When I got my first tattoo at 20, my dad offered me $1,000 to wait a year before getting it. Obviously I did the rock ‘n’ roll thing and screamed, “You can’t control my life, Dad!”
Not actually. But after two days of pondering how much I could use the money, I decided to turn down his proposal and get the small $100 flower tattoo on my ankle.
Almost two years later, my boyfriend at the time broke up with me because of it.
“It’s like putting a bumper sticker on a Bentley,” he told me.
“So you think I’m a Bentley?” I said.
There’s a stereotype that liberals are the cool, artsy ones making the indie movies and writing the good music while conservatives are the cargo short-wearing, blue-collar men and stoic “trad wife” women. Yet, as conservatives slowly get their footing back in the culture as the rebellious cool kids who hold to tradition, smoke cigarettes, and wear double-breasted suits, there’s one more ingredient needed to ensure that conservatives take back the culture in a defiant American way: tattoos.
Tattoos have always had a stigma. I mean, the Greek root of “stigma” comes from the word “stizein,” meaning “tattoo” or “to prick.” Modern tattoos have been a symbol of rebellion and counterculture due to the social outcasts who helped mobilize their popularity. Gang members, jail inmates, skater bros, and musicians wore tattoos starting in the ’60s as a middle finger to mainstream values.
The hippie movement helped the American youth view tattoos as a sign of self-expression and identity. Yet, tattoos delayed hitting the mainstream until the ’80s since they still signified that you were more likely to end up in a jail cell than a church pew.
Thanks to Music Television (MTV) and the AIDS epidemic, businesses heavily advertised the cleanliness of their equipment to help combat the fear of HIV. Marketing strategies paired with the counterculture body art displayed on MTV allowed the youth to see how they could get tattoos and be just like their heroes. The tatted stars were punk. They were cool. And they were not going to be told by culture what to do. Sound familiar to conservative politics today?
Adherents to the clean “old-money” conservative aesthetic that prioritizes self-control, structure, and modesty are inherently less inclined to get inked. The Christian interpretation of applying Leviticus 19:28 to modern-day tattoos as sinful and pagan also made them taboo for many conservatives. No Baptist preacher wanted his daughter coming home with a tatted boyfriend because there was probably a motorcycle in the driveway and a felony on his record, making him a satanist.
In the year of our Lord 2026, conservatives have become more tender-hearted to body art. “Tattoos aren’t conservative. But they might be Republican,” writer Natalie Sandoval declared in the Daily Caller last year. “A new YouGov survey reveals tattoos are more common among Republicans than Democrats.” There’s even an increased social acceptance as tattoos become more common in corporate jobs where management is less stingy about hiring someone with a tattoo.
Yet, some stereotypes still hold. If you see someone in their 20s today with patchwork tattoos sprinkled across their arm, chances are pretty high they vote blue in every election and have pronouns in their Instagram bio.
As the Left loses its grip on culture through extreme ideological stances on abortion, LGBTQ issues, and socialism, the pendulum is starting to swing back to the Right side. Conservatives are the new rebels, rejecting abortion, political cynicism, and racial grievance and instead embracing families, patriotism, and true equality. The question is: Can we keep the momentum?
While the tradwife trend promotes the conservative civic duty to dress well through natural, God-given means, the MAGA-coded lip filler, overdone makeup, and ultra-traditional skirt suits aren’t going to sway the majority of the population into believing that conservatives and their ideas are cool.
The cottage-core and corporate aesthetics don’t appeal to everyone, and conservatives should embrace their role as the ones shaking up the status quo. What better way to mobilize the movement than having cool tattoos coupled with great ideas? A traditional message through bipartisan modern means.
Following in the footsteps of tatted Republicans such as Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert and U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth might help strengthen conservative leadership. Hegseth’s “We the People” tattoo gained him a lot of respect from my family. And his Jerusalem cross tattoo had progressives positively losing their minds. There’s a reason people still suggest President Theodore Roosevelt had a tattoo, and the reason is it makes the outdoorsman sound pretty cool.
It’s not enough to hold the line on conservative values of individual responsibility, limited government, patriotism, and family through talking heads, old campaign strategies, and hot blonde women. We’ve got to do it in style to vindicate the rebellious spirit that started this country. One tattoo at a time. It’s what the Founding Fathers would want.
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Abigail Nichols works as the National Journalism Center’s program coordinator and holds a master of social work. She is a contributor at the Federalist.
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