Up front, let me caveat this post - It is not a big, serious question on which the fate of a script depends. It's really about language, social change, and perception.
As I read a friend's script, I saw this as part of a character intro: "a beefy, tattooed gang-banger..."
Since tattoos are now sported by all sorts of non-menacing people, we got into a discussion as to whether using "tattooed" as a symbol of menace might not be effective these days. And actually, it might turn off some readers, because some "significant" number of them have at least one tattoo.
(I don't mean simply saying, "JOE, 29, in a T-shirt, his tattooed-covered arms on display, drinks his beer" - and that that, alone, means he's menacing. Though some years ago, I think it would have worked that way.)
Any of you out there, especially if you have a tattoo or 6 or 7 - Thoughts on this?
As I read a friend's script, I saw this as part of a character intro: "a beefy, tattooed gang-banger..."
Since tattoos are now sported by all sorts of non-menacing people, we got into a discussion as to whether using "tattooed" as a symbol of menace might not be effective these days. And actually, it might turn off some readers, because some "significant" number of them have at least one tattoo.
(I don't mean simply saying, "JOE, 29, in a T-shirt, his tattooed-covered arms on display, drinks his beer" - and that that, alone, means he's menacing. Though some years ago, I think it would have worked that way.)
Any of you out there, especially if you have a tattoo or 6 or 7 - Thoughts on this?
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