Consent is of central importance in many areas of our lives, from sex to healthcare. But, argue Melissa Rees and Jonathan Ichikawa, consent should not become the only thing we care about in our relations with others. Many wrongdoings involving power imbalances resist explanation in terms of consent, and wrongs can take place even when consent is present. We must avoid seeing consent as the only ethical concept that matters in sexual relations and other areas of life. Consent matters, but it is not the only thing that matters.

There are some things that, as we all know, you shouldn’t do without consent. Sex is one obvious example, but the role of consent in ensuring proper respect for people’s agency is central to moral conduct much more generally. For example, you can’t just take someone’s property. If you do, it’s theft. But if you ask for it and they give it to you—if they consent to your taking it—that’s a very different story.

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Consent can “transform” an act that would otherwise have been violative into something welcome and respectful.

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Or think about tattoos. In the ordinary course of life, you’re not allowed to stick needles into people and insert permanent ink in their skin. That’d be a serious physical assault. But if the tattoo happens with consent, it’s not assault, it’s a valued service. Heidi Hurd calls this the “moral magic” of consent. Consent can “transform” an act that would otherwise have been violative into something welcome and respectful.

Recognizing the presence or absence of consent is sometimes a simple matter. If someone is struggling against their bindings and screaming to be let go during the tattoo, they haven’t consented! If they made an appointment, explained what they wanted, and signed a waiver, that certainly looks like consent. But it doesn’t take too much imagination to see that sometimes there are subtler and less obvious factors that influence consent.

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Reputable tattoo shops won’t tattoo people who are intoxicated, and for good reason. If someone stumbles into a tattoo shop blackout drunk and asks for a tattoo, there’s a good case to be made that this is not genuine consent. Consent is an expression of agency; it requires a degree of competence and autonomy. Someone who is blackout drunk is not a full agent.