How To Crush Social Rebellion

Ever wonder how to sap the fun right out of non-conformity by teens and other social anarchists? Easy. You take their cultural rebellion and make it mainstream.

"As models flaunted head-to-toe body art and hard rock pulsated in a cavernous ballroom, veteran tattoo artists at a New York convention on Saturday wondered if their once taboo artistry was losing its nonconformist lure.

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"Americans, especially women, are embracing a practice once considered seedy. A growing number of people are subjecting themselves to the whir of engine-driven needles spitting pigments into their body, tattoo artists said.

"According to some published reports, around 20 percent of Americans aged 18 to 25 are getting tattooed. Skin motifs are increasingly shedding their subversive image, some tattoo artists said. And women, who were once scarce in tattoo parlors, now make up about half the clientele, they added.

"’It used to be secret and underground,’ said a man who identified himself as R.J. ‘There’s more tattoo shops than ever before … anyone can order a kit and do it in his garage,’ said R.J., who owns the Tabu Tattoo shop in West Los Angeles."

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Of course the only problem with this strategy of mainstreaming rebellion is that the social misfits will go to even greater lengths to shock society. Which is probably one reason body piercings have gotten so out-of-control. When the thrill of piercing ears evaporated, the non-conformists began experimenting with piercing other body parts. So maybe we should continue to feign chagrin over tattoo art in the hopes that it will keep the non-conformists from desperately seeking other ways to horrify us.