A soldier might tattoo his upper arm with insignia of his unit(group identity motive) but that is usually not too visible unless he wears a  short sleeve shirt. Another example is tatoos to do with gangs. In the past some HK gangsters might try to intimidate people with their gang's identity tattoo;now they could be arrested on the spot showing it

People with up front/highly visible/massive tattoos have one or more of the following problems:

--He/she is a no body but tried to say he/she really is somebody

--Group identity/celeb affiliation he/she doesn't have.

--have no long term perspective...Tattoos aren't easily erasible but insecure people wouldn't care