Should Tattoo Artists Be Allowed To Cover Up Offensive Art?

No matter how bad things get or how many elections they lose, there is a faction of liberals and leftists who insist that people who once held abhorrent beliefs are irredeemable goblins who must be publicly shamed for the rest of their lives — even after changing their minds. 

A recent debate on social media is a perfect example of how delusional, ridiculous, and self-defeating this view is.

People are debating whether or not tattoo artists should cover up offensive art.

The debate, which began on X, centered on someone who decided to have their swastika tattoo changed into a religious-themed one, presumably after changing their views.

Photos showed the person had their offending tattoo changed into a depiction of Jesus Christ, and in response, another user implied that tattoo artists have some sort of moral imperative to refuse to do these kinds of tattoo alterations.

X | Canva Pro

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The poster insisted that people should be forced to wear their offensive tattoos forever as a mark of shame.

“This might be a hot take but I don’t think artists should cover up these kinds of tattoos,” the poster wrote. “You should live with the choice you made and people should be able to see the choice that you made.”

This is a bizarre take given that marks of shame are precisely how Hitler’s Third Reich enforced its own attacks on minorities of all stripes, from forcing Jews to wear Stars of David to forcing LGBTQ+ people to wear upside-down pink triangles.

I was under the impression that we’d all read “The Scarlet Letter” in high school and had all learned that this sort of thing is barbaric. Guess not!

But that’s not even the chief concern. What this man is actually saying is that ensuring that people who change their minds are forever publicly castigated for who they used to be is not only moral but somehow productive. I would challenge him and anyone else to name one thing that view accomplishes. Quickly.

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If you want the world to get better, you need to give people space to change, grow and redeem themselves.

Here’s a hot tip for any liberals and leftists applauding this dolt like an angry mob: Unless you came out of the womb with all the right beliefs and opinions, you had to LEARN and GROW and CHANGE to become the paragon of virtue you now think you are.

More importantly — and I speak here from experience, as a person from a family with several members who have been indoctrinated into far-right politics — you are only helping the movements you purport to oppose by making demands like this.

My family members, for example, were normal and reachable for most of their lives. While it is far from the only reason they have been duped into dangerous beliefs, being scolded for years as irredeemable bigots by liberals and leftists is one of the key things that pushed them into the arms of the alt-right — which at the very least showed them respect and a listening ear, no matter how disingenuous.

I am not suggesting bigotry needs to be tolerated, nor am I excusing anyone’s choices. But there is a vast ocean between tolerating bigotry, and insisting people be branded as diabolical villains for the rest of their lives because of who they USED to be.

More importantly, I am asking one fundamental question: Do you want to win and change this country, or do you want to exact revenge? Because I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but people who like swastikas keep winning elections and have been for 10 years. If there were enough of you finger-wagging moralists to take over the country, you would have done it by now.

The notion that someone is irredeemable and should be dehumanized forever because of it is, in fact, fascist. It is also how cults operate. If you think it is mere coincidence that the right’s branding of the left as a “woke mob” and “woke cult” has been so successful, you are delusional. Those words resonate for a reason, and I would suggest you stop playing into their hands.

If you want to turn the tide, you’re going to have to be willing to accept people who have turned from their abhorrent beliefs and let them fight alongside you. I ask again: Do you want to fix this country, or do you want to exact revenge? Because the two are at odds, and your window to make the right choice is rapidly narrowing. So get off your high horse and pick. We don’t have time for this.

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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.