I came from a rough background, drinking & drugs (don't ask what I did for a living between 1977 and 1981), fixing cars for a living, motorcycles, street racing and ultimately stock cars. So a lot of people I knew had tattoos and it was totally accepted. I was the first with big pieces done. With all I went through with some really close calls, I still give my wife (RIP) credit for saving my life.
Now I'm 61, 6' tall, 255 lbs and am in the gym 3 days most weeks, I'm kind of hard to miss. As I said earlier, people now look the other way and give me lots of room. Partly which is fine since I pretty much keep to myself when I'm out and about. It does bug me how quickly others judge, I'm actually pretty nice most of the time.