An Oregon woman details a recent gym experience that left her worried. Here’s what this man had to say about her tattoos, why it was such a “weird” interaction, and what she wishes men who approached women when they were in sports knew.
TikTok founder Kodi Rose (@kodiirose) posted a video last week about her experience. “It’s 2026: We either stop approaching women in the gym, or if we’re going to interrupt women, let’s stop pretending we’re giving [expletive] About their tattoos,” she says in the video.
What happened to this Oregon woman in the gym?
Rose said that most of the time she is approached at the gym by a man who wants to discuss her tattoos as an entry point into the conversation. That’s why she usually covers up from head to toe before going to work out. On this day last week, she said the warm weather prompted her to change her daily routine.
“Women can wear whatever they want in the gym, it’s not an open invitation to approach them,” she told the audience.
While exercising, she felt someone tap her shoulder, and she turned around to find an older man. He asks her if she “looks familiar,” causing Rose to worry that he’s a client for her exotic dance job.
“I’m very confused by this,” she said. “I had never seen this man’s face before. I said, ‘No, you don’t look familiar.'” Of course, he didn’t look familiar to me either—he just needed a way to get to me. So be it. He broke the ice. “
She wants men to stop asking women about tattoos
It appeared to Rose that the man then tried to continue the conversation by asking about her tattoos.
“The word he used at first was [that] “He was ‘very interested’ in my tattoos,” she recalled, “and then he started asking me questions about the meaning behind them, where I started getting tattoos, where my first tattoo was, etc.”
She tried to politely excuse herself, but the man clearly didn’t understand her. She looked up during her next practice session and saw him approaching her again.
“He told me he was sorry for bothering me, but he just had to come all the way from the gym to tell me that my tattoo was sending a message to him,” she said. “I said, ‘What are you talking about?'”
Ross said the man then began “traumatizing” about issues in his personal life.
Eventually, she said she interrupted the man’s monologue.
“My reaction was, ‘I’m sorry you’re going through such a hard time in your life, but maybe my tattoos are sending you a message that you shouldn’t approach random women in the gym and talk about their tattoos.'”
She continued, “When you don’t really like tattoos, it makes sense to use them as a way to talk to someone. That’s the case with everyone I meet at the gym.”
Audience reaction to tattooed woman’s gym experience
In the comments section of the video, viewers reacted to the man’s talking tactics and Rose’s feelings about someone approaching her tattoo in public.
“Women have the right to be in public places without being approached by men,” one viewer wrote.
“Normalizing, not even responding to men in the gym,” a second viewer wrote. “I literally put my hands up and put my headphones on.”
“I don’t want my two daughters and eventually three granddaughters to be approached by men in the gym, especially those twice their age,” said a third. “You should be able to exercise in peace.”
Another said: “My biggest pet peeve is when people talk to me about my tattoos.”
Does this tattoo conversation strategy have a name?
One tattooed woman wrote about the phenomenon in Daily Feminist magazine, calling it an “attack.” The article echoes much of Rose’s arguments, including the belief that women with tattoos are not seeking attention and should by default be left alone. Women with tattoos often post online about being harassed because of their tattoos.
AllHipHop reached out to Rose for comment via TikTok comments and private messages. We will update this story if she responds.
@kodiirose Tattoos are not a conversation starter, well bye #gym #storytime ♬ Soundtrack – kodi Rose 🥀
