April 25, 2024

"I hate that my tattoos are such a defining factor for me getting a job or not. Just because I have tattoos doesn’t mean I’m not going to be a good worker."

 Said Ash Putnam, quoted in "Tattooed applicant claims she was denied TJ Maxx job over her ink, confronts store employees: ‘It’s so annoying’" (NY Post).

There's a big satanic tattoo on her throat and so much more.

Here's Putnam deadpanning in her hilarious TikTok:
@ashxobrien I want to know who is also having a hard time finding a job right now! #jobs #jobmarket ♬ original sound - Ash🖤

99 comments:

Leland said...

If she hated that tattoos would be a defining factor, she would never have done her face. I’m sure she was warned before she got tattooed there that it would define her. Even tattoo artist have a level of ethics above NY’s judicial system and will warn against getting face tattoos.

Political Junkie said...

IMO - A sign of our decline.

2 trivia bits:

1. I recall an Army Ranger instructor, when asked if there were predictors on who would make it through Ranger school. He said, for him, the best tell was presences of tattoos. He thought no tattooed folks did better than tattooed folks.
2. Officer and a Gentleman - Robert Loggia to Richard Gere - "Officers don't have tattoos." Unfortunately, more and more officers have tattoos.

Humperdink said...

The leaders of the Columbia University protestors are hiring substitute tent installers.
Tattoos are a plus. Pays sucks however.

Trying to visualize 35-40 years down the road what this young lady will have made of her life.

wendybar said...

Actions have consequences in the real world.

jaydub said...

I don't think it's because of the potential employer thinking she's not a hard worker, it's more that they don't want a self-identified whacked-out idiot being the face of the store to the customer. Probably should have thought of that earlier.

wendybar said...

Travis Barker, a household name for music worshippers, is the drummer of the rock band, Blink-182. Also famous for his tattoos, he gives the reason for getting them, so he could never go and get a normal job. He could never become just another average person. No one would hire someone who has ink all over their body.

BUMBLE BEE said...

A Tragically traumatized example.
Can't discriminate against criminals either.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/biden-admin-hits-sheetz-convenience-store-chain-lawsuit-campaign-stop

PB said...

Visible, undeniable evidence of bad judgement.

rhhardin said...

To scrape together my sentences I needs must employ the natural method, regressing to the savages so they may give me lessons. Simple and majestic gentlemen, their gracious mouths ennoble all that flows from their tattooed lips. - Lautreamont

Dave Begley said...

The worst fad of the last 20 years.

Face tats are the job killer.

Jamie said...

Goodness, and SO much more!

Will Cate said...

The best part is when she gets around to saying she doesn't really need the money, LOL... On the upside, she could do OnlyFans for about a month and get that debt paid off.

richlb said...

I'm tattoo-less. I'm sure if I applied for a job at a tattoo shop I would be denied employment and she would get the job.

john said...

She's just churning up her tiktok hits, and as a bonus gets highlighted in the Post and as another bonus gets frontpaged by Althouse so all of us commenters can tut-tut her. If TJMaxx hired her she would have to quit right away and file a discrimination suit. She knows how to play the game and perhaps plays it well.

Dave Begley said...

You didn’t mention her piercings.

She said she does “okay with money” and didn’t really need the job. Porn star? Drug dealer? Prostitute?

BUMBLE BEE said...

When I see nose rings I recall the image of the first Outlaws member I saw back in the 60s. He had a large thick one.
Also, moooooo!
Those tats cost her plenty.

Clyde said...

Maybe a job with the circus?

Breezy said...

It’s difficult to focus on what she’s saying because the tattoos are so engrossing.

Sally327 said...

I doubt the tattoos were why this particular retailer was unwilling to hire her and unfair to assume that without more than just her saying so. A quick search tells me that its customer base is: 24.26% male and 75.74% female. The largest age group of visitors are 25 - 34 year olds.

Tattoos are so ubiquitous these days and have been for some time, it's no longer edgy or cool and no one really gives a sh*t. Including, most likely, this off-price retailer that caters to the discerning female shopper. But it's convenient for her to assume otherwise, I guess. She brands herself and then complains that she's being branded by others as unemployable. Maybe her application was full of misspelled words or she wanted the right to work from home.

But the story has gotten her a lot of attention so I'm sure there will be some kind of gainful employment on offer somewhere. She seems like someone who will really bear down and work hard and not whine and complain a lot...NOT!

John henry said...

Theodore Dalrymple is a British prison psychiatrist. He wrote about the effect of tattoos on the British psyche in 1995

https://www.city-journal.org/article/it-hurts-therefore-i-am

John Henry

John henry said...

My favorite is the "tramp stamp" reaction.

"But I'm not a tramp" they will say "it is so unfair to judge me by by my tattoo"

Hey sweetie, you are the one who decided to advertise yourself as a tramp. If you are not, why are you advertising yourself as one?

And what other point is there to that kind of tattoo? You can't even enjoy it since you can't see it.

John Henry

Jersey Fled said...

My family once owned a small chain of hair salons. Almost all of our stylists had tattoos, although most were small and tastefully done. One young girl however was pretty much covered from head to foot. (I took her word for it). We made her a manager for one of our stores. She was an excellent worker.

Tell her to get a cosmetology degree. Pays better than TJ Maxx too.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Not a Babylon Bee story? Interesting…

Xmas said...

Those are some nice tattoos.

That said, she has put herself out of working a customer-facing, retail job, except for maybe at a Hot Topic or a vape shop.

Nothing says, "Yes, I can help you find some Elmo socks for your niece." like a Demon Spider tattoo on your neck and a 00 gauge nose ring.

John henry said...

I know the executive vp for manufacturing of the second largest biotechnology firm in the world.

He is covered in tats to make Tommy Lee and Travis barker look like pikers. Including his face.

He has his 2" disks in his ears.

Multiple facial piercings.

If you are valuable enough, nobody cares.

How valuable would this woman be to any company.

You know who would hire her? Amazon or FedEx to work in the warehouse. Any manufacturer in the us to work on the floor.

They would start her at $15-25. Problem is, they would expect her to work. Is she willing to do that ?

John Henry

MadisonMan said...

..and of course she has debt. I wonder how much her tattoos cost.
In the Biden Economy, I'm pretty sure the people who were hired instead of her actually do have a lot more experience. But sure, lady, blame the ink. Isn't that why you got it? So you had something to blame for everything wrong in your life?
Disclaimer: One of my kids has tattoos.

Spiros Pappas said...

I'd hire her. She has no other options so she would be a good worker.

tcrosse said...

Tattoos make you easier to pick out of a line-up.

Jamie said...

Thanks for the Theodore Dalrymple link, John Henry - people just don't write like that any more.

RNB said...

How do I tattoo "Poor Decision-Making Skills" across my forehead without using those literal words?

John henry said...

I first heard, probably made, the "can't get a job without experience, can't get experience without a job" conundrum in high school in the 60s

You take any job at any wage to get experience and move up. In hs I worked in Mcdonalds, got fired, worked in a Hardee's, moved up to line cook in a Marriott Hot Shoppes so on till I joined the Navy.

In boot camp I told the councilor I wanted to be a cook. They said I was not stupid enough and they made me a nuclear machinist mate. THANK YOU, NAVY.

John Henry

Scott Gustafson said...

While there are 4 P's for product marketing, there are 3 additional P's for services marketing. One of them is for People. What your service personnel look like matters almost as much as how they act.

dbp said...

IMO, the piercings are more off-putting than the tattoos. She could try getting jobs with and without the metal in and on her face and see if that makes a difference.

iowan2 said...

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.

Your number one job is to make your direct supervisor's job easier.


There are a lot of lessons my parents and grandparents, and older siblings, taught me that cover this.

The women is FREE to live her life her way. However, I am FREE to live my life they way I want.

What I want is to not complicate my job by hiring an employee that requires never ending explanations, that really don't exist.


We are all free to do as we please. We are also FREE to accept the results of our decisions.
This is an adult, making adult decisions, reaping the rewards of those decisions.


Butkus51 said...

so like, literally..........the white version of "do you know what I'm sayin"?

gilbar said...

i went to a job interview; wearing sweat pants, and an old dirty Slayer t-shirt
i hadn't washed in days.. i wasn't hungover; i was Still drunk.. i shit in my pants DURING the interview

i hate that my appearance is such a defining factor for a job in public! Life is UNFAIR!!

wildswan said...

I'd say she wasn't hired because she projects "I'm not going to bother about the customers or keeping the store up or about anything that doesn't interest me." I wouldn't care about tattoos on a salesperson if the salesperson was trying; I would just think they were young in 2024. But she would be busy picking up guys - or whoever.

Howard said...

Some Dude named Matt:

1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Gusty Winds said...

She should apply for a job at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

They love Satan and nose rings.

lonejustice said...

I think she's a comedian, or just has a great sense of humor. She obviously knows she didn't get hired because of her tattoos. But then she deadpans it into a discussion of the economics of employment. She is close to cracking up while performing in the video.

It's not about the tattoos, just like it's not about the nail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4EDhdAHrOg

Bob Boyd said...

She looks like a tackle box blew up in her face.

R C Belaire said...

I was going to comment on her boobs, but decided it would be impolite and sexist to do so.

Gusty Winds said...

I have one tattoo on my upper left arm. Elvis' TCB in a Flash logo.

After watching the Tik Tok video, my hear kind of breaks for this girl. Her type of tattooing borders on self-mutilation. Almost like claiming to be transgender and cutting off your breasts.

There is a lot of damage deep inside her. Not uncommon for today's young American women in Generation Z.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

don't worry - the radical progressive authoritarian left democratics will soon force all companies to hire this latest victim class.

Tina Trent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
R C Belaire said...

At a Starbucks I used to frequent, there was a young lady behind the counter who had multiple tattoos and piercings, and whose hair color changed weekly if not more often. However, she was the friendliest of the bunch, polite, and very efficient.

Tina Trent said...

The majesty that is Bob Boyd.

Nose rings. I can't even look at a person with a nose ring. It just screams "snot bubble."

Yet I have no problem looking at amputees, burn victims, people with colostomy bags. I respect their enduring. So my reaction is indeed entirely judgmental, not aesthetic. I am judging her personal judgment, which she chose to tattoo clearly on her face.

When somebody tattoos the devil on their neck, believe them.

Bob Boyd said...

Compare the picture in the Post article and the video image. In the still shot her right arm is inked out and her left arm has a tat of a Pug dog. In the video her left arm is inked out and her right arm has the pug dog tat. It's like she's looking in a mirror.

Dumb question, why are her arms reversed in the video?

William said...

She's good looking. Makes you wonder why she wanted to subvert her good looks. That nose ring looks like metallic snot. I guess she could get away with maybe one or two tattoos. They might even work like a beauty mark, but she went way too far. Anyway she's not afraid of making a commitment, and I suppose you need a great deal of self confidence or hubris to think you could pull something like this off.....Maybe she's a messenger from the future and that's how all women will look like in twenty years. Maybe she's a harbinger of doom, someone out of a Spengler nightmare. I'm betting on Spengler's nightmare. I have the feeling that things will work out for her, and there's no comfort in that feeling.

Curious George said...

A few thoughts:

Recording artist Post Malone has a lot of face tats. Doesn't matter, he's Post Malone.

Ex-Packer Charles Woodson has neck tattoos. He does commentary now and hides them with an ascot.

The nose ring she has is called a door knocker. Heh.

The Real Andrew said...

One time, I boarded a plane with my two daughters. The youngest was about 5. We sat in the center section, and on my right was a tattooed man with a nose ring, dressed in black.

My daughter shouted out, “Scary man!”

Thankfully, the guy laughed. It didn’t seem to phase him.

Anyway, maybe TJ Maxx doesn’t want to scare the kids.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Tattoo artist warn their clients about facial tattoos. Don’t they?

I mean I would make them sign some indemnity absolving the artist of any unforeseen consequences.

Could this be a milder version of people falling to their death while live streaming for views?

Wa St Blogger said...

Howard should consider following what some dude Matt wrote, he seems to miss the mark daily. But he should also be aware enough that Matt was quoting someone else and give the proper credit.

Deep State Reformer said...

Only hire her if she agrees to wear cosmetic covering for the ink while working and at her own expense and take out the piercings. Hollywood stars have been doing this for decades now. Then we'll see if she's for-real or if this is just a stunt. Bottom line: TJ Max's best bet here is to pass on this freakazoid IAAP.

Wa St Blogger said...

When a book designs its own cover it is appropriate to judge it by the cover. However, I have had plenty of automated emails in my life and did not get hired and I've no tattoos. Welcome to life, try not to be a d*ck.

Aggie said...

I'm entertaining the possibility that she used TJ Maxx's employment screening as creative material to supplement her Tik Tok income.

There is tattoo-covering makeup widely available that people use to cover their tats when required - like actors, for instance. I see it on people that are in the workplace, all the time.

Levi Starks said...

Imagine how ticked she’d have been if they’d actually given her a job.

Rusty said...

Bob Boyd said...
"She looks like a tackle box blew up in her face."
Thread winner!
When going through life. Especially you youngsters out there. Remember , "Rustys Law of Lycra, piercings and tattoos." Which states. "For any given population about 2% look good in either lycra, piercings or tattoos. The likelyhood that you do is very close to nil. Proceed accordingly."

R C Belaire said...
"My face is up here."
"Yeah. That's why I'm looking at you tits."


Kevin said...

It goes to state of mind, your Honor.

Kevin said...

Consider how many complimented and encouraged her along the way.

David53 said...

My Dad, a retired USMC officer and WWII veteran, told me that only criminals and sailors got tattoos. Of course he was wrong but that stuck with me. Times change.

Kevin said...

She explained some of the most “intelligent people” she’s ever met were covered in “tattoos and piercings” and that their body art played no factor in their intellectual capabilities.

Shorter Tattooed Lady: I did this to look smarter.

Gospace said...

Oh, well. You make poor life decisions, you pay for them. She can serve as an example to others to not do stupid things.

I am absolutely certain she was advised by a lot of people "Don't get that!"

Tofu King said...

Wait till the "We are Hamas!" folks start looking for a job.

Ampersand said...

It frightens me to see how pervasive bad judgment has become, particularly among young people. These individuals have been given prosperity, safety, and unprecedented access to knowledge. And the choices I see them make are too often foolish and self indulgent.

Who is to blame?

Caroline said...

Wiccan feminist is so empowering.

Dude1394 said...

Why would anyone want to hire a civil lawsuit in waiting.

Kathryn51 said...

Years ago, on our first family trip to Hawaii (our kids were in highschool), one of our first stops was a bookstore (Barnes and Noble?) to buy a large map. Woman at the counter was probably in her mid-50's, aging hippie type clothes, and her chest/neck tattoos looked horrible because her skin was so wrinkled.

Mini-talk in the car - see kids, that's what tattoos look like when you get older. During college, both of them thought about it because of their friends doing it, but never took the leap. I always credit because of that one visit to the book store. Seeing is believing.

Gusty Winds said...

Blogger Ampersand said...
It frightens me to see how pervasive bad judgment has become, particularly among young people. These individuals have been given prosperity, safety, and unprecedented access to knowledge. And the choices I see them make are too often foolish and self indulgent.

Who is to blame?


Generation Z have not been given prosperity. The economic outlook for them is bleak. Real wages vs cost of rent, food, cars etc... are screwing them. Especially for the ones who had to borrow $100K to get a worthless college degree.

Who'd to blame?

1 - Generation X for allowing schools to dose our young boys with Ritalin and daughters with anti-depressants. We posted only our kids successes on social media and made parenthood a fake competition. After enjoying freedom in our youth, we took helicopter parenting to a whole new level. Juice box and snack rotation lists at every soccer practice didn't help either.

2 - The selfish education establishment, especially American Universities. The self-proclaimed best and the brightest refuse to control costs like any other business. They have expanded worthless administrative positions and those costs have been passed on to their customers...which are the debt ridden students. The sick part is they consider themselves enlightened and altruistic.

You are correct. They do have unprecedented access to knowledge. But their parents and the public schools didn't teach them to value it.

Mason G said...

"Tattooed applicant claims she was denied TJ Maxx job over her ink, confronts store employees: ‘It’s so annoying’"

She looks to be old enough to have already learned you can't always get what you want. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Gusty Winds said...

I don't see the difference between what this young woman did to her body and cutting.

CJinPA said...

People get tattoos to "express themselves" but forbid everyone else from expressing a reaction to their expression.

Also, seeing earlier photos of tattoo addicts, like at the NY Post link, is sad. You can see the progression of her natural beauty being scarred by ink, all because she is trying to fill a void that could be better filled another way.

Michael said...

I wouldn’t not hire her based on her tattoos but on her evident lack of judgement.

PM said...

She's got the exact job she wants: TikTok star.
For now.

Anthony said...

"I, uh, notice you don't have any tattoos. I think that's a wise choice. I don't think Jackie Onassis would've gone as far if she'd have had an anchor on her arm."

John henry said...

I saw a lot of interesting tats in the navy in the 60s.

Like the guy who had a big 3 blade propeller (badge for mMchinist Mate) on each butt cheek. "90 turns and no smoke" above and a big M under each.

He claimed that when he bent over they spelled MoM but I was never interested enough to check.

Another guy had a fly tattooed on the head of his penis.

Still another had a spider tattooed on his shaft.

John Henry

John henry said...

There is a reason for anonymous email rejections

Lawyers

If you give a person a reason for not hiring them, they may sue.

Win or lose it is a costly giant pain in the ass for the employer

John Henry

Mary Beth said...

The applications for the jobs she's talking about are online. When she got the email rejection, it was probably her lack or experience or something negative in the application. They hadn't seen her tattoos. The video, like the tattoos, was attention-seeking.

Tattoos, whether they are text or images, send a message. I don't see any difference between her having a satanic tattoo and saying, "hail Satan" to everyone she meets. It is entirely reasonable for a company to not want this in a customer=facing job.

mikee said...

Simple solution: Identify as Muslim, wear full burqa, NOW you have a lawsuit if not hired.
Modern problems sometimes require 7th Century solutions.

Mary Beth said...

Dumb question, why are her arms reversed in the video?

I know that iPhones default to a reversed image in videos. Androids may too, I haven't videoed myself enough to notice.

I think they do it because people think they look better if they see themselves in the video the way they seem themselves in the mirror.

Joe Smith said...

A long time ago, before every middle-schooler had a tattoo, I saw a woman at Kinkos with ink all over her face.

I took a good look at her, and she was absolutely beautiful...great features.

And I thought; how did it come to that? Who does she hang out with? There has to be a story besides mental illness...

Ann Althouse said...

"Compare the picture in the Post article and the video image. In the still shot her right arm is inked out and her left arm has a tat of a Pug dog. In the video her left arm is inked out and her right arm has the pug dog tat. It's like she's looking in a mirror. Dumb question, why are her arms reversed in the video?"

Selfie mode is a mirror image.

That's why the driver's seat appears to be on the wrong side.

traditionalguy said...

Tattoos are not art. They are brands put on a person to identify who owns that person. Unfortunately exorcism of the owning spirit leaves its brand behind. She needs to get her money back from the tattoo guy.

Bruce Hayden said...

“The worst fad of the last 20 years.”

“Face tats are the job killer.”

Here at a Trump property, the rule seems to be that they have to be covered up. A very cute 21 year old female valet wears a black shirt under her uniform to cover up her full arm tats, even in the summer. I suspect that it is because their clientele, esp old farts like me, might be put off by them. They also buff the marble, clean the glass, polish the brass, clean the mirrors, including in the elevators, every night. Floral arrangements though are only replaced once a week now, though checked and pruned every couple of days. Etc. So, to me, a rule of no visible tats makes sense.

DIL was a music teacher until she went from a tramp stamp to a full back tat. We will never know if they were connected, or whether she just doesn’t get along with people. Luckily, she was able to still work, running their side business. She deals with customers by phone, and it’s the type of business where tats don’t matter.

As a (now retired) attorney, I would never hire a visibly tatted attorney or paralegal. Maybe a Secretary. It’s because you need to look the part, and part of it is to look trustworthy. I also think that the ad showing an injury attorney with several Rolls Royces and a private jet is counterproductive. Makes him look, to me, like a money grabber. Maybe the best attorney of that type in town has his Rolexes and Armani suits, but switches his Rolex for a Timex for court, and his Armani suits for ones from Nordstrom. As a patent attorney, I might have gotten away with it, because we are considered weird. But not in corporate or big firm practice. Heck, we had one guy who didn’t get an offer for a patent attorney slot (just as essentially a paralegal) after showing up for his interview wearing an Armani suit and shiny shirt. Looked too much like a gigalo, even for Las Vegas. I wore the usual navy pinstriped suit, white cotton shirt, and conservative red tie, and got the job. I looked like a big firm attorney, and he didn’t (turns out that they really didn’t dress like that in that office, just in court - and we wore jeans in our very remote office).

Not just attorneys, of course. I wouldn’t hire an accountant or financial planner either with very visible tats, and esp facial tats. You are trusting them with your money. Maybe not a doctor either - go into ER medicine if you want to practice medicine wearing very visible tats. By the time you see your clients (whoops - patients), they are often in no condition to complain. And ER docs tend to be a breed apart. Good friend, with a shaved head, on knife and gun club nights, would put in his earring and announce “Show Time”. Tats likely wouldn’t have affected his job, except maybe when dealing with hospital administration - and they didn’t see his earring. It was reserved for the ER on game nights.

Bruce Hayden said...

To some extent, it’s still a class issue. Went to my daughter’s baby shower the other day. They were mostly millennials, and not a tat to be seen. A lot of engineers and a lot of them had doctorate degrees (PhD, DDS, JD, MD) of one type or another. Maybe if they had been Gen Yers, it would have been different. And maybe if their PhDs had been in some DEI area.

The Real Andrew said...

@John henry,
Your story reminds me of one of my favorite Cheers moments.
https://youtu.be/xqn8xoMjuYY

Bob Boyd said...

Thanks, Professor. I guess I'm not making and posting enough majestic videos of me. Oh well. Mankind will have to somehow find a way to carry on.

Rabel said...

She didn't offer any evidence that the tattoos were the cause of the non-hire rather than the lack of experience.

Ralph L said...

Thank goodness, we can't see all of them, but only-black-ink suggests prison tattooing.

Dr. Drew Pinsky said that genital tattooing or piercing is almost always a sign of sexual abuse as a child. You have to wonder what happened to her to warp her judgment, and what she's done since.

From TV news decades ago, I associate septum rings with heroin use, but that isn't what makes me shudder every time.

Smilin' Jack said...

She might be a good worker; she’s just not front-of-the-house material.

Oligonicella said...

Tough titty, Ash. I and my daughter have tats. I have one, she has multiple. Both of us were bright enough to get them where they were invisible to the public by and large.

Tats are for self. You're not really impressing anyone. Having a friggin' face full? That's a clear sign you want to be alone. So she is. She just found out it's not all that hot.

NKP said...

Beautiful women have won Mother Nature's lottery. No idea why some think they can improve on it by adding graffiti.

If you told one she could have any outfit she wanted, regardless of the expense, on the single condition she had to wear it every day for the rest of her life... any takers?

Footnote: My wife is a bartender. Works around an unending parade of young women working as servers, hostesses, etc. The ones with ink (that must be hidden at work) put enormous pressure on the one's without ink to 'join the club'. They frequently offer to pay for the first one.

AAaaarrgh!!!!!!

GatorNavy said...

Ms Ash needs a good therapist and far, far less exposure to social media.

Dave64 said...

There are tattoos and then there are TATTOOS! She looks like a walking lawsuit just waiting to be hired.

Bunkypotatohead said...

The Biden administration is suing the Sheetz corporation for refusing to hire criminals.
She can probably sic the EEOC on TJMaxx for refusing to hire repulsively tattooed persons.

Tim said...

I have a tattoo that is likely to be offensive to the majority of your customers. But I still think you should hire me. WHY? Why would I hire you if I know it will cause me issues later?

Rusty said...

She's a pretty woman without the ink and hardware.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Hey Ash,

Your tats fail the IQ test. Only someone who wants to employ morons would hire you

Bob said...

Jimmy Buffett wrote a song about tattoos titled Permanent Reminder of a Temporary Feeling. It's absolute dreck, but a good song title.

I'm also reminded of singer Amy Winehouse, whose trainwreck life could be illustrated by the tattoos she acquired along with her other addictions.