Some timeless tattoos will endure. Some tramp stamps will seem pretty funny on your grandma. Like anything, fads and trends cycle through. Anything permanent runs the risk of looking corny 20 years down the road.
But if you look at the history of it, from tradition and right of passage in tribal cultures, to Army and jailhouse tats, to bikers and rebels, to everyone and their mom, you'll see that people are more open to them. The shock value has worn off. There is little shock value left in anything these days this side of cakefarts and 2girls1cup. The danger, pain, chance of infection and general crudeness of early tattoos has been cleaned up, so now they aren't so much associated with the dangerous, tough rebel anymore. It's a new liberating buzz. And if you really, really don't like it, there are entire industries out there devoted to getting them removed. It's not cheap or easy, but what in life is.
But as the internet, cable tv, satellite radio, the adult industry, or most other industries around the world are showing, you'll see the whole thing get more granular. Tattoos won't go "out of style" as a whole. Some of them will. Some new methods will appear. New artists will change the style. New inks will change the look. There will be new technology that allows less permanent tattoos. Body painting, sunless tanning, and other methods will continue to blur the lines between what we picture as "classic". But it will keep breaking down into more specific niches. And each niche will have their own specific thoughts, directions, and reasons behind what they do.
I'm a timeless guy. I like beautiful women with the skin they came in. I've seen some tattoos age with their canvasses...and in most cases, I wish I hadn't. But thankfully, everyone gets to choose for themselves.
