Projo Offbeat Blog

I went to the beach last weekend and felt more exposed than a guy in a Speedo or a woman in a thong.

I kept wondering if I should put my shirt back on, but not for the usual reasons -- not because my belly was hanging over my bathing suit or my skin tone threatened to blind anyone who looked too long -- but because I was about the only person over the age of 15 without a tattoo.

The sand was covered by bodies drowning in a sea of red, black and blue ink. There were more tattoos than seashells. And the biggest waves flowed across the arms and ankles of beachgoers.

I felt naked. I worried that a tattooed lifeguard would scold me for showing so much uncovered skin "on a family beach."

I remember when soldiers, sailors and street toughs were the only ones with tattoos. Tattoos were unique, cool and edgy. Now it seems that everyone has at least one tattoo. And so much for subtlety. You thought Angelina Jolie had a lot of tattoos? You should see some of the young moms at the beach.

The world may still have plenty of starving artists, but tattoo artists certainly aren't going hungry.

Some people are apparently even trying to have their eyeballs tattooed.

I shouldn't be surprised, not when one TV show about life at a tattoo shop in Miami has spawned a spinoff about a tattoo shop in Los Angeles. And the Web is full of reports about Spice Girl Victoria Beckham's plans for a "fertility tattoo" to help her and her husband, soccer savior David Beckham, conceive a girl.

But does this mean that tattooless guys -- even tanless tattooless guys -- are now unique, maybe even cool and edgy?

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