#tbh his comments about sillyvision in TioL could mean that he's already gotten into the ink by that point

[inkdemonapologist]

Last night on the Sammyserver that idea of "was Joey's personality also being corrupted by the ink" was brought up in the context of, if we go off TLO, then what feeling in Joey would be enhanced by the ink? So obviously I had to ponder this, and man... I think if I were to pick a TLO-Style Ink-Enhanced Emotion for Joey Drew I'd actually lean towards….. insecurity?

It's the thing he most wants to hide -- that he could ever be anything other than confidently competent -- and It's a part of him that gets worse and worse the deeper he gets. In TioL, he's obviously spilling his weirdly insecure bragging everywhere, but in the stories he tells we see enough of a version of him that like…. had genuinely good friends, who liked him, and it just seems like he couldn't have always been that bad. But we do see he was always insecure under his confident persona, that he didn't like people poking at whether he was good enough or rich enough or smart enough, and he admits in the book how much this bothers him.

Then we get to DCTL and he's obsessed with proving himself. He's throwing this huge party and insisting to Buddy that he's "gotta make them all think… gotta make them all KNOW" that he's still important. His most blatant moments of overt sexism -- the weird importance he places on being "manly," and his claim that Abby can't possibly be as good at business as he is -- are in extreme contrast to his comments about Abby in TioL, and his own history of being raised by a mother who ran the business side of things. While you could read his comments in TioL as empty virtue signaling, I think it's a lot easier to read the DCTL moments as Joey sliding into something gross that he didn't used to believe, in order to justify himself and make himself feel bigger in a moment when he felt his reputation being threatened. In TLO he's EVEN MORE DESPERATE, getting so weird and passive-aggressive at this party over some kid not recognising him, and Bill takes one look at him outside the party and can plainly see he's "new money" that's trying way too hard to flaunt his wealth.

In the end, that building, raging insecurity overtook everything, made everything seem like a worthwhile sacrifice in order to Stay In Control… and eventually, it took a once-charming man and made a fool out of him, just as the ink took Sammy's desire to serve and be loved in return and transformed him into a joke.