May 27, 2026 | A lot of men from the Boomer and Gen X years went their whole lives without a single tattoo, and for gay men there's a real psychology behind that clean skin. Here's the strange part: for a long stretch in the Seventies and Eighties, gay men dressed exactly like the most heavily tattooed men in America — the sailors, the bikers, the working men — boots, denim, moustache and all, and skipped the one thing those men carried on their arms. This is the reason so many of them stayed ink-free, and why the bare skin was a statement all its own.
Well, for you all to know, this baby boomer has no tattoos and no piercings. I loathe tattoos: they are an assault on my very developed sense of aesthetics. There is nothing beautiful or attractive about them; moreover, they look low-class. Why anyone should wish to disfigure himself with a tattoo is completely beyond my comprehension. And even worse than a man with a tattoo is a woman with one! Ugh!
As for piercings, I am not a fan, though I will admit that sometimes, on the right man, one SINGLE earring can look attractive, if the earring is of a very high quality, like solid gold, a flawless diamond, or a high quality pearl. Junk jewellery will not do. More than one adornment on a man looks tacky.
Apr 30, 2026 | Psychology of Gay Gen X Who Came Out Late
A lot of Gen X men knew who they were by the time they were fifteen. They just couldn't say it out loud. Not in the eighties. Not during AIDS. Not when two-thirds of the country thought being gay should be illegal. So they did what Gen X does best — they adapted, they performed, and they survived. This is about what it cost them, what finally changed, and why some of them are only now walking through a door that's been open for years.
