I had never identified an abundance of tattoos as evidence that an individual is coping with serious trauma. Seeing “sleeves” in a different way, I suddenly am getting the message. A prominent Red Sox player has “sleeves,” and I barely paid attention to them. Suddenly it all makes sense: he has had multiple episodes of lashing out at abusive fans, and in an interview on last year’s Netflix documentary on the Boston baseball team that has occupied so much of my attention and passion over the decades, he said on camera that his struggles to succeed in major league baseball had pushed him into dangerous emotional territory:
“I was already hearing it from fans. And what they said to me, [it was like], ‘I’ve told myself 10 times worse in the mirror.’ That was a really tough time for me. I didn’t even want to be here anymore…I got to a point where I was sitting in my room, I had my rifle and I had a bullet and I pulled the trigger and the gun clicked, but nothing happened….I seriously don’t know why it didn’t go off. I took it as a sign of, ‘I might have to be here for a reason’, so that’s when I started to look myself in the mirror after the gun didn’t go off. I was like, ‘Do I want to be here, or do I not want to be here?’ That happened for a reason and obviously you’re here for a reason, so let’s be the way you want to be and play [the way] you want to play and live the way you want to live.”
This player is having a terrible season in 2026, and I have expressed frustration with him often in some unkind commentary to fellow Sox fans,. Understanding that he is a damaged human being doesn’t make his lack of an acceptable performance in a year he is being paid over $7 million any less disappointing, but it does give me important perspective on the human being behind the tattoos.
Similarly, realizing why Nancy Mace has her tattoos and suddenly decided to reveal them doesn’t change my conviction that she doesn’t belong in Congress and never should have been there. Ace of Spades, the acidic right-wing blogger, said of Mace yesterday after quoting her comments about her “sleeves,” in the gentle, understated style for which he is known, “So yes, she was cutting herself so that she could feel alive…I cannot wait until this toxic basket-case is out of public life.”
I am going to take this new understanding of the “sleeves” phenomenon and try to integrate the information it conveys into my relationships with such people as well as my professional criticism. Compassion. Empathy. Tolerance. Caring.
It is the ethical thing to do.
Ethics Alarms 
Jack,
What you wrote about empathy, tolerance, and compassion mean a lot, and serve as words we all need to hear. One small caveat: well many people who have trauma may use, tattoos as a coping mechanism, not all people with excessive tattoos, have coping mechanism problems. from your words, you desire to approach this from a place of understanding, but as with all complex human issues, make sure you understand the right thing.
Assumptions, asses, and all that. Great post!
Wise counsel, Neil. The way I’d put it is that someone with such ostentatious (and painful) tats raises a rebuttable presumption that he or she is suffering from trauma. It was pointed out to me that the groups we most associate with the phenomenon—military, prisoners and artists—are also recognized as likely sources of stress, emotional sensitivity and trauma. My son’s former girl friend has many tattoos, and she is a survivor of a horrendous upbringing. I never made the connection.
Survivors of molestation are like sail boats without keels. They have been deprived of the emotional ballast we all require. It’s devastating and lasts a lifetime.
Someone told me getting a tattoo is addicting. You can’t have just one. Almost always, I have found that to be the case.
If tattooing provides pain which leads to feeling and feeling enables grieving and grieving gives way to healing then what other pathway does someone really have? Comparing tattoos to cutting unnecessarily exaggerates getting tattoos even if it was to feel.
PTSD aside, could it be that we all need sufficient pain and grief to appreciate joy? The trick is not “not having” problems or struggles but managing them. How can we survive as a nation if every time someone presents in an objectionable way, we discard them? Who will be left at the end of the purge? What will we have to show for our selves when, at the end of our struggle to purify our representation, we find that all of the remaining acceptable representatives were merely shams who were the most effective at camouflaging themselves?
Living in a community of very vocally emotionally expressive people, I am much less concerned about someone who can voice their pain and struggle.
Re: Seeing an abundance of tattoos as evidence that an individual is coping with serious trauma. I’ll add a cautionary note, but not before I make a confession!
I have always regarded tattoos as a sign of both rebellion and lack of wisdom, possibly coupled with groupthink and peer pressure. The military/prison connection is strong with the latter. I also think of them as graffiti, which I detest!
However, whilst I wouldn’t be surprised to find it associated strongly with damaged people, I wouldn’t be too quick to assign that cause. I understand Jack was not saying that you should do so!
I have a younger friend who is extensively tattooed. He has a full sleeve green arm illustrated in ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ images, amongst a number of other tats. His wife is also extensively tattooed. In my unprofessional opinion, they are both pretty level and together; but both just love Tats! I also have other friends who I consider pretty grounded, with sleeve tats.
I do think that the probability of a trauma connection increases logarithmically with the number of smaller kitsch tats, Nancy Mace being a case in point. People covered in a multitude of little unrelated tats, especially of conspicuously poor quality, is a particularly concerning sign.
Interesting thoughts regarding empathy and compassion, but sometimes tattooing and piercing are attention seeking behaviors not necessarily linked to trauma or PTSD. And for quite some time now they have simply been fashionable. My grandson’s fiance is a beautiful young woman with a couple of tattoos, multiple earrings, and a small nose ring. She is smart, a university graduate, climbing the ladder at a major corporation, grounded, sweet and charming.
The adage ‘you can’t tell a book by its cover’ can and does apply to body art.
However, if you’re sporting a spider web tattoo on your face, don’t be surprised that we assume MS-13 affiliation and/or prison …