From today's Tattoos Gain Even More Visibility:

"Watching a show like Project Runway, where the guy who won Season 3 had his son’s name tattooed on his neck," Ms. Handelman added, referring to Jeffrey Sebelia, "I was, like, 'Whoa.' It wasn’t a prison tattoo. It wasn’t sailors or criminals. It was this real-life person that you saw being creative and successful, and it really affected your perception about who gets tattooed."

From September 14, 2008, With This Tattoo, I Thee Wed:

"We live in a heavily inked Brooklyn neighborhood, but I’d never seen a wedding ring tattoo. I liked the dare. If we actually made it to the altar, I said, I would… My spouse was shocked, but pleased. One of my daughters hated it, the other at least pretended not to. There was clearly one bit of genius in that — nothing makes a tattoo as unappealing to a teenager as seeing her father get one."

From July 27, 2008, The Breakups That Got Under My Skin:

"Maybe some girls would fear their parents' reaction to such an act, but my mother had actually gone down this road before me and gotten a tattoo just a decade earlier, when I was 10. In fact, she had taken me along. I watched as a heavyset bearded man in a clean white T-shirt pressed the buzzing needle into her backside. I studied her face, concerned by her wincing. Afterward she showed it to me: a lavender iris, her favorite flower. It was a delicate thing, placed where no one but she and a lover would see."

From July 17, 2008, For Some Jews, It Only Sounds Like 'Taboo':

Nicki Carnes and her sister, Rebecca, who now also has a tattoo, say that being permanently marked was just something they wanted. Others say they were tattooed to rebel or, surprisingly, that they wanted a Jewish tattoo as a way of connecting with their religious and cultural identity…Todd Weinberger, the creative director of Inked Magazine, grew up in a family that kept kosher, and recently got his first tattoo with his girlfriend, Jennifer Goldstein, an editor at CosmoGirl magazine.

From May 18, 2008, Ink-Stained and Loving It:

It's hard to look authentically rebellious or menacing these days, when even well-behaved businessmen wear earrings and ponytails and college students destined for quiet suburban lives have body piercings and tattoos…Tattoos, in particular, are not the radical brandings, the bold violations of flesh and propriety, they once were.

Also from May 18, 2008, Under My Skin:

"I was at sea from a breakup, and the former beloved happened to live next door. You are probably supposed to get a tattoo removed at the end of a relationship, get that name in the heart erased or changed to signify something else — Ken to Kenya, Olivia to Bolivia. But somehow this great unpleasant change in my life made me feel as if it was the right time to get the tattoo done."

From November 22, 2007, Etched in Mommy’s Heart and Now (Ouch!) on Her Ankle:

“I’d always thought of tattoos as something biker chicks got, not something I would get,” said Ms. Scarborough, a neonatal nurse. But she changed her mind after she and her husband adopted Daniel, who was born four months premature; the tattoo is of his footprints. “I wanted something to symbolize my connection with him and what we went through,” she said.

So there you have it, people. Tattoos = officially uncool. You're probably going to have to pierce your butt cheeks together to piss your mom off now. Thanks, New York Times, for clearing that up for us!

Tattoos Gain Even More Visibility
With This Tattoo, I Thee Wed
The Breakups That Got Under My Skin
For Some Jews, It Only Sounds Like ‘Taboo’
Ink-Stained and Loving It
Etched in Mommy’s Heart and Now (Ouch!) on Her Ankle [All NYT]

Thankfully, the New York Times is debunking that myth, reporting that "The eight rabbinical scholars interviewed for this article, from institutions like the Jewish Theological Seminary and Yeshiva University, said it’s an urban legend…Jewish parents and grandparents picked up on it and over time, their distaste for tattoos was presented as scriptural doctrine."

The argument behind that widespread urban legend comes from the following passage in Leviticus 19:28: “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead nor incise any marks on yourself: I am the Lord.” The woman who did my tattoo (a dainty ampersand in the middle of my back, which I affectionately refer to as my "trampersand") assailed that rumor when she pointed out that Jewish girls make gashes in their flesh all the time for nose jobs, and they still get buried in the Jewish cemetery.

And besides, as Rabbi Mark Washofsky points out to the Times, ear piercing, which also involves incising marks, is not controversial. Though tattoos are so prevalent that they're no longer really taboo in American society (40% of 26- to 40-year-olds have at least one tattoo the Times reports), there is one aspect of tattooing that is considered risky: getting your significant others' name tattooed on your body. According to the Telegraph, "Shortly after breaking up with Billy Bob Thornton, a Rolling Stone journalist pointed out the 'Billy Bob' tattoo on Angelina Jolie's arm. 'Where does that leave you?" asked the hack. 'With a lot of dermatology appointments,' she replied." If you really need someone's name on your person, get an ID bracelet, people! Friends don't let friends tattoo dudes' names on their butts.

Think Before You Ink… [Telegraph]
For Some Jews, It Only Sounds Like ‘Taboo’ [NYT]

Related: I Ink Therefore I Am [Guardian]