date, nor the specific time: I remember it was winter and in the evening, but beyond that I would only be guessing.
I had finished work on a college girl, giving her a college girl tattoo: a light green seashell with wings, smallish and relatively discreet on her ankle. She would be able to easily hide it in most situations, and as she got older it would exist as an amusing memory in the way that the minor chagrins of youth can be amusing if most other things in life turned out okay. Besides: light green tattoos fade quickly, so there is a metaphor in there if you want to make one.
On this hazy winter evening a young male came into the shop. He did not seem particularly distressed, nor drunk, which removed the easy excuses to reject his request: he was firm in wanting two playing cards inked upon the side of his face. Yes, of course one was the Ace of Spades: edginess has clichés of it's own.
I had always refused to tattoo faces: I believed it to be, by far, the easiest tattoo choice to regret, and I wished to stay clear of that kind of karma. From the neck down: your money, your choice. Otherwise, there are plenty of other artists that will meet your request.
You no doubt see where I am going with this: I gave the man what he wanted.
I would love to say that I had made a reasoned decision on why I had changed my standards, but there was none. One day I didn't tattoo faces, and then one day I did.
There is cold comfort and consistency to be found in becoming jaded, and inevitably what made you jaded will soon become accepted by society if you simply wait long enough.
I know: you probably want to know what the other playing card was that I tattooed on his face.
It was a Thirteen of Hearts. I kept that design in my books.
I am Laslo.
Hey, I used to see guys like him when the State Fair came round in September. Smelled of Four Roses and ran the Bumper Cars. No U.S.M.C. bulldogs either. First Impressions, Lasting Impressions. Tragic.
Im so glad to have Laslo back
John Henry
The NYT is staffed with supposedly hip liberal white people who are mostly stupid losers promoting bad ideas.
Free-ranging insane. Milked by a millionairess.
Lady Gaga goo goo.
Another example of the noted genre, "Three People in New York City Make a Trend."
“Mr. Molina, the Chicago tattoo artist, says that those getting face tattoos are generally young and work in untraditional jobs. For what it’s worth, he has no plans to get one himself. “I know if I drop my kid off at school and I have face tattoos, the teacher is going to judge me,” he said.”
Damn middle class values rear their ugly head.
Obviously, anyone who goes to such macabre lengths to deface their own body is not mentally well.
It is likely that he finally "grew up' and at age 32 looked at himself, at his life and also at his dwindling fame (the Cindy Sheehan syndrome) and realized "What have I done to myself???". "What is my life going to be like from now forward? for the next 40 years?"
There is no going back from the deformations he made to his body. What path forward did he have? None. So, he takes it to the logical conclusion.
I see other young people who have done and are doing similar things to themselves and think. How sad. They have taken a great gift...life, your living body.... and trashed it.
A gift from God, if that is your belief. If not, still, it is a gift and a great miracle nonetheless.
Some medical practices collaborate with other lifestyle businesses such as dermatology and spas or “holistic primary care” and health food/supplements.
I wonder if reassignment surgeons have considered collaborating with tattoo artists?
Mainstream to NYT readers.
But for some reason I’m not expecting to see many face tattoos on The Street or Harvard Law.
I do find tats useful as they advertise the owner as an idiot.
That new hire at the NYT should have “I hate white men” on her forehead. Cool!
I do find tats useful as they advertise the owner as an idiot.
As a person who has, in the past, been in the position of hiring people, multiple tattoos are a giant red flag to NOT hire this person.
If you have made THIS many bad decision about your own body and your own life......what kind of bad decisions are you going to make with MY business and MY livelihood.
Pass on hiring.
My favorite tattoo story concerns a Hispanic gang member in California. The guy shot some poor soul outside a liquor store as part of his gang initiation. He got away with it as there were no witnesses. Several months later, the cops picked him up for a routine traffic violation and ended up hauling him into the station. The police now make heavily tatted suspects take off their shirts when mug shots are taken, since tats are not only easy identification marks but sometimes provide the police with very interesting clues. This guy was so proud of the murder he had committed he had had the entire murder scene - the front of the liquor store and bullets hitting a falling man -emblazoned on his chest. He confessed.+
Every picture tells a story, don't it?
+This happened in California so if this genius was an illegal, he might be out on the streets again.
"There is cold comfort and consistency to be found in becoming jaded, and inevitably what made you jaded will soon become accepted by society if you simply wait long enough".
@ Laslo- It's been around for ever, the French call it "nostalgie de la boue", the bible calls it temptation and for Ann it's her idea of being cool garnished by some OED references.
From a stodgy old, old, old man.
I guess given the choices of being a great pianist, an accomplished scholar or a tattooed geek the choice was easy.
Tattoos are a convenient way to define your nothingness.
Since the old fogies at the NY Times - Krugman, Friedman, Brooks, and Rosin - are considered hopelessly antiquated and boring by the newest addition to the editorial board, they might consider getting face tattoos to show the new kid on the block they are chill. Pink hair and ear gauges might help too.
When you tattoo your face, you transform yourself from being a person into being a thing.
"As a person who has, in the past, been in the position of hiring people, multiple tattoos are a giant red flag to NOT hire this person."
I forget where I read it, but some Internet sage said excessive tats and florescent hair serve the same purpose as garishly colored reptiles, fish and plants sometimes do in nature. The flamboyant colors serve as a warning the plant or animal is poisonous and toxic and it is better to steer clear of it. It's probably good that these people are signaling "If you are sane, you will keep your distance from me."
Check this out --
Worst face tattoos
I think there is an effect here due in part to that one chick on that really popular forensics show. Can't recall which show, too many and I don't care anyway. I only read books, dontcha know. I'm kidding, I do watch some TV and I do read (more than the average person, which is to say less than the average Althouse hillbilly).
The mainstreaming of tattoo chick from forensics show, where commercials for show prominently feature her tattoos, taught a whole generation of aspiring forensic scientists that loads of neck and face tattoos will not affect your job prospects when it comes to being hired by either the state crime lab or that drug-testing company.
That's NCIS, at one time the most popular show on TV.
Sort of appropriate, since sailors, Marines, soldiers, and cons were the forerunners of the tattoo craze. They cover 3 out of 4.
The degeneracy in society needs to be purged. The popular culture is sick and diseased.
exiledonmainstreet
Aposematic coloration screams stay very far away.
“The NYT runs a style piece...”
Instead of Althouse calling this a ‘style piece’ or even a ‘think piece’ (yesterday), shouldn’t this be called an ‘ink piece’?
Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover.
More surplus people news.
I work in law enforcement and actually see these fairly regularly, although they're usually far crappier as most of them are prison tattoos. Incidentally, none of the guys who have them have ever actually been employed.
One guy didn't have any facial tattoos but had quite a few on his neck and as such wore a turtle neck whenever he went for an interview. His mom used to laugh at him, reminding him that she told him not to get them.
"When he was a teenager he was told by doctors that he had a brain tumor and that he would need surgery that would leave him disfigured for life. [But instead he received a laser treatment that was not disfiguring.]He then began getting tattoos. His first was of a skull and crossbones on his left shoulder. Then he had his face tattooed to resemble a skull. He decided to shave off his mohawk and had his head tattooed to resemble a brain"
--
Soooo..dodged the bullet only to shoot himself over and over..
Oh,I dunno, this might be one of those rare times when suicide is a viable option.
https://www.bustle.com/articles/187665-11-ways-to-hide-tattoos-with-clothing-when-youve-got-to-cover-your-ink
This is why Trump won.
I try to take comfort in the fact that, by 2043, tattoos will be an uncool parentish thing. But then I realize that whatever has replaced them as the cool thing will be unimaginably horrible.
““Mr. Molina, the Chicago tattoo artist, says that those getting face tattoos are generally young and work in untraditional jobs. For what it’s worth, he has no plans to get one himself. “I know if I drop my kid off at school and I have face tattoos, the teacher is going to judge me,” he said.”
Damn middle class values rear their ugly head.”
I was sitting here in the McDonalds in the Walmart by the House, reading another Althouse comment thread, and noticed two attractive women sitting a little bit away in McDonalds. Put on my glasses to get a better look, and noticed that they both had tattoos, one was relatively heavily tattooed, the other less so. My first thought was that they had downgraded their attractiveness to people like me - upper middle class professionals. And then wondered why they would do that. They are essentially screaming to the world that they are working or lower class, and have no aspirations to move up in society to the middle class. Which makes no sense to me. I have done manual labor and had jobs where tattoos would maybe be acceptable, and quickly discovered that life was much more pleasant solidly in the middle class. I haven’t punched a time card for 40 years now, nor worried about 15 minute breaks. And for almost that long, I have been able to set my own hours. Meanwhile, I earned a lot more money, never got my hands dirty, or ever had to lift anything the least bit heavy, always worked in air conditioned offices, etc. and, yet, so many these days seem to turn their backs on that by getting visible tattoos. And even more unsettling is watching someone you know go through this. I watched one woman I know lose her teaching job within maybe a year of extending her tramp stamp all the way up her back. Sure, her Administration should have just looked at her competence, but did they? I suspect that her usually visible tattoo probably colored how they viewed her. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of them saw her as a troublemaker, and not a team player. And, no doubt, a lot of the parents probably saw her as less than competent. Not someone they wanted their kids around.
Thanks for the Lynch link.
I've been thinking for some time we need to raise $16,000,000 through the Althouse site in trade for an EP credit, then take the money and make, yes I said make him (Lynch that is), do 16 unique videos of Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face."
Bakers gotta bake and David's gotta do what the hell I tell him to, for a warm $16,000,000, and I am telling him $1,000,000 per vid, times 16, all unique and centered around the Great Idol, Billy.
"I'm all out of hope
One more bad dream could bring a fall?
When I'm far from home
Don't call me on the phone
To tell me you're alone
It's easy to deceive
It's easy to tease
But hard to get release
Eyes without a face (les yeux sans visage)
Eyes without a face, got no human grace your eyes without a face..."
My first thought was that they had downgraded their attractiveness to people like me - upper middle class professionals. And then wondered why they would do that. They are essentially screaming to the world that they are working or lower class, and have no aspirations to move up in society to the middle class.
The "punk" styles in Britain in the 80s were a lower class thing that flaunted their unemployability. The hairdos that looked like rooster combs and the like. Then the British upper classes began to adopt these lower class styles and mannerisms. It was bizarre and went with the Diana and Fergie era.
Eventually, it made it over here, You won't get into the military with facial tattoos and the Marines still will not accept a recruit with tattoos that can be seen when wearing a short sleeved shirt.
Ditto re Laslo. You have a novel in you man.
There are societies where tattoos are the norm, even extensive facial tattoos or scars. The Maori for instance.
Context is everything. The only caveat is that this stuff needs to conform to a social pattern. I doubt the Maori would have approved of this fellows tattoos.
“Damn middle class values rear their ugly head.”
But there is a reason for those “damn middle class values”. I was thinking of the sorts of jobs where visible tattoos would be a significant disadvantage, and my list included doctors, lawyers, accountants, bankers, clergy, engineers, etc. the commonality is that they are high trust jobs. You trust them with your life, your legal affairs, your money, your spiritual life, etc. And part of those middle class values is being trustworthy. So, there is always the deep down worry by the middle class, that if someone has turned their back on their values (by getting visible tattoos, etc), that they shouldn’t be trusted with anything of real value or importance.
There are a lot of sweet people with tattoos, in my experience.
Lawyers have done and are doing near-infinitely more to damage America than those possessing face tattoos.
You people had better focus on them, and not you.
Just look at the Democtratic's Party and who leads it, that is all the proof needed to anyone with a smidgen of honesty how toxic lawyers are to anything decent and pure.
Whew, all of these 'real and authentic individualists' separating themselves from the plain-vanilla hoi polloi crowd by getting facial tattoos. How very hip.
If face tattoos were really mainstream, Time wouldn't be calling them that, would they? What Time might mean is that the outre fashion of face tattoos is being used in popular culture as a transgression against current tastes, in order to shock and gain attention. That is very different from "mainstream."
Time noticed online stuff for kids - a year after my elementary school aged son showed me the HomeStarRunner.com website with StrongBad. Time is not an arbiter of anything close to reality.
I wonder how many of those with face tattoos are as big of booze hounds as the average American lawyer, the biggest (white-collar) and sloppiest booze hounds of them all?
I was thinking of the sorts of jobs where visible tattoos would be a significant disadvantage, and my list included doctors,
We had a female medical student show up with pink hair and body piercings.about 20 years ago.
She was told that she could not violate the dress code.
I thought it even more important when dealing with the poor patients in the County Hospital.
For years, I taught students, and my office staff, that they could never call a patient by their first name and students could never examine a patient without asking permission.
Now, the stupid HIPPA rules have turned that on its head. I wonder if the dress code is even still valid?
A tattoo is just like a bad haircut.
When my doctor comes into the room I stand, until I am told to take a seat. But then, I get treated my military doctors.
I'm finding many of these doctors are a little embarrassed when I do that. One even told me I don't need to stand when they come in. Especially the women doctors, as they think it might be sexist.
"Sorry," I said, "I'm always respectful of your rank."
That seems to confuse them even more. It's not your fathers military anymore.
I don't get the whole tattoo thing.
I just don't.
Popular Cholo hits the street..and Trump.
Street Talk with Scar-The People vs Trump
Plus! Behind the tats!:
Cholo Scar TALKS TATTOOS
It's not your fathers military anymore.
That's for sure.
Almost any tattoo is the sign of psychological difficulties.
'Zombie Boy' appears to have had many deep-rooted ones.
Leave the kids alone, yua old fogies.
The more that do it, the more mainstream and acceptable it is.
We had a female medical student show up with pink hair and body piercings.about 20 years ago
Apparently a trend setter.
How were you able to see the body piercings?
How were you able to see the body piercings?
Quite prominent. Ears, nose, etc.
Facial, then. I misunderstood. Expected belly button, nipples etc.
Cat saw himself in derma mufti and what was left of "normal" said OmiGodWhatHaveIDone and in a flash he banished the thought. At least temporarily. Then he killed himself.
There's more than a little guilt in GaGa's response.
I think of facial tattoos when I think of transgendered people. People who just want to look very different than how they are.
Expected belly button, nipples etc.
No, that is not part of the medical curriculum. You have to examine those in the off hours.
Middle class moms are now getting extensive tattoos and coloring their hair in bright shades.
I used to work with homeless gutter-punks, many of whom had extensive face tats. The thing I found odd was that it upset them that people stared. It's like when a wonam wears a tee-shirt with writing on the front. You start reading it, and they flash you a 'quit looking at my chest' look. WTF???
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