-Tattoos nowadays have become a way of obtaining recognition, both from one's self as well as from others. People are able to spread their belonging to a social or cultural group just through a certain design on their skin and by doing so they show they are someone in a society where the individual (with its personality and ideas) gets lost, since anyone is able to share their information on social networks. Globalization is rising in our current society and that implies a standardization of lifestyles, which makes people want to prove they are different from the rest, and a separate from the majority often means joining a minority, that's why people decide to dye their hair blue or get a tattoo in order to be grunge or hipsters. Being special is not enough anymore, you have to claim your differences through your body.
The fact that there are many celebrities getting their skin inked also might increase people's urge to get a tattoo as well, since it's a way of feeling related to them.
Alex Turner from the (great) british band Arctic Monkeys showing his tattoo of Sheffield's flower
-Young people join gangs for more less the same reasons some youngsters get tattoos and piercings: they want to belong to a group. Still, those who join gangs have an almost painful need to feel they are not alone, whilst the great majority of teens who decide to get a tattoo come from functional families with a social background considered "normal". They might feel the need to prove how free and independent they are, but that's all. Young people who join street gangs are completely torn apart.
They often come from families that were not able to provide them affection and support, which any child needs in order to grow up both physically and mentally healthy, so they look for this kind of support in street gangs. They are like a family to them.
In the years 1990', street gangs have become more and more powerful through the admiration some symbolical celebrities arise in young people. A good example is the worldwide known rapper Tupac Shakur, who got his reputation from the fact of representing the ghetto lifestyle and became a myth after being shot to death when he was only 25. Street gangs are attractive to young people.
THE NOTION OF POWER
Both street gangs and tattoos make people feel the illusion of being empowered and having the control of their own lives, as they are allegedly against the whole society. They feel like they choose their own power over the power society might have over them, so they can reach a state of freedom and independence that most people won't ever know for as long as they live. That's what pushes them towards the idea of joining a social minority (such as street gangs) or a cultural minority (such as goths or hipsters). Still, nowadays both street gangs and cultural minorities people are desperately trying to relate to are trivialized. They don't shock anymore a society that is getting used to it. Tattoos and street gangs provide people with a false sensation of power that is slowly fading away, since nobody reacts to it anymore.
OK Regina.
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