To tattoo or not?

There has been some controversy on one of the boards about tattoos. A number of people posted photos of their Charlton tattoos. One of the problems may be that tattoos do not photograph that well.

Let me make it clear from the start that I regard having a tattoo as a matter of personal choice. I prefer to see people with a single or two or three well done tattoos rather than mass of them, but that's just a preference. At least if you have a tattoo of your football club you may be less likely to regret it one than a tattoo of a one time loved one.

Of course, culture can make a difference. I once watched a rather dull match in Chile in which the home team was Catholica (the team linked to the Catholic University in Santiago). When the single goal was scored, the scorer ripped off his shirt to reveal that his back was covered with a tattoo of Jesus on the cross.

A recent report has found a big shift in attitudes towards tattoos. It was noted, 'Tattoos were once the preserve of sailors, prostitutes and criminals: a warning as much as a decoration. Now they are most likely to be found daubed on to the skin Britain’s middle class, 28 per cent admitting to having at least one tattoo. The figure means that the middle class has leapfrogged the working class, which had only 27 per cent of its number marked'.

'It is a trend that has even become well established in the rarefied “AB” upper [professional and managerial] class — 19 per cent have been under the needle. Aman Malhotra, research assistant at Harris Interactive, which conducted the study, said that the tattoo was no longer the preserve of the working classes.'

The study, which looked at more than 2,000 people across the country and from different demographics, found that 19 per cent of the middle classes had between one and two pieces of body art, 6 per cent had between three and five and 17 per cent had between six and ten. Not everything has changed though: only 1 per cent of the middle classes had more than ten tattoos and Mo Coppoletta, the founder of The Family Business tattoo parlour in Clerkenwell, north London, said that their approach to body art was still “conservative”.'

I would guess that one would find more tattoos in the Covered End than anywhere else with the smallest number in the West Stand.