What Is Cool?

I’ve been umming and ahhing about getting a tattoo of some kind and part of this deliberation is my motivation for getting one. You see there are a number of things I’d like to get - my childrens names, Maori design, big dragon, text of all the places I’ve visited, picture of my mum (kidding, or am I?) etc yet another reason is to make me look cool. I think!

So thinking on that I asked myself “what is cool?” and the answer is (in my opinion) a bit of a catch 22.

Take tattoos for instance. Below are assorted images of some tattoos. Now my interpretation of why people get tattoos is as follows:

a)     To mark a permanent record of something that’s important to them (see my ideas for my own tattoos above)

b)     To make a public statement

c)      To try and be cool

d)     Because they’ve already got some and its become a bit of an addiction

e)     Human doodle/work of art

As I said these are only my ideas and you can probably add the above together to get some motivations but the one I’m going to explore is c).

Walk through a british city, any will do and you will see the type of person I’m describing - Abercrombie & A.N Other brand t-shirt, possibly expensive watch/bracelet that dangles abit, hair freshly coiffured (always wanted to use that word), slightly bulbous upper arm muscles and exposed tribal tattoo.

That’s the men.

Female version is similar except you expect to find the tattoo on the small of their back, similar style.

Now the tattoo forms part of the uniform, its sends a message to all that see them that they are “one of the successful ones”, the type that can have whichever member of the opposite sex they want, has more money than you and probably more friends. At least that’s the message that they try and portray by their use of the uniform. The tattoo forms part of that uniform.

Now that’s not to say that they don’t like the image they have permanently etched into their flesh but that its purpose is to elevate them into that category of “Cool”. How is this possible. Because the current flavour of the month has the same or similar - Beckham, Timberlake, Beyonce etc.

So that’s tattoos. But I asked the question “What is cool”. I’d better get to that then hadn’t I.

Simple - You can never be cool as its all about perception. If you try to be cool then its your perception that defines how you appear. If you think you’re cool then it doesn’t matter as you need to be perceived by someone else as cool. Based on the above if they think you are cool its because you tried to be cool which means you influenced them by trying to be cool. So you aren’t.

But if they think you are cool and you didn’t try then you are. But you can never know because if you know then the next time you act/dress/perform that way its influenced by what they think about you.

I said it was simple.

So the people who are cool are those that aren’t trying to be, but they’ll never know because we’ll influence them and then they stop being cool because they’re trying

Like I said its just my idea..