MSU students weigh in on if tattoos should be silly or serious

Getting ink injected into your skin can be a big deal, but for some MSU students, it isn’t. Their tattoos range from being deeply meaningful to simply the word "ski" and an arrow pointing at their butt. So, although the art form is undeniably popular, there are a variety of perspectives on the age-old question: Should tattoos have meaning? 

This has been a contentious debate for decades, but especially online in recent years. Just Googling the phrase “Should tattoos have meaning?” brings up dozens of articles and social media posts. Magazines like Glamour have opinion pieces discussing the topic, and countless TikTok videos and Reddit threads feature users heavily debating it.

Sophomore fish and wildlife major Andors Johnson has two tattoos and said both have significant meaning. One of these is on his right shoulder blade and depicts a black-and-white image of Calvin and Hobbes. Johnson said he grew up with the comics and the tattoo is a reminder that the point of life is to have fun. 

“Something about it just feels very homey to me. It reminds me of my childhood and adventures,” he said. 

Johnson said he dislikes it when people get tattoos just for the sake of it. “Some people I’ve talked to, they say, ‘Oh, I got it because I thought it was cool.’ I feel like more people should get tattoos that actually really mean something to them,” he said. “I feel like sometimes — not to throw shade — some people will get patchwork, and a lot of times, those pieces don’t feel like they’re meaningful to them. I'm going to try getting patchwork, but I want every single one to have a deep meaning.”

Kimri Rosales — the owner of Bozeman’s second-oldest tattoo shop, Element Tattoo — agreed that tattoos should have meaning. “[What people want] is a lot of these weird sticker tattoos, a lot of irrelevant tattoos that are impulsive,” Rosales said. 

According to her, this trend of getting spontaneous tattoos, which she believes waslargely popularized by Gen Z, undermines the art form.

“I think it takes the meaning out of tattoos. I think that, in this generation, everybody lives by being impressed in 10 seconds,” she said. “If they’re not impressed by you, Instagram or TikTok in 10 to 15 seconds, it’s on to the next.” 

She said that after people decide they want a tattoo they should have to wait before putting ink-to-skin. Rosales has been tattooing for 28 years and said that it used to take months to get an appointment booked. 

“I feel like the impulsivity of the youth in particular is making less connection for what tattoos are supposed to be,” she said. “[Tattoos] are a rite of passage; you go through pain. You purposely put yourself through pain to get something permanent and then it stays, forever — that's kind of important.” 

According to her, the anticipation for the appointment and the pain of actually getting the tattoo used to be an almost spiritual experience. She said it cannot be replicated by just coming into a shop and getting a tattoo the same day.

“I think that people who get tattoos now, especially the younger groups, will absolutely regret their tattoos,” she said.  

Some students felt differently. Sami Alam, a sophomore majoring in environmental studies, has 17 tattoos and said that people are too pressured to get meaningful ones, ultimately discouraging them from getting any. 

“Almost none of [my friends] have tattoos,” she said. “I think with tattoo culture, a lot of people maybe feel a pressure to get something that is super important or a defining moment — and I think you can absolutely go that route. But [if] it’s just something cool you want to stick on your body, I think that’s really cool too.”

Brooke Hagadone, a junior studying biological engineering, has seven tattoos. “I thought that all of my tattoos had to have meaning, and then I started getting them, and I was like ‘I’m just going to get the ones that look cool,’” she said.  

Hagadone said that asking her to choose a favorite tattoo is like asking a parent to choose a favorite child. She loves her meaningful and meaningless tattoos equally. “If it’s cute art and I like it, I’m going to get it. If it makes me happy, I’m going to get it,” she said. 

Tattoo artist John Warren specializes in illustrative American traditional tattoos. He is the owner of Storm Castle Tattoo, which opened a year and a half ago in Bozeman. Warren said that a lot of his customers are college-aged students who often request trendy tattoos.

“You see a lot of local references, we do a lot of Indian paintbrushes [and] bitterroots,” he said. “There’s a Western trend right now with all the growth here, and so we do a lot of skulls and cowboy hats and neckerchiefs.” 

Warren said he doesn’t think it matters if tattoos have meaning. “These meat suits are boring, so how can we make them the best possible in a safe way?” he said. “But also, how do you commemorate a moment better than a tattoo? Or [get one to] just make yourself look interesting and stand out.” 

He said that while he likes to do pieces with meaning, it would be difficult if all of his tattoos had deep, sentimental feelings attached to them. “If [I’m doing] a memorial piece, I try not to be so literal as people with a name or date, because it’s something you relive,” he said. “When you see it, you have to relive that.”

He also said that he loves it when people get impulsive tattoos. According to him, it is cool when someone sees a piece of art in a shop window and immediately wants to get it. 

“When you get someone that can walk in and be like, ‘Oh, that speaks to me,’ that's awesome, you know?” Warren said. “And that’s something that I custom drew, [I’m] like, ‘OK, cool, something about it drew them to that.’” 

It seems that many students get tattoos for a simple reason: they like them. 

“I think that they're cool, and a cool way to show off who you are as a person,” said senior kinesiology major Silva Nesset. She said that herfirst tattoo was a matching one with her father featuring the coordinates for Granite Peak in each other's handwriting. 

“I think [that tattoos] used to be a big thing, like ‘Don’t put them where people can see,’” she said. “Now, since everyone is getting tattoos, the stigmatization behind them has decreased.” 

Kellen Adams, a senior cell biology and neuroscience major, sports a scarab beetle on his chest. He said he got the tattoo because it looked cool. 

“Both of my parents are tattooed, my mom more so than my dad,” Adams said. “She says, ‘If it looks cool and you want it, it doesn't really have to mean something.’”

Ultimately, Warren said that while he falls in the middle of the debate about whether tattoos should have meaning, all he cares about is the client's satisfaction. 

“I support it all,” he said. “Naturally, we see a lot of people wanting memorial pieces, and that's awesome. But, I do love a good old traditional panther with a dagger, because personally, I see a piece of art.”