I am old and probably old fashioned as well. That said it seems to me that the prevalence of tattoos on young women has gone a bit too far. Do you all think this trend will abate at some point? I get that it is a form of expression, personal preference, tributes, and all that, but now it often seems like it is merely a competition to see who can have the most.

Used to be only a few got them. Now they are prevalent. It’s not my preference to see a woman with tons of tattoos. I’m not sure if the trend will abate. But I bet you will see more temporary markings in the future.

I can understand where you're coming from. Tattoos have become incredibly popular, especially in younger generations. As you acknowledged, tattoos can be seen as an important form of self-expression and a way for people to communicate aspects of their identity. For women, tattoos can symbolize empowerment, personal stories, and cultural connections.

..is not going away anytime soon. Personally, I only have a couple of small tattoos but I want a few more. My desire to get another tattoo or two is not the most pressing and for various reasons, life gets in the way.  

In the beginning, it was counter culture to get them for many. But when many have them, wouldn't counter culture be not to get them?  
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It may be the type of thing back when FaceBook was new, only young people were on that platform. Then when their parents, and even their grandparents joined, it suddenly made it uncool for the younger set and they fled and went to IG, TikTok, Snapchat, etc.
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Now, I see more and more people online stating they are having them removed. I think we will see a slow movement away from them but it's just a hunch. I never really minded them too much as long as they weren't distracting and extravagant. Of course people will have differing opinions on those definitions.

The popularity of tattoos, especially in western culture, has ebbed and flowed over the course of the late 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries. But tattoo culture isn’t going anywhere. To call them a “fad” is dismissive of their role in culture and society, both modern and historic, considering they’ve been around for thousands of years. I have a full tattoo sleeve on one arm and a half sleeve on the other as well as numerous leg and back tattoos. Some tell a story, like my sleeves, others are just an expression of my interests or views on the world. I got the majority of them in my late teens and twenties after the turn of the century when tattoos were highly popular and visible in mainstream culture. I viewed mine as self expression and not a symbol of rebellion or counterculture. While I have my preference in tattoos I find visually appealing on a woman’s body I wouldn’t choose to not see a provider simply because of her ink. American traditional, black and white gothic, neo- modern, I’ll enjoy it all. Unless she was a Nazi sporting an SS tattoo or swastika, of course.

Very well stated Paige.

is that one day they will be old women, with wrinkles and sagging skin, and it can make that cute tattoo of their baby that got when they were 23 look like some kind of missing link when they are 65.  

You're right, you are old fashioned. Tattoos have gone mainstream and are no longer associated with thugs and hooliganism unless you are from the older generation. It used to be that people would even cover them up in white collar corporate. Now it's acceptable to have them visible. It still might impact your career trajectory at the larger companies depending on who is in charge though, but you don't have to hide them anymore. Tattoos are very much accepted in the restaurant industry.

Everyone eventually starts having wrinkles and sagging skin. We're all going to get old and ugly eventually, tattoos or not. I don't think most people are worried about how their tattoos might look at that age. If you're the kind of person who is worried about what you look like at age 65 you probably don't understand the appeal of having a cool tattoo in there here and now. I think most providers or sex workers understand how they look now vs. how they will look at 65. There are so many other things that will impact their life at 65 and an aged tattoo is probably pretty low on the list of real world concerns. For every guy that complains on here about women with tattoos, there is another guy that is turned on by it and seeks it out.  
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The real tragedy is that these women didn't save their money and invest it an S&P 500 index fund, allowing them to purchase more, better tattoos in the future. Most people start with cheap tattoos when they are teenagers. Getting a great artist will produce tattoos that can hold up.

You are correct and I probably should have written "Are Excessive Tattoos a Fad", but then you get a discussion about the meaning of excessive as opposed to the primary question. Appreciate your thoughts.

They are one of the ways I uncover fake reviewers.  A guy puts up a profile on a new girl and ticks "no tattoos" then I see her a few days later and she has a tattoo of a bonsai tree that covers her entire back.  Not surprising, since he didn't really see her, missing the tattoo is but ONE of the corrections I have to make regarding her "appearance" he put in her profile.  

Lots of interesting replies to this OP. I'll just post this to the OP even tho' if could have been to any of several other posts.  
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This is a movie based on historical facts:  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cherry
Red Cherry
"... The movie was based on the true story of Chuchu (based on Zhu De's daughter Zhu Min[1]), a 13-year-old Chinese girl, and Luo Xiaoman, a 12-year-old Chinese boy, who were sent to Moscow, Russia in the 1940s and enrolled into an international boarding school. ..."
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"... Chuchu and several other students were spared when a high-ranking German officer, General Von Dietrich, arrived and sent them to work as servants at Nazi headquarters in the Yakovlev Monastery. General Von Dietrich was not only a military general, but also a perverted doctor who took tattooing as a hobby — he enjoyed tattooing heraldries on the bodies of young girls and parading them to his guests at parties, and decided to use Chuchu for his greatest "masterpiece". This was ironically what saved her life, because when the General learned that the Third Reich was doomed, instead of having Chuchu executed with the rest of the prisoners, he had her dumped in a field so that his "masterpiece" would live on before committing suicide himself. ..."
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Overall, an excellent movie. It won several awards. I recommend it.  
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Chuchu was a prisoner tattooed against her will during WWII. Millions of other prisoners were also tattooed against their will.

https://youtu.be/vBmvfW7WOUc?si=E-wsu6pzUQSO6Vfn

Many, many times I have skipped over an otherwise great looking provider because she has tattoos.  Even one tattoo is annoying.  Fortunately most search engines give that as an option you can filter out.  

I love beautiful body art! I embrace my ink. I think tattoos are sexy. Everyone is different. Do you.

Maybe she spent the entire session on her back.

take you in for a co-ed shower.  How are you going to miss a full-back tattoo.  Some discreet tattoos can be missed when a girl is new with you, but not one that is over 100 square inches.  You would be smart enough when you see a new girl to answer the question of tattoos with "don't know" if you didn't notice one rather than saying "none" when that was obviously not the case.  

You don't put  a bumper sticker on a Ferrari

No but even a Ferrari comes with a logo.

...and it's unlikely that they'll get any less popular. Personally I love well done ink on anyone, and I especially like colorful sleeves, especially on women. I find it sexy as hell. I have a couple of smaller ones that I got years ago and NO REGERTS 🤭

You love to worship!

because they look like shit. Nothing screams "trash" like a chick thats all inked up. The more they have, the worse they look.

...with some moron at the age of 15 or 16 who later in life would make them vomit if they had to date or even be with?  How many 16-18 year old men are absolutely certain they're going to want to be this or that their whole lives?  A lot of these people have been sucked into the fad part of tattoos and are making lifelong decisions based on their extremely limited world view.  So many things in life will change for them in just 10 years but they've already decided what their 40 year old bodies should look like.

I had a hostess with two weird tattoos, one on each butt cheek. I asked her what they were. They were supposed to be the names of her babies but her "friend" the tattoo artist did something else and she was PISSED. She also sued him in court.
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Then there are the stories of the girls with the Chinese or other foreign language tattoos. They think it says something powerful or philosophical ("Freedom! Peace! Love!") and it turns out that the Chinese tattoo artist wrote "Another! Dumb! Customer!")  
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You can google "tattoos - new, years later". You can google "tattoos - before and after laser treatment" and so on.
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And there are health considerations due to the inks. The inks migrate from the tattoo site and get into the lymph system and travel all over the body.  Some may insist on ORGANIC FOOD ONLY but then get inked up with toxic inks.

and I think the level of artistry has only gotten better in the last couple decades—more detail, more interconnected and intricate pieces… I’m really digging the larger, flowing floral designs I see lately.  Tattoos have always been a form of self expression, a way to differentiate yourself from others. Of course that usually takes the form of what you get, since every tattoo is different, and where—and we have seen tattoos go from places normally covered to forearms, necks and now faces. So with almost every young person having tattoos, and even the taboo for face tattoos is not the taboo it used to be, I think that does leave open the possibility to have NO tattoo as a way to differentiate yourself from everyone else. There is a segment of people who want to remain “pure” and “untouched.”  I can even get behind this idea in some aspects, as I love women who have a full bush and body hair (not facial hair though), and I find no scent more erotic than a woman’s natural scent.   So yeah, I do think there will always be a place for women (a minority, but still some) who forgo body modifications.

Some people still think that tattoos are some kind of rebellion- that era has long passed!  

I don't know if this is still the case but a few years back I read that some inks contain metal particles that would prohibit the wearer from having a MRI.

and also had several successful MRIs and CT-scans.

There are very few things in my life that are worth tattooing. Nationals winning the World Series in 2019, and also something sweet about my parents (who are both still living), and actually the only people I unconditionally love.  

When I started hobbying 20 years ago, I used to seek out higher end companions because they tended to be not-tattooed (In the cities I went to anyway). Over time this changed, and I eventually had to drop my "no tattoo" restriction in order to allow for a sufficient pool of people to select from.

There is one lady I seen on the younger side. She has 10 that she is in the process of removing. Eventually, I think they won’t be as permanent and people will be able to change them easier.