Inked Mag Staff
March 9th, 2020
Remembering the Landline with Telephone Tattoos
Believe it or not, there are people out there who have never even seen a landline phone. But there are plenty of tattoos honoring the OG.
Way back in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. You could pick one up, connect to somebody else through some wires and, as if by magic, actually speak with them. But, you had to be using a telephone that was tethered directly to the wires. This is how things were done for the next 100 years or so and everybody loved it.
Then came the invention of the cordless phone. Its base was still directly attached to wires, but you could walk around while talking on the phone. For many teenagers, this meant that you could hide from your parents and yak on the phone for hours upon hours. It was glorious. But, you still needed to be at home and within a reasonable distance of the base. It was not ideal.
Fast forward to today, every single person you know has a computer/phone/camera/day planner/photo album/encyclopedia in their pocket. Cell phones have completely revolutionized our lives. There is almost no place on the planet where we can truly be out of touch, for better or worse.
March 10, 1876, was the day that Bell set us off on this wild adventure. So, it’s only natural that we celebrate National Landline Day on this date. Pay tribute to the glorious old phones that at one point captivated the imagination of the entire world. Now, well, most kids probably don’t even know how to dial a rotary phone, let alone ask an operator to connect them to Yukon 5-6969. Enjoy these landline telephone tattoos that you are most likely looking at on your mobile device. Oh, the irony.
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