Will Arnett has divided internet users with his self-described “controversial” opinion about people with tattoos.
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Last week, the actor and SmartLess cohost sat down for a wide-ranging conversation on The Romesh Ranganathan Show. And at one point during the chat, Will wound up sharing his divisive thoughts on people with a lot of body art.
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“I have a very controversial position on tattoos,” he began.
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“This generalization that I’ve come up with is sweeping, and it certainly doesn’t apply to you,” he said to host Romesh, who estimated that he has about 20 tattoos.
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“There are a lot of exceptions to this rule, but I would say, on the balance… There’s a proportionate relationship between how many tattoos you have and how little personality you have,” Will said.
“I find a lot of people who have a ton of tattoos often are super fucking boring,” he said, adding, “Like, truly boring people.”
Romesh agreed with Will, suggesting, “It’s manufactured edge.” Will then replied, “That’s right. That’s a great way of putting it.” You can watch the clip right here:
Reddit users immediately guessed that Will’s comments would cause a stir. “Ooohhh people are gonna be piiiiiiissed about this!” one user said.
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And indeed, a stir was caused, with one person describing Will’s thoughts as a “bullshit opinion.”
“Tattoo discourse in 2026 is wild. They’re so mainstream and normalised now (compared to a few decades ago), I find it insane anyone even cares to mention them anymore,” someone said. “I’m always suspicious when someone describes a whole group of people or ‘type’ of personality as boring. It so often means they are either a. self obsessed or b. addicted to always having some drama which they should really seek therapy for,” another wrote.
“IMO, any ‘all people with X be like Y’ take is usually some level of shortsighted and easily disproven. If I was trying to sound like a clever dude with a clever take, I’d avoid sweeping generalizations,” one user echoed.
“Tattoos have been around for centuries and many cultures embrace them, so this generalization is very much corporate boomer coded or you’re surrounded by boring people,” someone else said, while one more user added, “I know this is hard for some people to understand, but people get tattoos for themselves and not because they think someone else will think the tattoo is cool. It’s not to be different or counter culture. This isn’t 1960.”
Some people defended Will, pointing out that he was clearly — as he stated himself — not referring to every single person in the world with a ton of tats.
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“as a person with a lot of tattoos, i do have to agree. like not everyone with tattoos but if you consider the kind of people will arnett probably comes across, this tracks,” one person said.
“He is allowed to have this opinion. The circumstances of his life experience brought this individual to his opinion. He acknowledged his opinion is controversial and acknowledged that it’s a generalization and does not apply to every single person. Great thing about life is that two opposing opinions can both be valid given the circumstances and life experiences of the individual,” another wrote.
On the flip side, someone argued, “I think the correct thing for him to have said would be ‘some people make up for their lack of personality by having tattoos.’ I think that’s generally the point he’s trying to make, and that’s a completely valid and true opinion to have, but by stating there’s a general link between having a lot of tattoos and having no personality is both a stretch and kind of offensive.”
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Well then! Let us know your thoughts in the comments, and check out the full podcast episode here.More on this
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