You’re never too old for that first tattoo — The Wall Street Journal

DUBLIN — These days, getting a tattoo seems like a rite of passage for anyone under 35. Programmers sport full sleeves of tattoos and your women who work at coffee shops have tattoos on their necks. We've crossed a threshold, it seems, and tattoos are so much a part of our lives that they're slowly conquering a segment of the population that has resisted getting inked: folks over 40. I like the idea of people getting their tattoos later in life, once they've made their mistakes and know themselves well. In many cultures, a tattoo is a reward for achieving a landmark or a symbol of social position. They are used to commemorate journeys and to denote family heritage. A tattoo you choose in your 50s is likely to be something quite different from what 20-year-old you would have chosen, and it's exciting that a growing number of older people are taking a journey to discover just what that later-in-life tattoo should be. — Felicity Duncan.You're Not Too Old for a Tattoo.Brennan Kilbane.(The Wall Street Journal) We are living in a Golden Age of Tattoos. And while tattoos have heretofore mostly been brandished as signs of swagger by youthful sailors, bikers and larger-than-life celebrities like David Beckham, now older men with traditional white-collar jobs are getting inked too. In the corporate world, tattooed role models abound: Aetna's 62-year-old CEO Mark Bertolini has one, as does Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, 55. On the world stage, Justin Trudeau is living proof that getting a Haida raven tattoo on your shoulder will not harm your chances of becoming a head of state..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Tattooing later in life is a clear trend, but it still bucks convention; the majority of tattooed Americans get theirs before age 30, according to a 2017 Statista survey. More mature initiates have the benefit of experience to guide them through an informed choice. (As a teenager, I considered getting a Louis Vuitton logo tattooed onto my hip bone, a bullet I narrowly avoided.) Photographer Douglas Friedman got his first tattoo, of an anchor on his arm, at age 35. "It just felt like the time to start committing to something, anything," he said..Artists like JonBoy, a notable tattooer at the sleekly appointed Bang Bang Tattoo in downtown New York, have mastered the kind of understated, considered body art older men often like. The delicate, dime-size designs (geometric shapes, initials) that he specialises in could easily be concealed under a shirt, or even a watch strap..While the under-30 set might be susceptible to tattoos commemorating a night on the town or a fleeting relationship, one hopes that maturity results in more thoughtful concepts. JonBoy, who said that he has lately seen an uptick in older clients, recently graced a businessman with his first tattoo—three small icons, one for each of his kids: "He never thought he would get tattooed. He didn't realise they could look sophisticated." Family sentiment is often present in the mature man's tattoos; one 50-something man we spoke to shares an Om symbol with his two adult daughters.."[Tattoos are] becoming another way to try to figure out who you are," said Scott Campbell, an artist known for working on celebrities like Justin Theroux. Not that your tattoo need announce your identity explicitly: CEO of Twitter and Square Jack Dorsey, 41, told the New Yorker magazine that his large S-shape forearm tattoo symbolises the form of the collarbone, the integral symbol in calculus and the violin's f-hole..Of course, priorities shift: Lawyer David White's first tattoo at age 18 was the fraction "⅔," an earnest economic commentary which referenced, he said, "some World Bank study about the number of folks who live below the poverty line. I was a class warrior at the time." More than a decade later, he had another artist freestyle a crescent-within-a-circle, similar to that used to mark chapters in David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest." Mr White, now 31, prefers this more recent addition..As for how to dress around a visible tattoo when you spend more time at a tech bar than an actual bar, balance is key. Nick Wooster, the abundantly inked men's fashion director of Dallas store Forty Five Ten, believes that tattoos go well with simple outfits consisting of just a T-shirt and a pair of chinos or jeans. "The tattoo is the perfect third piece," he said. Mr Wooster has often been seen in more daring outfits too, such as a neat jacket paired with shorts that display his calf tattoo. Still, he understands that sometimes it's necessary to conceal tattoos. When he got his first in 1992—a classic "Mom" on his arm—he knew that it could be easily covered with a sportcoat. "By choosing the places that I did, if I'm properly dressed, nobody's the wiser," said Mr Wooster. Mr Friedman also subscribes to the wise-placement camp: "I just make sure that I can put on a suit and not see any ink.".Mr Wooster offered a final piece of advice for the tattoo-curious: "What might be true for you today may not be true for you tomorrow." Hey, come to think of it, that might make for a good tattoo.

You’re never too old for that first tattoo — The Wall Street Journal

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