The goal of tattooing was never beauty. The goal was change. From the scarified Nubian priests of 2000BC to the tattooed acolytes of the Cybele cult of ancient Rome, to the moko scars of the modern Maori, humans have tattooed themselves as a way of offering up their bodies in partial sacrifice, enduring the physical pain of embellishment and emerging changed beings.
Despite the ominous admonitions of Leviticus 19:28, which forbade the marking of one's flesh, tattoos had become a rite of passage shared by millions of people in the modern age...everyone from clean-cut teenagers to hard-core drug users to suburban housewives.