Tattoos - A lost/mistaken sense of tribalism

We have all seen a fat chick with a tattoo of a butterfly somewhere on her, the reason people get tattoos is normally cos it looks cool or it makes them feel special when in reality it is just a conformity in its own right, You join a tribe of people who all want to have a butterfly to make them feel better or special and different but in reality it ends up making them less original and unique, if it is a form of tribalism it definitely collects similarly minded people, and after one tattoo there is always the need for more, it then ends up with your body being a canvas to express all your affiliations outwardly.

Most of the time you don't need to tell someone your affiliations for them to know what you do, but in todays online world we end up in a place where everything needs to be known by everyone, everyone should see your story and be happy for you, and you have to show off in order to feel a sense of achievement.

Enter tattoos: the ability to paint yourself with your affiliations so instead of being one with nature you get a tattoo of a butterfly to show Lord knows what to the world, the best thing is the seeing people with an african elephant tattoo, because i can tell the difference between the two but to the average european observer they have no clue, also they most likely haven't seen an african elephant, certainly in most of the zoos it is an indian elephant, however, a permanent tattoo of an elephant makes them feel like one with nature

What is it about these little images that satisfy people so much, what are you trying to communicate? Sure an image is worth 1000 words but you could also say it instead of everyone misinterpreting it, maybe there is no reason at all. Maybe the real problem is trying to read to deeply into something that shouldn't be too closely investigated, maybe i am overly obsessed cos i don't understand and i can't see the benefit of it.

Same goes with body modifications such as breast implants or botox, a lot of peoples arguments is that it has nothing to do with the general public but they feel better for themselves, which i feel is a slightly misdiagnosed statement because without judging other people, you wouldn't know what was 'normal' so somewhere along the line it is also to get approval of others, sure it is still in your opinion that it is better.

I feel that a lot of these external features people try and change to seek validation - be it from themselves or other people - shows insecurity in oneself, and this for me feels like the wrong way to go about fixing the issue, sure it does indeed fix the issue but now you are confident in plastic instead of confident in yourself