Kolby Arimoto is a third year journalism student at MU. He is an opinion columnist who specializes in societal issues and the music industry for The Maneater.
I’ve gotten seven tattoos over the past four months. A bit impulsive, maybe, but I don’t regret any of them. My reasoning behind getting each tattoo varies, but each is important to me and represents key events in my life. I wouldn’t say that any of them are comparable to the scenes in Smartwater’s recent commercial.
American comedian Pete Davidson partnered with Smartwater in an advertisement titled “Pete Davidson gets smart with smartwater.”
In the ad, released July 5, 2021, Davidson sits with a dermatologist administering laser removal on some of his 100+ tattoos. The first line of the advertisement is Davidson saying, “I’ve made a lot of questionable choices, and a couple of them need removing.”
Davidson then reenacts some of his “questionable choices,” deliberately walking onto a fashion show’s runway despite not being a model, living in his mother’s basement until his late 20s and riding a hoverboard through a restaurant and crashing into a waiter.
The conclusion has Davidson say, “but now I’m trying to make smarter choices,” before wincing in pain as the dermatologist continues to remove his tattoos, stating that they still “have a long way to go.”
Davidson’s comparison of his tattoos to utterly foolish decisions further demonizes tattoos in a culture where they are already seen as taboo. He and Smartwater insinuate that getting a tattoo is equivalent to causing a scene within a restaurant or a fashion show.
I don’t subscribe to the notion that tattoos lead to inevitable regret. When I show people mine, many compliment them, but sometimes a few ask the followup question: “Aren’t you worried about getting a job?”
To answer in short: no, I’m not. I believe that tattoos have little to nothing to do with my performance in the workplace. Though, unfortunately, many employers wouldn’t agree with me, especially in the hospitality industry.
A study conducted by Michael J. Tews and Kathryn Stafford, both professors specializing in either hospitality services or human sciences, concluded that employees with a higher number of tattoos or darker-shaded tattoos were treated unfavorably. These employees reported higher rates of discrimination in the workplace, and less respect as well as positive feedback from supervisors when compared to other non-tattooed employees.
This negative reaction to tattoos within the workplace is a key factor as to why many people refuse to get any. A government journal focused on the history of tattoos in corrections states that outlaws and criminals have historically used tattoos to “document their crimes, sentences, and beliefs,” though this trend slowed near the 1880s as criminals chose not to give police officers an easier time identifying suspects. Tattoos marked who was a criminal, but this was in the late 1800s, not in the 21st century.
Even with this being the case, Smartwater’s advertising perpetuates this stigma. It claims that those with tattoos made a mistake, and that it’d be a “smarter choice” to get them removed — though the advertisement fails to mention the cost of laser tattoo removal.
I spoke to a representative of Cayce Medical Spa, off of Market Dr. in Columbia, MO, to ask them about the price of having a tattoo laser removed and they told me that each session is a minimum of $100, but no more than $200. The average number of sessions (varying based on age, location and size of the tattoo) is ten sessions, with each occurring six to 12 weeks apart. If you take the average between these numbers, you’re looking at $1,500 and 90 weeks to get your tattoo removed.
When compared to the price of getting a tattoo, the difference is astronomical. I called Iron Tiger Tattoo, located in downtown Columbia, and learned that they charge a minimum of $50 for each tattoo and an hourly rate of $150.
Not only is laser tattoo removal inaccessible to many due to its high costs in both money and time, but, when the two price points are compared,and someone could get multiple tattoos for the price of removing one, they’re almost encouraged to get more.
People get tattoos for various reasons. They get them to represent the people they love, their religious beliefs, key moments in their lives, displays of their profession, or, for some, no reason at all. And that is completely their adult decision. People’s ability, intelligence, drive or character shouldn’t be diminished as a result of putting artwork on their body.
For this reason, I don’t think anyone should be getting “smart with smartwater,” but they should be getting smart by working against negative stigmas surrounding tattoos instead of reinforcing them.
The Maneater believes that their readers should participate in the fight against discrimination, racism, and xenophobia towards Asian American and Asian people. Donate directly to Stop AAPI Hate if you are able, thank you. https://donate.givedirect.org/?cid=14711&n=754283
Edited by Sarah Rubinstein, srubinstein@themaneater.com
