Sometimes a nose is just a nose

Closeup for anyone interested

Google translated

It’s 45 in the US now

I am not sure you were as wrong as you think - see definitions 2 and 3 here

Usage of words shifts and sometimes expands over time.

More references here or here

I would personally definitely interpret “apparently” and “plainly” differently - “apparently” to me is “the evidence so far does seem to point this way, but I am not necessarily convinced, or have strong feelings either way” vs “plainly” is “the evidence is clear, I am convinced, and so should you be” - although obviously context would matter as well and could alter this interpretation.

Edit: even your example usage “I’ve been trying to get myself out of that habit, but even judging from my comment history, it’s apparently pretty hard” - to me the usage of “apparently” here indicates similar tension and/or contradiction, in this case between belief/intent (I am trying to stop the habit) and evidence (but my comment history shows otherwise) - it wouldn’t work quite as well with “plainly”

It would work with “evidently” but carry more of a connotation of confirmation and shift the emphasis (I am trying to, but it’s hard as confirmed by evidence) rather than contradiction (I would like to think I am doing it, but evidence shows otherwise) - of course you might have meant it either way (or even neither) - I am just saying how it reads to me.

Certainly scorn is too strong. I feel like this was a fad that has mostly passed anyway - both due to increased globalization leading to demystification of the “Orient” in general, and Chinese cultural symbols in particular, as well as general trends towards more boldness and self-expression in Western tattoo culture, such as increasing popularity of face tattoos, intentionally “ugly” tattoo aesthetics and much less hesitation tattooing random English words all over the place. Not that I am necessarily a fan of that either, but I feel like it’s at least some progress, not hiding the meanings behind some “exotic” Chinese characters, and just embracing what you want to say directly.

If you wouldn’t get something tattooed in English because it seems a bit cringe, well it will still be cringe in Chinese - possibly more if you mess it up. And if you do like Chinese culture, characters or calligraphy - at least try to get something that does it some justice and maybe has at least some cultural relevance beyond just “some words, but in Chinese”

Compare the OP with some actual Chinese artists doing Chinese calligraphy tattoos - for example in Hong Kong or Taiwan (some of the photos are a bit NSFW, so be warned)

There is a bit of difference between “Chinese calligraphy” and “write me a list of words in plain Chinese characters”

I have no problem with people tattooing whatever they want on themselves btw - but it’s true that from the perspective of someone who can read Chinese, these tattoos (like in the OP) are not “beautiful Chinese characters” or “calligraphy” - they do come across as mostly just confusing lists of strangely formatted and crudely written random words.

Sure, but tattoos in sans serif fonts are still super common, and honestly, it makes little difference, the one in OP is still basic as fuck - call it Times New Roman instead of Arial. It reads like plain text to a Chinese reader, not some kind of calligraphy - what you call “stylized” is actually just the default original textbook stroke style of the standard script. The sans serif version with monowidth lines is actually more of a modern stylized form of that.

There are different Chinese fonts (in print/computer context) and also different Chinese historical scripts, each with different styles of writing, and finally a very diverse variety of calligraphy styles.

The idea of what is considered “old”, “fancy” and “fancy old” doesn’t necessarily map the same way as it does in Latin/Western writing in general, the cultural and historical sensibility and connotations are often quite different, although in most broad sense, you could find some style analogues to achieve a similar vibe, but it would be quite context dependent.

To me it looks done by hand, the inconsistencies in character sizes and stroke widths wouldn’t be seen in an actual font. The 独 also looks very hand drawn, the vertical strokes on 無 as well. It’s very “textbook” calligraphy, done by someone who knows the strokes and has some practice, but dull and with no personality, and still a degree of insecurity and inconsistency in the strokes, so perhaps a late beginner to intermediate level student of calligraphy. Not necessarily by the tattoo artist either, it could have been tattooed from a template written on paper.

So many Chinese character tattoos are done in the Chinese equivalent of boring Arial 10 font though, that’s part of the point. The one in the photo is at least hand written, but by someone with poor aesthetic sense, it still looks dull and ugly.

Fast film (you can see how grainy it is when you zoom in a little) and shooting in full bright sun = you can shoot very short exposure and freeze motion. There were already cameras in the 1930s with mechanical shutters that could do 1/500th and even 1/1000th of a second exposure, which is plenty fast for this type of shot.

The lens looks pretty fast too - depth of field is very shallow, although part of that is also due to possible use of medium or large format - faster lens (lower f stop) and larger film both allow more light capture, and therefore faster exposure as well, but at the cost of less depth of field.

Edit: here is a good print of the full frame - looks like ~1.50 ratio, so probably 35mm film (not medium or large format) - I can’t find a lot of information about what cameras Max Alpert used in the 30s, although he did use a 35mm Leica on at least some photos from that era. A Leica III could do 1/1000 in 1935 for example. The early Soviet cameras from the 1930s were also basically direct copies of Leicas. The frame also looks a bit underexposed, which could be due to pushing the exposure for more speed.

The dots are counties - the largest red one above LA is Kern county - Tulare county is the smaller red dot above it to the right

This is a clearer version of that map. The other two much smaller red dots above LA are Kings and Inyo counties - this map is based on 2016 presidential results, as Inyo went blue in 2020 (by only 14 votes though)

You have to realize that popular culture was very tightly controlled and restricted by the Polish communist government at this time. This photo was taken at the Jarocin festival, which was a rare chance to see many bands play that otherwise had no radio play or record contracts and often played styles of music that were viewed with great suspicion by the establishment. Recording these live performances and trading tapes was often the only way people got to hear many of these bands.

I grew up in a neighboring country during this time, but I wasn’t much into the rock scene then - I was into folk music, which had a similar scene in my country - many folk artists were straight up banned by the government, so it was impossible to hear them on the radio or buy their records, but tape recordings of live performances existed and were traded among the fans. Same of my favorite music from this period only existed in this form. There were even recordings of shows that got shut down by the police mid-set.

The 80s were a period of economic stagnation in eastern Europe, resulting in a lot of pent up anger and angst in the youth, and at the same time, the establishment was slowly losing its grip on the population. As a result artists were getting increasingly bold in channeling this anger and dissatisfaction, of pushing the boundaries of what was allowed, sometimes crossing them and getting slapped down - but you never knew what could happen at a large gathering of the youth back then - taping was an important tool to document and spread this to the wider population.

Most Polish people would disagree. Poland got pretty fucked in ww2, from all sides, but at least they managed to hold on to some of their sovereignty and not be forced to join USSR as a Soviet Republic.

This partially allowed the democratization movement to form in Poland in the 80s (with Solidarność) and eventually for Poland to get out from under Russia’s boot and join the EU and NATO, and avoid the fate of former Soviet Republics like Belarus and Ukraine.

Poland was not part of the USSR…