Smoking as a character trait

If your story is time placed on the '60s, go ahead. If is not, you may have to explain your character trait, maybe. As an example, John Constantine smoke a lot, and his magic tend to use the ciggies as proxies, but most of the time all other characters around make comments about that nowdays. Batman threw him out of the batmobile even.
Also, if the enviroment where the character unfolds isn't an issue, there won't be a problem. Everything depends on how you play the trait card to make it beleivable on the scene.

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I am a millennial and I do not smoke. But I have met people around my age who do and I don't mind being around them (but I also can't really breath through my nose, so...). I honestly do not care if a character smokes as long as they are an adult, kids smoking can be a bit weird for me. I know that 80s/90s PSA sort of pushed that smokers are evil people, which as an adult come to realize is a really shitty way of framing the issue.

When it comes to media, the US has strict rules about showing smoking in children's media. For Zoomers, most of them tend to be disinterested in cigarettes but are more willing to try vaping or weed. I know some millennials like the novelty of hookahs. And sometimes these things are just generational, I don't see many people my age with corn cob pipes.

I wish I didn't like the aesthetic and the act of smoking as much as I do but ...I really enjoy it.
Also I have observed it's kinda common in lgbt circles at least here which is why I got into the habit. A sort of signifier and also something that kinda marks you out as the kind of girl men don't wanna hit on ( at least that's what I infer). I dress gender neutral and smoke as a way to not attract attention I guess, then again I live in India so.
It has translated into my art as well, all three of my main characters smoke, then again they are based on me somehow. I just pretend it's marijuana and not as harmful.

I live in a place where smoking is very normal, and cigarette advertising is everywhere. Women, men, young people below the legal age (it's shameful, but have you heard a smoking toddler?), old people —they smoke. I had a relative who had one of his lungs deteriorated when 15 from smoking, but continued to smoke to his 70s. I personally cannot stand it in real life and it felt sick like I am getting a flu when I inhale the smoke, some people are asshole too when smoking in public.

I have character who smokes, but they aren't human and/or having toxin neutralisation and regeneration ability or cannot get addicted. One portrayed in my series so far is a highschool boy vaping, he has regeneration power and just wants to try new things. In a culture, it is a way to show you are a potent healer because you can afford having your body damaged like nothing. Plus as the story is set in another world, you cannot be certain what is inside and what is the effect.

I have no real issue with smoking characters and have in fact drawn several! I agree with you that there is a visual panache that comes with the stuff that can't be gleaned from anything else.
Personally I have no problem with it as a character design choice, but I guess I'd prefer if it wasn't like, glamorized or anything. It's kind of hard to define what I mean by that, sorry.
Really miss when Pete smoked in Mickey Mouse. He doesn't feel the same without his cigar.

I tried to make my protagonist a non-smoker. I really tried. But ultimately, he just... is. I couldn't avoid it. He has canonically justifiable reasons for being a smoker. He's lonely. Whisky and cigarettes take the edge off.

It's also going to be a fun marker of character development. While he'd never outright give up, the idea of him trying to cut back around a certain other character, or buying a box of lollipops or something in order to replace his smokes, is just way too precious.

I don't smoke tobacco myself, and I find cigarettes smelly, distasteful things. Not to mention, poisonous. But I'm dealing in a sci-fi universe where the health effects of smoking could be easily nullified. And there's so much opportunity to use cigarettes as a running joke, such as the smoke jamming the air filters on ships, or being eaten by doggos... there's a lot of gold in those mountains.

Because of all the stigma around smoking now, and general public health campaigns against it, smoking in a character now strikes me as being less of a "cool/rebellious" trait and more like "I don't care what happens to me" one, in the same kinda self-destructive category as excessive drinking.

Hhaahahhahah is that a personal attack intensifies

I hate smoking in real life, but as a dramatic device or a prop it can be really awesome in fiction. It creates something for the character to gesture with in ways that can show all sorts of emotions; nerves, confidence, sensuality, and fills the scene with atmospheric smoke.
...But nobody smokes in my comic, because I'm in the UK and here we have very strict guidelines about depictions of smoking. Since Errant contains mostly content suitable for 13 year olds, and to do that I had to discard my love of using casual cuss words (I'm a Homestuck, this shouldn't be a surprise. In early script drafts, Rekki was dropping F-bombs all over the place while fighting demons), I wouldn't throw that away to show characters smoking.
....Even though I mean... look at Subo... that is a man who would roll a joint at ANY opportunity. Just pretend he's doing that off-screen between adventures.

I have a smoker in my "The Last BL Comic" but it is not just because she smokes, but because it is a part of a side plot and an excuse for her to interact with the main cast.

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The plot is not about smoking is bad, but about someone might die soon in the story. And the smoker never get to lit her cigarette....

I use it as a signal the character is a mess xD. It shouldn't be a problem if you don't take it as something 'cool' like they used to do (probably for advertising purpouses) on old series and movies.

I feel it also depends on the setting a little bit. In a story set in modern times close to ours, smoking could be seen as a self-destructive thing. But if you write a story that takes place in a much earlier part of history, a different setting alltogether or both, smoking could be normal.
Heck, I write a non-modern fantasy where one of my side characters smokes a pipe. Characters there do crazier stuff, I don't think anyone really bats an eye about one character smoking.

I live in an apartment with plenty of smoking neighbours. I am sick of all the smoke and I hate that they throw the cigarette buds everywhere (including on my balcony). That's why I no longer draw characters who smoke. I used to not have problems with it, but not anymore. So you may see some smoking characters in my old work, but that won't happen again in the future.

For client work I probably still would draw it though, gotta make some income right xD

I think it's kind of neat to see a smoking character because I feel like they're far and few between. At least in media I consume. I hardly ever seen people in real life smoke, too.

And I'm a sucker for smoking being associated with a character that is fed up and tired. I don't ever make my characters smoke tho. I never smoked or was around someone who did, so I don't have a mind for it. If I made a character smoke I'd forget they did later. So, they'd end up smoking one cigarette one time for some reason.

Oh! I can talk about this since I have a smoking character. For me, I just create it if it makes sense for their character. The long and short of it is don't hold back. My rule is to never hold back in creating. A smoking character trait isn't bad at all, go for it!

So I'll talk about my creation process in regards to a smoking character I made.

The character in question is Raymond Reyes of SUMMON! The Nameless Relic. I had based this character off of mentors and coworkers I've interacted with over a few years. Specifically a cook when I worked in a restaurant and a former Air Force soldier. I wanted a strong, no nonsense character that embodied the theme of "Beast-Warrior". I kept the strongest qualities of both of my inspirations: mentally and physically strong, hard-working family-man who, due to circumstances, has to fight to get his family back. The restaurant cook (and honestly half the staff) would take breaks to smoke, so I carried that trait and, design wise it worked very well. The character is super stressed and is carrying a lot on their shoulders, so they smoke to help relax. I don't intend to show it as good or bad, just a thing they do. Plus that same idea of a puff of smoke and jaded sigh was a natural fit (plus I think it's cool, health be damned).

And as for Millennial/Gen Z Anti-Smoking PSA concerns. I'm 25 myself (born 95) and I don't think twice about it. If it makes sense for the character, or you think it'll look cool, go for it!

Hopefully this helped in some way!

Many people start smoking not on purpose, but of their own volition, for example, when you get into the company of people who smoke, you are influenced and to start smoking yourself. No matter how much you don't want to start, you decide to start smoking because you were given it once, or because everyone else smokes, and in order not to stand out like everyone else, you start smoking. I for example adhering to the position of a healthy lifestyle, but with one "but", I smoke marijuana. Sometimes I get depressed and this way I relax. Having received the Medical Marijuana Card In Massachusetts, I can now buy for medical purposes, absolutely everywhere in the state.

I used to smoke but I stopped 17 years ago from one day to the other.
I sometimes smoked a cigarette here and there when I was drunk and at some point
I just stopped completely. No problem stopping, stopping to drink coffee is harder (for me)
Smoking looks cool. I hate when I have to sleep in a room where someone smoked and
I don´t like driving in cars with smokers or sit in a small room with people smoking

The characters in my comic noir stories smoke because it´s a cool effect in a black and white comic
and adds a lot to the design. The characters in the cartoony all ages comics don´t smoke.