Original article: https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2026/08/10/long-hair-tattoos/

The original e-mail that inspired my screed:

Bob…. Long time reader and have enjoyed your postings so much but what is your thing against long hair on guys? I just played a big outdoor festival up here in Alaska this weekend and there were tons of guys with long hair and tattoos, many of them in their 20s and 30s. I see the same thing in Seattle when I go to shows. Also, many of the younger musicians who come into the guitar shop / music store I manage up here have long hair and tatts. 

David Resch
Fairbanks,Alaska
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I was the singer in a band that was managed by Jimmy Iovine, A&R’d by John Kalodner and Produced by Bob Rock on Geffen in 1990. I was the most heavily tattoed rocker out there with full sleeves and a solid back piece. Bryn Bridenthal and the label staff had to fight to get our pic out there ’cause we looked so scary and the other half of the time was making up stories about how we were the biggest “bada*ses” on Earth….which we weren’t. When we did the Arsenio Hall show I did the rehearsal wearing a jacket as the studio was cold and when we taped it, I went out there bare chested as that’s how I always performed and Arsenio and his Producer had a meltdown over it. ?
I was heavily tattooed by the mid 80’s. Mothers used to grab their kids and go the other side of the street when they saw me coming. I loved the expression, the rebellion, the horror I would illicit. I still love all my tattoo work. The youngsters think I’m “OG”. Soccer Mom’s want to compare ink in the fruit section and folks want to know if I am a chef or aging barista. I am actually grateful my tattoo artist friends in Hollywood did all that work on all those celebrities bringing it onto the pages of People magazine. It helped me ease into my older years without looking like a freak. But if I were to do it all over seeing what all these folks are doing with tattoed eyeballs (literally a thing), I’d be the rebel and stay uncolored as a true non conformist. ?
Ron Young
(Little Caesar)
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I loved this take because you knocked down the posers and wannabes.  Art is all about authentically pushing boundaries in a way that excites people, and in that vein.

Bret Colson
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Great take on this.  It is easier to be interesting on the outside than it is to be interesting on the inside.  This applies to pretty much everything, not just tattoos.

Gary Yacoubian
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Good god what a redundant boomer-a*s take Bob.??Sure, getting tattoos and having long hair is no longer an act of rebellion. But let’s not pretend that everyone back in the 70’s wasn’t trying to belong to a club, because they were. Hell, my dad was part of the rockers and mods feud (firmly on the rockers side) and every single damn person was trying to indicate which gang they belonged to, and it’s been like that the entire time. There’s a reason The Warriors was so of its time.??Only these days long hair and tattoos doesn’t signify a specific club, it could mean anything. The rules have changed. It isn’t about whether you have tattoos, it’s about what specifically you chose to get inked. Design, style, references if any. Same with hair. Colour, length, undercut, all of it can signify any number of things within numerous subcultures.??And most of all they’re not some bold statement of which club you belong to, they’re a statement of self-expression, of what you like and what represents you specifically. We’ve long moved past surface bullsh*t: monsters and heroes can come in any guise these days, and how they choose to represent themselves straight up does not matter.??If you’re looking for a rebel, sure they might show up with colourful long hair and tattoos. Or they might show up in a suit and tie. We don’t give a sh*t and neither should you.

Al Worth
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You’ve done it. Being long haired with tattoo sleeves you’ve got me triggered like the little snowflake I am. 😉 Your views on both long hair and tattoos seem a bit outdated.?Sure, like you say, tattoos used to be dangerous. In the days of yore, if you had tattoos you’ve either spend time in prison, were a sailor or part of a biker club. With all three of them being equally notorious.
But a lot of folks, like me, don’t have any other motivation for tattoos and long hair other then that they just like it. Long hair looks better than short hair. Nothing more to it. Tattoos make a boring body more interesting. That’s it. Nothing more.?Sure, a lot of people have tattoos and maybe long hair for all the wrong reasons. But the same goes for earrings, baggy trousers, toupees and plastic boobies.
The fact that something is permanent doesn’t make it bad. In my opinion it could make something awesome. And you said that there is a lot of money being made with tattoo removal. So it’s like tattoos are permanent for a limited time. If you want them to be.??Keep the letters coming Bob! Always a good read.?And stop laughing at me.??Best regards,?Gerrit Mesker
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Bob, funny you mentioned the heavy metal image.  For YEARS I’ve been wondering why no metal bands have the guts or inspiration to dress like western cowboys or wear bermuda shorts or…?  They ALL look the same.  And by the same token I’ve never seen a country band dress like metal or wear bermuda shorts or…?

You are correct, no one wore long hair until the Beatles, (it was all crew cuts and flattops).  In 1964, I was a junior in a high school of 3000 kids in Arlington, VA, and I was one of only three boys who tried to grow our hair like the Beatles.  (I had to stick it behind my ears and hoped it wouldn’t fall out or the school would make me cut it).  But soon the Stones arrived and I liked them more because they were more “rebellious and dangerous”.  Some boys would chase me with scissors and threaten to cut my hair if they caught me – that’s how it was in 1964.  In 1965 I graduated and moved to Glendale and went to Glendale Junior College, and once again there were only three guys in the entire school with long hair.  I remember once being in a school bathroom and a guy said “Are you sure you’re in the correct bathroom?”  And then, within two years, almost EVERY guy had long hair.

Sterling Howard, founder/owner ?https://www.MusiciansContact.com
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Absolutely agree on every point.?It’s cosplay.

Kathleen Stagg
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“How demented can you be?”

Really, Bob?

In 21st century America tattooing is a respected art form. People pay hundreds of dollars an hour to sought after artists with long waiting lists to get a one-of-a-kind work of art permanently inked their skin so they can proudly wear for the rest of their lives. 

It’s not about “rebellion” or being “dangerous” or “taboo.” It’s about expression. It’s about adornment. It’s about having some agency over what the meat bags, which are formed by genes that we did not choose, look like. 

I have to assume you see the irony in writing “I don’t want to sound like an oldster” and immediately following that by telling metal musicians to “slow it down and stop screaming” 

Should they turn down the volume and to get off your lawn while they’re at it?

Okay, boomer.

Zac :Lasher
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You say: 

“This is why the sixties and seventies were a golden era. You never knew what would come next, you’d drop the needle and be wowed. People were taking chances.”

I say: 

This is why the sixties and seventies were a golden era. You never knew what would come next, you’d drop the needle and be wowed. People were taking chances…and the people with money and vision invested in them.

That is most definitely missing from today.  Ostin, Warnaker, Norman, Bowen, Smith, Alpert, Kalodner, Moss, Brown, Sigerson, Fogelsong, Geffen. 

Who is doing that now ? Borchetta ? Who else ? I am not making a statement. I am asking.  

Susan Levy Rash 
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You know…I remember thinking in the early 2000’s that a tattoo removal business would be an awesome idea in ten-years’ time. I mean, surely these skater boys and girls would regret their body art as their skin started sagging and pulling away from their bones. 

Seeing how prevalent tattoos are now, I’m glad I stuck with music!

-Christopher Maloney
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Re: tattoos? Amen, brother. So ugly. Same goes for piercing but at least those metal spikes can be pulled out.

— Greg Dennis
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Michael McCarty said it on your podcast a few years ago: fewer kids are learning to play an instrument. Rick Beato just did a piece on the lack of guitars in the park.?
It makes me think that because music is hard to do, fewer people are playing instruments today. It may even be that few people are listening to music, which is almost unfathomable to me.

But go back a century and the same was true for poetry. Poetry died off. We still have Poet Laureates, but they are placed in such high esteem – rarified and separated from the rest of us. 
?In 1915, “In Flanders Fields” was written and affected the culture of the entire Western world. We were supposed to memorize it in school, but I could never get the whole thing. It takes effort to parse out a poem.

Neil Young’s “OHIO” was more my speed. It was easier to catch the theme when Neil belted out the chorus over and over. Like Michael and Rick said, few are going to play it in the park anymore, fewer will sing it, and while someone might cue it up on an iPhone, even that is unlikely.
?It’s the comedians who are carrying that mantle now – reducing our culture to a delicious one-liner like Julia Child’s Sauce Bordelaise.

Kind regards, 
Rob Whittaker
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Bob – If I’m not mistaken, Edgar and Jonny Winter are from Port Arthur, TX, too.  I beleve they knew each other back in their Texas days Wiki has Johnny listed as born in Beaumont, but Port Arthur is an exurb of that city. My wife and I drove out to the Museum of the Gulf Coast  https://www.museumofthegulfcoast.org/ when we lived in Houston.??If you click under music, Clay Walker and Larry Graham, among a host of others, are listed from Beaumont.??But in that part of Texas it’s spittin’ distance between Port Arthur and Beaumont.??Robert Vellani
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It’s funny you would ask this:  is anybody else from Port Arthur even well-known, never mind in music?

I saw a Robert Rauschenberg exhibit at the Guggenheim last year, and it noted he was from Port Arthur, Texas. And I thought, wait, like Janis Joplin??

Yep. Also several professional athletes and hip hop duo UGK…

Barbara Barna Abel / Abel Intermedia LLC
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Long time reader, first time message. I’m sure many people have told you this by now, but just in case, Super Bowl winning football coach Jimmy Johnson went to high school with Janis Joplin in Port Arthur.

Best,
Mike Chase
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AW, IT’S ALWAYS …

… the BALD guys talkin’.

Dave Wallace, Jr.