Reading Rhetorically: “On Teenagers and Tattoos”

“With the Grain”

Martin introduces the concept of tattoos and suggests that they are widely accepted across American society. He also discusses the permanence of tattoos, and he asserts that this permanence can help adolescents gain a sense of identity that might explain their appeal to them. Martin then gives greater insight into his motivation for writing this article by suggesting that adolescents and their parents often have conflicting ideas about tattoos, and that it is important for psychiatrists to be able to understand some of the motivation behind why teenagers get tattoos. His first suggestion is that tattoos give teenagers a way to develop their own identity and convey it to outsiders. He also suggests that tattoos are a way for them to memorialize events or people in their lives, and it allows them to incorporate these events into their identity as a whole. Finally he suggests that in our society people are looking for something that is more permanent and will stay with them even as they move about and things change. Martin reiterates his main point and purpose in the article by suggesting that tattoos can be understood as something that contributes to the identity of adolescents rather than just something to argue over with authority figures or following a fad.

“Against the Grain”

When Martin begins by discussing the sense of identity that tattoos can give teenagers, it brings up the subject of changing identities and roles that teenagers often go through. How could tattoos possibly fit into these changing identities both positively and negatively? The permanence of these tattoos at such a young age may not just have a grounding effect or give the teenagers a sense of identity. Negative psychological and emotional consequences may result later in life. Perhaps parents are justified in having some conflict with their teenagers over tattoos. Trying to be disagreeable with their parents may not be the primary motivator behind a teenager getting a tattoo, and Martin helps to explain other reasons that may have not been previously considered by psychiatrists when seeing teenage clients with tattoos. However, perhaps it is reasonable for parents to disagree with what their children are doing to their bodies. It may be true in some cases that teenagers do not fully think about or understand what they are doing, and they may in fact be engaging in dangerous self-mutilation with some of the self-made tattoos. Martin suggests that tattoos are a way for teenagers to gain a sense of identity; however it seems that there are other ways that identity could be explored and expressed. I would like to see a discussion of other perhaps less permanent ways teenagers can express themselves. Martin portrays teenagers as if they are constantly being influenced by forces outside of their control, but I think that perhaps this is an exaggeration of what the typical teenage experience. It seems that Martin’s three arguments about the benefits teenagers can gain from tattoos could be bolstered by empirical evidence. As they stand now, it seems that other suggestions for additional activities outside tattoos could be suggested except perhaps the permanence that tattoos provide. However, there are negative consequences to the permanence that he does not discuss.