Rather than tattoos being a form of mental illness, tattoos are tactile.
Our largest organ is our skin, it covers us from head to toe, and our beautiful skin gives us the sense of tactility, that is, our sense of touch.
Our eyes give us our sense of sight, our ears give us our sense of hearing, our nose gives us our sense of smell, our muscles give us our proprioceptive sense, our sense of movement, and our skin gives us our sense of touch.
Literacy privileges our sense of sight, our visual sense, while the electronic media democratise all our senses, and tattooing is part of the democratising of our senses, particularly liberating our sense of touch.
We are touched by tattoos in both senses of the word: in that we are literally touched by the tattooist who leaves a permanent reminder of their touch, and also we are touched emotionally by our tattoos.
We want to touch and be touched, and tattoos are a permanent reminder we have been touched, and our tattoos touch us emotionally and fascinate us.