Just plain ick

The New York Times reports on Jews trying to get past the Jewish taboo on tattoos. Why? Apparently this is real emotional crisis or something.
At first, Nicki Carnes, daughter of Liz and granddaughter of Roberta, listened to her elders. “I took what they said to heart,” said Nicki Carnes, 29, who works for her mother’s company. “Then as I got older, I started doing my own research. I asked different rabbis, and they each had their own take.”
By the time, three years ago, she had an abstract rendering of her cat tattooed on her wrist, she wasn’t sure she was in the wrong. After all, she had figured out on her own what has yet to become commonly known among Jews: that rabbis disagree about just how bad it is to get inked.

She is so keen to get a tattoo that she talks to a bunch of rabbis about it? I would think rabbis have better things to do than worry about silly girls wanting a dose of pointless pain.
P.J. O’Rourke once summarily dismissed a bunch of recent protesters with this:
One thing, however, has changed in thirty-five years. Regular folks feel no desire to kick these young folks for the way they look. The kids are so thoroughly tattooed and body-pierced that whatever pain someone might want to inflict on them they’ve already inflicted on themselves.

Pretty much says it all.