Tattoos are so Middle Class

We've enjoyed a pretty good summer this year and it's meant people have been bearing the flesh on a daily basis.

Seeing so many bare arms and legs you may have noticed the increasing amount of tattoos on show these days. It seems everyone has a tattoo. Even the most unlikely looking people have some sort of ink on them.

Reading today's Times newspaper they had an article arguing that tattoos have become mainstream. They've become so Middle Class and are no longer the preserve of the Working classes, sailors and criminals.

The article is so right, tattoos are everywhere. They're not alternative anymore. They don't mark you out as being part of a counter culture movement, they're not rebellious.

Tattoos have become mainstream for ordinary average people to express themselves, but like so many fashions and lifestyle choices - once everyone starts embracing that fashion it loses it edge and original appeal.

Over the last few weeks I've looked at my own unmarked skin and thought there's something missing. My skin looks too plain and bland without any markings.

But I'm now beginning to think that having no tattoos is the new tattoos. Perhaps I'm the alternative, rebelling against the mainstream of clichéd tattoos markings and symbols.

I'm not against tattoos. I don't have one as I can't think of what I'd want permanently marked on me. If I'm going to have something on me for the rest of my life I want to make sure I get my choice right!

If I did have a tattoo it would have to be at the top of my arm just below my shoulder. I hate the 'sleeve' look made popular by the likes of David Beckham, where the entire arm down to the wrist is covered in tattoos. I think this is horrible.

I think it's becoming more and more difficult to embrace fashions, lifestyles and cultures that are truly alternative and counter culture without the mainstream eventually getting hold of them and incorporating them into a mass culture. It looks like this is what's happened to tattoos.