Columnist finds link between tattoos, KKK and prostitution

[Logan's Runt]

Disfigured skin points where culture is going

Paul Carpenter June 18, 2008

• • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Fark
  • Google
  • Newsvine
  • Reddit
  • Yahoo
  You can tell where a culture is headed by examining whom its members seek to emulate.

Just a few centuries ago, there was a culture still mired in the Stone Age, with no written language, no science, no math, no architecture, no nothing requiring thought. Its members had not even managed to invent the wheel.

That culture's only contribution to the world was the decorative ''tatu.'' In most other parts of the ancient world, tattoos were disfigurements used only to identify criminals or slaves.

Now that Polynesians can read, use wheels, count and appreciate musical instruments other than drums, they've advanced to a point where most of them have abandoned tattoos.



Paul Carpenter E-mail | Recent columns


As one culture ascends, it seems, another declines.

This week, we learned that 36 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have tattoos. It was just last year The Morning Call reported that 16 percent of all Americans were thusly self-mutilated.

The sight of Mike Tyson's gorgeous artwork, no doubt, has persuaded millions to flock to tattoo joints. Or maybe it's the growing popularity of ''mixed martial arts'' bloodfests, which put tattooed subhumans into cages to brutalize each other.

''Proud parents bear tattoos honoring their kids,'' said a headline over Monday's story.

''It's super big right now,'' the story quoted Steve Lemak as saying of the mom and dad tattoo trend. He owns The Quillian joint in Allentown.

''You'll never find a more meaningful tattoo than one for your kids,'' said Kiel Ferrari, described as an ''artist'' at the Minds Eye Tattoo in Emmaus. (I also have seen graffiti vandals described as ''artists.'')

Along with the story, there were photographs of bodies mutilated with hideous ''artwork.'' One was of an arm with a truly unfortunate depiction of a child's face. I am sure the real child is cute; no child could actually be that homely.

On the very same day that our eyes were insulted by those vulgar photos, the paper ran another story elsewhere, plugging the premier showing of a new television program about the joys of prostitution.

The show was imported from England, where, the story said, ''it was aired last September and was blasted in the media for glamorizing prostitution.'' (We have an MTV show glamorizing pimps, so why not glamorize their pathetic puppets?)

I can't say I'm an expert on prostitution. I'm too parsimonious to gain first-hand knowledge. (Stories on Eliot Spitzer's $4,300 dalliances nearly gave me apoplexy.) Nonetheless, I've said a lot about both prostitution and tattoos, which, come to think of it, always seem to go together.

No one can deny that the heaviest concentrations of tattoos occur in the lowest segments of society -- prostitutes, pimps, pugs, prison inmates, Ku Klux Klansmen and the members of street and motorcycle gangs.

Now, according to this week's story, 36 percent of young people have decided to emulate such lowlifes.

And some news media want to glamorize them.

Do not glamorize accomplishment. Do not glamorize intelligence, insight or integrity. Don't glamorize courage, generosity, leadership, skill or diligence. Such qualities are for nerds. By all means, glamorize pimps, prostitutes and those who emulate them. That is the future of America's culture.

Aware of how some of these devoted self-mutilators are going to react, I am compelled to emphasize that I do not favor any restrictions on personal behavior. If an idiot wants to get a tattoo, he or she should be free to do so. I just think responsible news media organizations should not glamorize them. What's next? Glamorizing child molesters or kluxers?

In some older cultures, influence traveled from the top down. Early Americans marveled at the intellect of people like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and decided that education was a good thing, so they developed public school systems.

In some modern cultures, influences travel from the septic bottom up. In no time at all, we'll catch up to the Stone Age cannibals of the South Pacific.

[email protected] 610-820-6176

Paul Carpenter's commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

more in /news/columnists

The comments on the article are an even more spectacular display of ignorance and bigotry.

 

[jaguarr]

Sooooo, from what I gather from this, Paul Carpenter doesn't like tattoos and has made a very hamfisted and weak attempt to try to tie them to criminals, prostitutes, white trash, white supremacists and people who are on the lower rungs of society. He also gets the Polynesian roots of "tatu" completely wrong while he's at it. Revisionist history or just a lack of research? Either way, Paul is a moron and anyone who would give any of his words an ounce of credence is a bigger moron than he is.

jag

 

[jaguarr]

I suspect Carpenter was trolling for hits with his article, based on this needless follow-up column:

http://www.mcall.com/news/columnists/all-b1_5split-4r.6469672jun20,0,1417675.column

themorningcall.com
Opinions split on glamorizing skin uglification

Paul Carpenter

June 20, 2008

Opinions split on glamorizing skin uglification

To make a snide point, the teenager affected a hick accent to say: ''Surprise, surprise, surprise!'' Then, to hammer home the point, she added: ''Shazzayam!''

She was mimicking a character (played by Jim Nabors) she had seen on television reruns. The point was that her father, after he shaved off his mustache, looked like Gomer Pyle.

Cindy Carpenter, I can tell you, had a mean streak. Now that she has a teenage daughter of her own, I hope she has learned her lesson.

Either way, I grew back that mustache and it will remain until I'm sure Cindy has repented, which, knowing her, may take a while.

My mustache provoked a different reaction from Rick Cornejo, who assailed my ''slanderous, insulting and racist column'' on tattoos.

(Wednesday's column was mainly aimed at my own newspaper, which I bashed for glamorizing tattoos, the heaviest concentrations of which are found, indisputably, on the skin of society's worst elements.)

''Not only does he insult and equate a good portion of your readers and the American public, but he denigrates an entire culture and people with his idiotic railings about Polynesians,'' wrote Cornejo, who also sent his letter to my bosses.

(Golly, I thought I said nice things about Polynesians, observing how most of them discontinued the disgusting practice of tattooing once they achieved advanced civilized traits.)

Anyway, Cornejo's main point was that somebody with an ugly mustache should not be talking about other people's ugly tattoos.

''Mr. Carpenter might also like to know,'' he wrote, ''that his Stalin mustache was once considered as disgusting and revolting as tattoos are to him.'' His grandfather, he observed, thinks anyone with a mustache is a ''filthy hippie.''

I never thought of myself as the hippie type, and Cindy will be amazed to hear that. She always considered me to be as unhip as anybody in the world.

Cornejo's letter was only one part of an angry deluge.

''You are a miserable person,'' said a letter from Scott Weber.

Matthew Cullin said he is a Lehigh University engineering student ''with a 4.0 GPA'' and he called tattooing ''legitimate body art,'' referring to the ''rich history of American and Japanese traditional body art.''

That was an odd point to make, because, just to be nice, I avoided mentioning Japanese tattoos on Wednesday. I know a bit about that country, where tattoos are found almost exclusively on prostitutes and gangsters; decent people would not be caught dead with one.

Angry reactions are fun, but I must admit most of the responses were supportive and agreed with my view that responsible newspapers should not advance the uglification of America.

''Man, are you going to get flamed!'' observed Mike Curcio. ''But truth hurts,'' he added, and said that tattoos ''are signs of ignorance and poor judgment.''

Charlie McMorrow wrote to lament the fact that even some young girls are getting tattooed. ''That is a crying shame, to see something so beautiful being scarred for life,'' he said.

''What is it with your newspaper glorifying, celebrating, at the very least, showing approval to this sick craze of tattooing?'' wrote Joe Ferry.

Virginia Tadrzynski of Coopersburg called to say she agreed with my column.

''But what you didn't touch on was ... how much alcohol plays into this,'' she said. ''Alcohol and tattooing go hand-in-hand. If there were reputable tattoo artists, they'd make sure their client was sober before they put anything on them.''

I'm afraid that might not be realistic. If everyone had to be sober before getting a tattoo, all the tattoo joints would go out of business.

One Lehigh Valley judge, speaking in confidence, agreed with me that tattoos are typically associated with the ''septic bottom'' of culture, and society should instead try to be influenced from the top. ''You're so right about learning from the bottom up when it should be from the top down.'' said the judge, who has seen plenty of tattoos and plenty of the results of learning from the bottom.

When Cindy hears that I have a judge agreeing with me, I know just what she'll say: ''Gaaw-awl-ly!''

[email protected] 610-820-6176

Paul Carpenter's commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Copyright © 2008, The Morning Call

He probably picked a topic he knew would generate a lot of heat and controversy, took a strong line on it to stir the pot and then watched his blog get a ton of hits, thereby demonstrating to his bosses how "popular" his column is. I see this tactic all the time in the Tech News sector (I actually saw one writer-troll-blogger post an article called "iPhones Are For ***s"; he enjoyed high traffic for weeks out of that one). That said, Carpenter is still a moron and people like him, either horribly judgmental and elitist or simple attention-****es who want to get under people's skin to serve their own interests, are really the dredge of society he seems to have so much displaced disdain for.

jag

 

[Mr Sparkle]

hahahaha! "uglification" how is this guy taken seriously by anyone?
I mean, I've never gotten a Tat, mostly because I can't think of anything I'd want for an extended period of time, but I have seen such a wide cross section of people with tattoos that to say their preference somehow speaks to their character?

bah!
if anything it speaks for consistency.

 

[Blade_fan1911]

Or maybe it's the growing popularity of ''mixed martial arts'' bloodfests, which put tattooed subhumans into cages to brutalize each other.

Wow.

 

[Logan's Runt]

The ignorance is hilarious.

If nothing else, it proves that my tattoos serve as an automatic filter. The way I look on the outside makes people who are rotten on the inside want to stay away from me.

 

[Clobberin' Time]

Re: Columnist finds link between tattoos, KKK and prostitution

 

[Obi-Ron]

I can't wait for his next article, in which he shakes his fist at those damn kids on his lawn.

 

[Peter_Porker]

**** him and **** the horse he rode in on. I am a hard working single father, with a full time job, and live a clean living...with tattoos.

He can eat ****.

 

[thedeadite]

Ahh the stupidity of people. I think he thinks he still lives in the 70s (or earlier). Tattooing has come a long way. All kinds of people from all walks of life have them and more and more older people are beginning to see them for what they are. Whether it's just artwork for the artwork or the fact that a tattoo can mark an important time, person, thing, place in your life. The one artist I went to had 3 ladies in their 80s come in recently to get matching pieces symbolizing their friendship.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

You know who has tattoos? Jack Bauer. You think about that, out of touch columnist! You think about that!

 

[C.F. Kane]

"Columnist finds link between tattoos, KKK and prostitution."

Columnist goes on to find link between sunlight, ball-peen hammers and anglerfish.

 

[Hobgoblin]

Sad, isnt it? The things people will say to get others to pay attention to them. Sadder still that people go along with it.

We should kidnap him and give him tatoos.

 

[Darthphere]

Sad, isnt it? The things people will say to get others to pay attention to them. Sadder still that people go along with it.

We should kidnap him and give him tatoos.

Yeah like Hitler did!

 

[Hobgoblin]

Yeah like Hitler did!

t:

 

[psychocheeseman]

One of my best friends is a Tattoo artist, and he's not a member of the Klu Klux Clan or anything... Although i do have my suspicions about him moonlighting as a prostitute.

 

[PyroChamber]

When I think of "tatu" I think of lesbian schoolgirls

 

[The Evolutionist]

That article is just sickening... but sadly, it's what a lot of people in the so-called "Higher Class" think of those of us with tattoos.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I wanna get a tattoo of the Batman logo but like the one from Batman Begins/The Dark Knight.

 

[Nirvana]

Lame

 

[LazloSpeeker]

There is nothing wrong with tattoo's amongst a civilized society as long as the rules are followed. They should be done in a professional, clean and sterile enviroment with absolutely NO MINORS able to be tattooed. That is the problem, unlicensed tatto artist giving tattoo's to minors out of their homes or other unlicensed establishments.

Even more, piercings should also be banned until 18 also. No parent should be allowed to pierce a hole into their 2 year olds flesh, even if the government says they can.

So much double talk, so much hypocrisy, so much bulls**t. If these damn morons are going to ***** about tattoo's why don't they quit getting ahead of themselves and start addressing smaller issues that lead to the tattoo's, like piercing 2 year olds.

With that said, I can talk about the subject. I have 6 tattoo's and four piercings so I know a little about the subject.

 

[BlackLantern]

I can say that the three escorts I see regularly, only one has tattoos...one of them I see actuallly considers tattoos gross...

 

[jaguarr]

I can say that the three escorts I see regularly, only one has tattoos...one of them I see actuallly considers tattoos gross...

That in no way validates what this jackass with a blog wrote, though.

jag

 

[KevanG]

He's just like the guy that wrote mass effect was a porn game as he knew nothing about it and only had 3rd or 4th hand sources for his info.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

This guy needs to move to that town in Footloose that outlawed music and dancing, he'd fit right in there.