I think they are beautiful when well planned and not just a last minute action to be pretend to be a badass. I get rejected from time to time because of my tattoos but they are tasteful and very special to me so who cares what someone else thinks.
I think for some it an expression of or transferance of pain issue. I had a friend who had to live through numerous heartwrenching tradegies that would bring any man to his knees, but he rarely expressed his emotional pain outwardly. But he would always get a tattoo after a tradegy. The bigger the tradegy the bigger and more ornate the tattoo. He did it not as a memorial but as a way to release inner pain outwardly. I know I probably didn't explain that as well as I could have. But that's my theory. That and because they're pretty cool.