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Paul, Palin, and Romney are, frankly, awful people, their electoral platforms based on varying combinations of fear, greed, and idiocy. There's not much that's good in the world, but it's good that they didn't win. But when they're stuck forever on someone's skin, they turn into something else. (You could say something similar about the woman who had Nigel Farage's face done on her arm, or—despite the very different in politics—all those who got tattoos of the Yes logo during last year's failed Scottish independence referendum.) That tiny instant of real hope, when you could almost think that everything would actually get better, when you believed in something so much that you changed your body to say so to the world—the hope died, it always does, and maybe it deserved to, but though ink might fade that bittersweet moment remains, unsullied by the disappointments of victory, suspended into timelessness.If you're going to get a political tattoo, make it a stupid one. Who'd want a winner? Back in 2008, along with the Paul and Palin designs, plenty of people had Obama tats—his O symbol, or the famous HOPE poster. According to the general wisdom, they made the better choice; their guy won, and so they won't look so stupid in old age. But because he won, that moment doesn't have the same meaning as it once did. It doesn't stand for positive transformative change any more. It means a massive expansion of the drone killing program, rocketing income inequality, death by cop, and ISIS closing on Damascus. Nothing kills hope more thoroughly than its realization. So if that teenager from York wants to avoid regretting his choice of tattoo, he should pray that Corbyn loses the next election.Follow Sam on Twitter.VICE's resident amateur tattoo artist, Bob Foster, is still offering free tats of stuff like John Prescott as a Boxer, or "Illuminati Ed Miliband" to anyone stupid/cool enough to want one.Watch on Noisey: From South London to South Africa
