Posted to LJ instead of Tumblr because I'm not an 18 year old.

[mokie]

"why is it that were always told not to get tattoos at a young age because we 'will regret it later on' when we are basically told to choose a career path by age 18? i’d rather be 40 years old with a tattoo that meant something to me when i was young than be 40 years old not wanting to get out of bed to go to a job that i hate because i was forced to decide on a career in my teens" (Some kid on Tumblr.)

Because careers take years to build.

If you wait till you're 40 to pick one and start working your way up the ladder, from the tiresome training to the shitty entry level jobs on your way to the sweet position you actually want, you're more likely to hit retirement age before you get the career you envisioned--and that's if you can even get a foot in the door, given the unapologetic ageism that runs rampant in many fields.

And you still have to support yourself in the meantime. If you have no particular career path in mind, that usually means a succession of really shitty jobs in which you're just getting by, and if you're just looking to get by that's fine, but they don't leave you in a position to uproot your life and pursue training for a career when you finally know what you really want to do. They also work against you when you're out there looking for a shitty entry level job, because you're up against younger people who have also been working really shitty jobs, but while they put themselves through college or while they do the work they really love on the side.*

That younger person's string of really shitty jobs is a badge of honor proclaiming them a determined go-getter. Your much longer string of really shitty jobs is a note pinned to your shirt informing potential employers that you don't really do 'goals' or 'hard work'.

It is easier for a 40 year old to get up, decide they hate their career and want to start over, than to get up, decide they want a career, and start fresh, because the first 40-year-old isn't really starting over: they've got the training and experience of their previous career, and even if these aren't relevant to their new career path, they tell potential employers on that path that this person can get shit done.

To answer the real question, though: because most young people tattoo themselves with stupid shit. The names of girlfriends that will dump them in six months, bands that they'll have stopped listening to in two years, stupid cartoons and memes that nobody will remember in five years and oh so rebellious sexalicious/pothead graphics that will embarrass them in ten years when they've grown the hell up and are trying to hold down a job and pick their kid up at school without being labeled a 'creep'.

In all likelihood, the tattoo you get at 18 will mean something entirely different to you when you're 40. Mostly, that you have to cover it with Ace bandages when you're forced to get out of bed in the morning to go to a really shitty job you hate, because the dress code on really shitty jobs is pretty much universal ("Nothing that would scare little old white ladies").

But also that you're embarrassing your 18-year-old, because dad will you please put a shirt on so my friends don't see your janky tattooes? Ugh.

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* I speak from experience: really shitty jobs look really shitty on a résumé, especially as you grow older, unless you have something going on the side, e.g. "...to support myself while I pursued my passion of writing," or "while I built the world's first goat space program." And even then, they can be a sneaky trap from which it's difficult or impossible to escape if you ever decide that just paying the bills isn't enough.