Mainstream acceptance has also reshaped tattoo culture itself. Matt Lodder, an art historian and author of Tattoos: The Untold History of a Modern Art, notes that as tattooing has gotten “bigger,” there are fewer people who are “heavily tattooed”—rather, he says, “There’s a divergence between people that want one or two tattoos and those that are interested in the subculture.”
Speaking to Bored Panda, Caitlyn Long, a tattoo artist at Cape Electric Tattoo in Cape Town, South Africa, echoed a similar sentiment, saying that “when everyone from the punk rock dude in the band to your great-aunt Sally has a tattoo” and everyone becomes an “insider,” tattooing can lose “that little bit of magic, that sense of mystery and rebelliousness it always had.”
Even so, Caitlyn sees this as another stage in tattooing’s constant evolution, with artists adapting to new technology and changing tastes while trying to preserve the craft’s distinctive character. She says, “We just have to adapt and use it to our best advantage and still try and keep that magic.”
