9 ms·
I got rid of all mine after getting disillusioned with every one of the causes they represented.
by Tabular-Iceberg 11mo ago
I got rid of all mine after getting disillusioned with every one of the causes they represented.
- magarnicle 11mo agoThis is the main reason I've never gotten a tattoo - how I feel about whatever it is will almost certainly change.
- Tabular-Iceberg 11mo agoThere’s also the problem with both most tattoos and all the stickers in the article that there’s nothing left that’s counter-cultural about them, which defeats the entire purpose of doing something edgy as a statement.
- brailsafe 11mo agoI'm seeing a lot of cute animals, memes, video game stuff, what's with the fixation on being edgy. My gf has a bunch of animal tattoos, doesn't need to be complicated.
- cobertos 11mo agoDo they _need_ to be edgy? They can just be fun, happy, or a representation/proxy of the person behind the computer
- Tabular-Iceberg 11mo agoBecause then it's just visual clutter, and in the case of tattoos, unnecessary pain, expense and health risk. If I'm going to put a sticker on something it's going to read like a diff, what sets me apart from the mainstream culture, not all the different ways I conform to it.
- Barbing 11mo ago>what sets me apart Interesting. I’m happy with a fun niche, myself. (But generally happier without stickers on expensive things.) Tattoos, though—hard to imagine being THAT confident in anything ever.
- Ginguin 11mo agoMy first tattoos were each done years apart. I printed a version out, put it in my wallet, and saw it every time I made a purchase. If I still loved it just as much a year later, I booked an appointment. Later tattoos are essentially private works of art, put together collaboratively with an artist. These are for ME, and no one at work will ever see any of them (or any of my other tattoos). Each tattoo has some significance for me, but I won't judge others who just like a thing and get a thing. Tattoos are as varied as the reasons people have for getting them. Mine aren't edgy, but they also aren't visible to strangers.
- tlavoie 11mo agoI don't mind sharing, but the point remains, they're for the person wearing them. Enjoy them, in public, or in private. They're yours to do with as you wish.
- timdiggerm 11mo agoThe edginess was, at the core of it, what made them fun in the first place
- wiether 11mo agoBut you can also use them as a reminder of how you felt/who you were when you got them. Even someone who get a very trendy tattoo should keep it: "look how I used to follow every trend and how I evolved because I would never do something like that now". Biologically and philosophically, tattoos are scars.
- mr_mitm 11mo agoGetting scars on purpose is a quite questionable decision.
- fwn 11mo ago> Getting scars on purpose is a quite questionable decision. Interesting. Why? Isn't it a common and longstanding cultural practice, even among indigenous peoples? Intuitively, I'd say body modification is based on the desire to shape one's own body, something we usually embrace in fitness culture and medicine, for example. I don't have any tattoos or scars, but I can't think of anything that would make them questionable. Perhaps some of the objection arises from a confusion between body modification and self-harm?
- mr_mitm 11mo agoJust because something has been done for a long time doesn't mean it's good. We also shouldn't confuse self-mutilation with healthy activities like exercising simply because both "shape one's own body".
- fwn 11mo ago> Just because something has been done for a long time doesn't mean it's good. This is true, although it is a good start, right? If a cultural practice has survived for many generations, this alone already indicates that the practice might be compatible with human society, morals, sustainability, etc. > We also shouldn't confuse self-mutilation with healthy activities like exercising simply because both "shape one's own body". True! We should indeed not confuse self-mutilation with healthy activities just because they share some similarities. But would you classify scars or tattoos motivated by aesthetics as self-mutilation? What about piercings, such as holes for earrings or laser hair removal? I believe that is an interesting and unusual position. Do you have an argument in favor of your (so far implicit) take?
- egeozcan 11mo agoRemoving a sticker is easier than getting rid of a tattoo. Some people on this website even declare that they wear a chastity device on their laptop stickers: https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_9217-2.jpeg https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_9217-2.jpe...
- tjpnz 11mo agoI'm not sure that's a sticker.
- q3k 11mo ago> Some people on this website even declare that they wear a chastity device on their laptop stickers: Where do you see that on this photo?
- t-3 11mo agoThe stickers are the chastity device.
- egeozcan 11mo agoI made a kinky interpretation and apparently I'm wrong. The white label with the "Haltungsform" is a standard label used in the German meat industry, showing under what conditions animal was kept before being slaughtered. 1 is the worst, and 5 is the best: https://haltungsform.de/en/ https://haltungsform.de/en/ In this one, it says "Käfighaltung" under 2. Which means "caged keeping". So I assumed it's a kinky reference to a chastity cage. Maybe too much of a jump I know but I'm not a native German speaker and all the times I heard about a cage in German, it was in a kinky context. Now that you asked and I looked at the source, apparently it's part of a working environment themed sticker set: https://www.threads.com/@unterwegselektrisch/post/DD34uR6uJGj https://www.threads.com/@unterwegselektrisch/post/DD34uR6uJG... It's embarrassingly wrong but very funny too :)
- q3k 11mo agoFreud would have a field day with you.
- benchly 11mo agoI get this, but thankfully the regrettable tattoos I got back in the day were small/simple enough to hide under cover-ups. My former tattoos were drug-related, but these days, they're all themed with the retrovideo games I still love play, especially when I need a breather from everything else. As a result, I am that guy that tells people a few rules about tattoos: 1. Don't get a tattoo of a band. They will eventually fall out of favor or do something stupid. 2. Don't get a tattoo of any person unless they've been dead for a long, long time. Like a band, a person will also eventually fall out of favor or do something stupid. Even after they're dead, it may still be uncovered that they did something stupid in secret. 3. Don't make your self-expression about other people. Rules 1 and 2 should have already put you on this path. 4. Consider time. So you like cars, especially the 1987 Pontiac Firebird you had in high school. Have you always liked cars? Will you always like cars? Have you and will you always like that car? If there is doubt, rule it out. 5. Are you drunk or high? Best sleep on it. 6. Can you be honest with yourself? This is the Catch 22 question, but an important one. We tend to have a few versions of ourselves to contend with; the one we want to be, the one others perceive us as, and the one we need to be. Sometimes they align, sometimes they don't, but self-expression hinges on understanding the difference and allowing that we might be deceiving ourselves about who we really are, sometimes. Getting a tattoo is a remarkably difficult and personal thing that I see a lot of people not take seriously enough, then live to regret it, myself included. The artist who has now done all my visible work is an absolute master at getting people to slow down and think about what they want, which was a terrific boon in my life, because he probably did more for me as a person than my therapist did. His clients are life-long, one even having traveled from another country to get more work done by him. That's to say nothing of his absolutely radical art and style that always produces something unique and fit for the person to make part of their lives. It's something I often think about when I look down at my arms, see those old game homages and realize, regardless of what else has happened in my life or whoever I thought I was at the time, they have been with me since the beginning and are still here, helping me through it.
- Barbing 11mo agoGreat rules, & appreciate your perspective. I wonder what makes me so different: If I carefully had a favorite thing of mine selected, and I woke up tomorrow with the tiniest tattoo of it, I would be so upset. I’d be bothered every time I saw it on my body, knowing it wouldn't rub off. I bet your tattoo artist could help me learn something about myself there :)
- Tepix 11mo agoWhat about the appreciation of nature?
- zeekaran 11mo agoOften the laptop is replaced before the feelings change. Each laptop lid becomes a time machine showing who you were at the time.
- GuinansEyebrows 11mo agothis is why i only get stupid tattoos, or just cover up the ones i regret with big black boxes.
- jijijijij 11mo agoThis applies to literally any action. One day you may regret playing it safe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d8SzG4FPyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d8SzG4FPyM
- tlavoie 11mo agoThis is a good argument against getting them on impulse, or cheaply. Find a good artist whose work you can appreciate, pay them well, and you keep some art that will be with you forever.
- wmanley 11mo agoWhat stickers did you used to have? I'm always fascinated with how people change their mind.
- zeekaran 11mo agoI used to have Pokemon stickers on my laptop. I still do, but I used to, too.
- rmoriz 11mo agoStickers are like statues of people, or streets named after people. They don't age well. Nothing and nobody is absolutely right, all the time or in hindsight.
- cobertos 11mo agoTheres better ways to choose stickers. Make them yourself and it's extremely unlikely you'll ever be at odds with that artist ;). Pretty art or ubiquitous fun phrases generally also don't really go bad, unless it's so tied to a specific artist that it represents them too.
- rmoriz 11mo agoTrue. Make a unique design, not a mashup of 25 JS frameworks and a corporate-sponsored programming language.
- benchly 11mo agoI have one on my laptop that says "Fuck Your Algorithm." It's like a fine wine that gets more potent by the week, but it's about as political as my stickers get. The rest are just cool art I enjoy, usually from artists I meet at street fairs and whatnot, since it's an easy way to throw them a few supportive bucks without breaking my own wallet. Saying they don't age well is pretty generalizing, given the variety of ways one can express themselves with stickers that aren't necessarily topical or political.
- Theodores 11mo agoI would like to know which stickers they were. Maybe I would recreate a few for irony. There are plenty of candidates for irony, from Enron to crypto. There are also those companies that it is hard to be excited about - I mean a Microsoft sticker would mark you out as a rebel. Oddly, the only stickers I have on my computers are the Intel ones that come ready applied. Younger me would have gone in for stickers but younger me had pen and paper with no laptop. That said, back then it was school bags that got decorated, albeit with fabric patches and badges rather than stickers. Here was how you showed allegiance to music bands and football teams. I didn't do that though since I was not one of the cool kids. One sticker set I would like consists of morally dubious companies such as defence corporations and failed companies from things such as crypto, mixed up with USAID psyops such as 'Free Tibet'. However I can't be bothered to put in the work. That is why stickers that are ready made succeed, it is minimal effort. Younger me was surprised at how much stickers cost. When I was working in a bicycle shop we had Oakley sunglasses for sale, and the product was cool. In period people would buy Oakley stickers from us to put them in the back of their car. I expected these to be freebie promotional items but no, they cost a fortune and could not be just given away.
- niorad 11mo agoI have a similar project to this one, and for some time I felt exactly the same. It's not so active anymore anyways, but yea the big tech logos have at least a bitter taste to them.