Lawyer (Should Have Been a Marine Biologist)

In Tattoorist, a 2026 Flemish TV show, musician and tattoo artist Tijs Vanneste explores six European capitals through the lens of the tattoo world. In the first episode, he meets up with a famous artist from London whilst exploring city’s more sketchy corners (literally and figuratively) with local guides. During the episode, we briefly see Tijs exploring the Highgate East Cemetery where he visits the graves of various famous people and reflects on his own life choices. There was a specific gravestone that caught my eye. The following words are engraved onto it: Lawyer. Should Have Been a Marine Biologist. 1958 - 2015. Lawyer. Should Have Been a Marine Biologist. The short take doesn’t show the entire engraving. Tijs remarks that the engravings in the cemetery are much sharper, funnier, and wittier than a typical cemetary in Belgian that would just state dates and perhaps at most something like “beloved family”. He then moves on to go do other tattooy stuff. Weeks after watching the…