Some of Jolie's tattoos -- not easy to hide!
Read how tattoos have become one of the most popular forms of fashion accessories for women in the 21st century.
Women’s fashion trends are kind of like recessions: you don’t really recognize them until you’re actually in them. This is most certainly the case with tattoos: starting the 90s, more and more young people were getting inked up each year, elevating the once taboo tattoo into mainstream culture. The numbers don’t lie: according to Wikipedia, in June 2006, the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology published the results of a telephone survey which took place in 2004. It found that 36% of Americans ages 18–29 have a tattoo!
While tattoos have always been somewhat acceptable on men (enter Popeye and his token forearm anchor tattoo), the image of a tattooed woman in western culture has, up until very recently, been scandalized and scorned by the mainstream. We could most certainly wade into deep waters about the social-cultural implications of all this, but after all — this article is eventually going to get around to talking about tattoos as fashion accessories, so let’s not intellectually over-extend ourselves.
The fact is, as of 2010, women in the U.S. are gravitating to tattoos more and more — and they’re not afraid to let them show, either.
Recently I saw a T.V. reality show about brides preparing for their wedding. Obviously, the selection of the wedding gown was the centerpiece of the show, and I was amazed to see how this otherwise conservative-looking young woman was sleeved in intricate tattoos! It was quite a site to behold: those dark, imposing, swirling shapes set against this lily-white, elegant bridal gown and equally elegant lady.
This image is proof positive of the fact that, for women, tattoos have simply become another — albeit permanent — set of fashion accessories. In addition to earrings, toe rings, jewelry of all sorts, handbags, shoes, belts, and hair clips, women now choose visible tattoos much in the same way that they choose other fashion accessories. Just like all of these other things, tattoos can be highly personalized and stylized to match the unique style and personality of the person who owns them.
As always, it was Hollywood celebs like Angelina Jolie and Britany Spears who broke the new ground with tattoos as fashion accessories. Jolie sports several provocative body art masterpieces that are so large and bold that they are constantly creeping out of her dresses and apparel. In films, covering them up with make-up most certainly could push a movie budget into the red.
But perhaps it is Britany Spears’ collection of tattoos that really hit home with women in the 90s and 00s: her small, semi-inconspicuous
One of Britany's first "trinket tattoos."
tattoos have become the template for how tattoos work like fashion accessories. All across her body, little tattoo trinkets have made their way into red carpet photos and paparazzi snapshots.
These little, highly sentimental tattoos seem to be the inked fashion accessories that women are now most attracted to.
The question is, will tattoos ever be considered “lady-like” enough by the mainstream masses? To be sure, people in the teens, twenties, and early thirties are little concerned about this question. But what about when the inked up ladies of the world join the executive workforce, becomes wives and mothers, and join parent-teacher associations? Will a tattoo just get passed off as all other fashion accessories are?
Much like anything else, most likely that question will be answered on a case by case basis, depending on how a woman presents her own body art. Do you think, after all, that Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, and Audrey Hepburn could’ve pulled off a rose tattoo on their ankle or a sun tatto on the small of their back and still have been the classy leading ladies of the silver screen that they were?
You bet.
Of course, looking to Hollywood as a barometer for what works and what doesn’t in the world of fashion, fashion accessories, and tattoo acceptance may not be the best bet for gauging if a tattoo is the right kind of accessory for you. After all, you don’t have a personal make-up artist making a six-figure salary to airbrush over your body ink when you don’t feel like having a tattoo for your red carpet appearance.
Instead, your tattoo will become the only one of your fashion accessories that you won’t be able to leave on your make-up table.
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