Ahead of this film there is a warning that the contents of this film are not a good idea and should not be done in any way. It is a depressingly necessary warning because the people who the film is lampooning so effectively are probably the same people who would not realise that the whole thing is an attack on an aspect of modern (Western) youth culture. The film cleverly travels with our young subject as he goes to have his body work done. He talks about his reasons for tattooing, his deep feelings of suffering, his lack of issue of pain (because he has felt pain his whole life) etc. However we note that he is driving round a clean American city, through a mall, in bright sunshine and so on.
As if the dialogue is not damning enough, the juxtaposition with the sentiment and the reality is brilliantly done. I found the subject totally convincing and it really did feel like we were just feeding him rope to hang himself. The joke is very much on him but it is not an easy laugh, more a really sharp and convincing comment on modern youth who find it difficult to have such a "safe" life and end up getting meaningful marks, cuts, dark clothes and so on, in an attempt to feel more interesting and more of an outsider. I mean, we have all done it so few of us really can sit too comfortably, but this is specifically targeted at the extreme end rather than the moody teen side. The lead actor is really good so convincing that I questioned if it was real at his expense or not. Only once is it clunky when the director points out to the character that his "suffering" is his own making; this didn't need to be said as the audience can get it by themselves. The direction is sharp and the film looks great benefiting from a sunny US setting as well.
Overall then, a painfully convincing piece that cleverly mocks the extreme culture of body art etc by contrasting it with the common reality of such people.