There's too much to type to explain the confusion over the mythology. Its not about tattooing being a subculture. Its about the various subcultures that get tattoos. You've had military, hot rod/kustom culture, bikers, punkers, greasers, juggalos, skinheads, thugs, etc.
Now that includes people who are just interested in tattoos as being the common thing. Usually in the other social groups or subcultures, you can see a trend of common interests. So now I think people are overly trying to impose ideas on other groups because of their own internal struggle to find a common interest across the board with other tattooed folks in a different social class or subculture. Even when there is overlap or other common interests among like minded individuals, it doesn't and shouldn't dictate an assimilation of all thoughts.
Someone who just wants a mark on their body won't share the same concern or interest as someone who wants a full body suit so they may not want to pay a reasonable price or an expensive price to just satisfy their desire. Educate the people who genuinely want to know. Let folks get bad tattoos if they want. It used to be that if you saw someone with a certain type of tattoo it was sometimes a form of communication. The style the content etc. So if I see someone with a cool tattoo that I like I might ask them who did it and if I just see someone who has lots of tattoos I might not even look twice. Because tattoos alone aren't what's going to signal me to a like minded person. So let's not try so hard to convert the unwilling. We need clear clues as to the message these folks are trying to send.
I say this as simply observing for the last 20+ years of getting tattooed and the last 10 of doing them.
There's still a good chance I'm confused or just full of shit but that's what I've noticed.