Tattoos and US capitalism.

Most days I have a coffee and do some typing in a coffee shop which is used mostly by young middle class white people who consider they have a different view of things. An alternative culture. Many of them have tattoos. I was thinking about this the other day in the context of consciousness, politics and history.

I am originally from Ireland. That country's history, its oppression by British imperialism and the new states that came about earlier in the last century that were subservient to British imperialism, meant that you were never confident that the state would be friendly or that you would be safe from the cops. I went to sea when I was young. A lot of my shipmates had tattoos but I never got one. I always thought that if I did the cops will be able to get me easy when I was back home.

It is a sign of the relative stability of US capitalism and the relatively secure position of these young mainly middle class people in US capitalism that they feel secure to have their tattoos. It is my impression that not so many people amongst the black and hispanic population have tattoos.

But this is only one side of the issue. These tattoos also show that these young people see themselves as somewhat out of the mainstream of US capitalism, as rebels in some way. They do not care that their tattoos will probably mean that top jobs in corporate America are ruled out. So I have to be careful with my old man's and historically based prejudices. And the way to do this is to look at things dialectically, that is in context, seeing the contradictory aspects of the situation, seeing the positives and the negatives, taking on the negatives and building on and developing the positives.