I can’t afford to save😏

I finally did it, I got up the nerve to ask.

While on Key West recently I walked up to a young man and asked him how much the tattoo on his arm cost. The tattoo was about 8″ by 5″ on his outer upper arm.

He proudly told me it cost $1200. “You want to get a good job,” he said. Indeed you do if you are going to defile your body for the world to admire the rest of your life. He further told me the artists charge by the hour, typically $100 to $150.

I wonder if Rembrandt could have gotten away with that. Certainly Rothko pulled off an even better artistic scam.

Since learning about this pricing I have been closely observing the tattoos covering teenagers and 20-30 something’s. Many have way more than one modest tattoo. In fact, a large number seem hell-bent on covering the majority of their epidermis. I have moved beyond trying to understand the attraction to this destructive process. I now try to envision how they will look when they are in their 60s,70s or 80s or even when tattoos are no longer in fashion.

But more to the point.  I have a few questions. Given the significant amount of money spent on body ink, are these the same people:

😜 Old Liz Warren thinks are vulnerable and need to be protected from for-profit colleges?

😜 Need forgiveness from student loans for degrees in art history?

😝 Who need us to pay for their birth control?

😝 Who can’t afford to save for retirement?

😳 Who are being held back by the wealthy so they can’t rise in the middle-class?

😗 Who need subsidized health insurance?

Ok, I’m generalizing, but not by much. What holds most people back, what makes them need the protection of government handouts and who become the cause of the day for the Warrens of the world is not what others do, but what they don’t do, they do and how they set their priorities in life. Tattoos are just one example.

[Surveys indicate about 38% of millennials have one or more tattoos and interestingly, a liberal person is more likely to have a tattoo than a conservative.].

I wonder if a tattoo is eligible under a flexible spending account? 😷