Body art has been around for thousands of years, and the medium is rich with numerous great pieces that are loaded with symbolic and cultural references. There are also plenty of tatoos out there in modern society that depict stories, military service, or perhaps even an outward display of the wearer’s feelings. None of these examples apply to the tribal armband; unless of course that feeling is I’M AWESOME.  Wearers of this piece are trying to say, “LOOK AT ME I’M TOTALLY MANLY AND I SHOULD BE LISTENED TO AND I SCORE WITH A LOT OF CHICKS AND I THINK BRET MICHAELS’ ROCK OF LOVE IS THE BEST TV SHOW EVER MADE BECAUSE OF HOW IT EXPLORES THE DEEP COMPLEX INNER EMOTIONS OF THE HUMAN CONDITION.”

I’m guessing sometime over the past twenty years, a pioneer of a douche made his way into a tribal culture of some sort (no doubt lost while on his way to find the nearest Armani Exchange), liked what he saw, decided to rip off their custom without knowing its full cultural context, and then tried to pick up chicks with his new manly tat at the nearest club. Then I’m betting other douches saw that tattoo, thought it was totally sweet, ripped it off, and tried to pick up chicks with their own chicks with their own sweet tat. Thus the cycle of douchedom began again. (At least I hope it’s a cycle.)