The Island Boys were arguably the biggest viral sensation of late 2021. Two kids with crazy hair and fully tattooed bodies, singing a 2-line chorus that was all the rage for a few months. But after the hype was over, they were in the weird position of being famous but broke. And that got me thinking: How the heck are these dudes gonna get jobs with face tattoos like that? Should society accept their tattoos as a form of self-expression? Or should the boys recognize that society has rules and systems that make life suck if you break them?
I find these warring ideologies fascinating. On the one hand you have ‘radical ownership’ where you take responsibility for everything that happens to you — i.e., you’re never a victim of things outside of yourself. And on the other, there’s the ‘social justice’ idea that minorities and the underprivileged have so much going against them that radical ownership won’t work. They need grassroot changes via protesting injustices, rewriting laws, and educating the privileged.
As with most things, there’s usually an in-between. But the Island Boys case isn’t really that deep. I love tattoos and have some myself — but you gotta think that these kids need to remove their face tattoos and stop looking for internet clout. But what do I know? Maybe they’re one rap hit away from making face tattoos cool?