Tattoo in haste, repent at leisure?

Tattoos are becoming more and more prevalent in society and TV shows showing both the positive and negative sides of tattooing (e.g. the Ink series, Tattoo Fixers, etc.). Some of the reasons for a tattoo have been explored by Desley Hennessy (2011). It can be argued that getting a (memorial/life affirming/drunken/‘shit’) tattoo is becoming a rite of passage for young people especially on holiday in some of the hotspots of Europe. However, for some, this impulse and/or drunken purchase can turn into “buyer’s remorse” and regret. Having already used Procter’s (2014) Time/Event Grid in exploring people’s perception of an 8 day training course (2014) I felt that this was an ideal way to look at the meaning people gave their tattoo at different points in time and juxtapose that with their perception of how other people saw the tattoo.