Why do some "Old Farts" (I'm one) get big, colorful tattoos that they wouldn't have considered for.....

[eppur_se_muova]

6. When I was a kid, tatoos were considered pretty low-class.

The cliche was they were only worn by sailors, but as I grew up I saw they were common with soldiers and ... prisoners.

What all have in common is that all might die far from home among strangers who don't speak their language, and their corpses might well be dismembered or badly damaged. Tatoos helped identify shipwreck victims and dead prisoners, so that searchers could identify the corpses years later by asking questions like, "Did he have an eagle tatooed on his chest ?" Even in illiterate societies, they could get a description of the victim(s). I guess if you're planning to die of a meth overdose in some dark alley, tatoos make sense. Not so much for the rest of us.