And creative spirits who declare themselves to be avant-garde imagine that they have arrived at Where It Is. But being up to date is also being in fashion, and fashion is a juggernaut immensely bigger than the avant-garde. It goes with champagne, but in other respects it keeps on changing. In a so-called free market, fashion rules. There have always been fashions, no doubt.
Life bowls along on a high-speed track, with ever new sponsors.
But the cunning shifts in its idiom are also ageist. Unfortunately, the tattoo abides. You're stuck with it, alas. It will be there as another way of showing your grandchildren how ancient you are. Not only is it still worn to work.