Think Before You Ink

1. It is clear from the start of this article that Simon Mills is trying to persuade his readers of the pointlessness of Tattoos. Straight away Mills makes his negativity on the topic clear as describing many celebrity tattoos as being ‘badly drawn cod-philosophical/fauxtribal/cloyingly sentimental illustrations’. He goes on to describe celebrities Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse as being ‘aspirational figureheads’ clearly employing sarcasm and in fact, most likely suggesting the exact opposite. We see the writer constantly give his, clearly, biased opinion about his dislike of tattoos, at one point simply referring to them as an ‘all-pain-no-gain, self-conflicted suffering.

2. Throughout the article, the writer time and time again tries to convince us that tattoos are not, in his words, ‘classy, attractive or wise’, which would suggest his target audience would be those who have not yet gotten tattoos or who were perhaps considering. It appears the writer attempts to discourage everyone from getting a tattoo with his constant negative imagery, often brutal honesty, and highlighting the regret that can often follow. He suggests even sentimental tattoos are pointless and at one point asks ‘what’s wrong with carrying around a photo?’

3 a) As the writer begins to talk about Angelina Jolie’s tattoos, it seems he begins to argue that even the seemingly meaningful tattoos are, in his mind, still a waste of time. We detect a tone of sarcasm from the writer as he moves on to talk about her life journey. When writing about a life journey, one usually expects it to contain significant or profound meaning, and by deliberately using quotation marks on the word “journey”, the writer heavily implies how questionable he thinks the depth of Angelina’s life has actually been.

b) The writer’s negativity on tattoos continues as he shares his thoughts on