I hate the fact that tattoos are trendy. I have never seen a tattoo that I liked, no matter how interesting or artistic - I just don’t believe that art belongs permanently inscribed upon one’s skin. For me this is nothing more than a matter of personal opinion. I would never criticize anyone to their face for getting a tattoo if they wanted one, because everyone is free to do as he or she pleases. But I personally do not like looking at tattoos.
I hate the tribal tattoos that so many frat-type guys have - what do you think you are, some kind of warrior from New Guinea? You’re a business major from Bumfuck, Middle America. Are you really going to want that tattoo when you’re 65?
I hate the flowery/flourishy/tribal-esque small-of-the-back tats that every damn girl in college with a tight body and a tan seems to come back from Spring Break with. The next time I see a girl with one of those, I’m going to stare down the crack of her ass until she asks me to stop, and then tell her I was only looking at her tattoo. If she doesn’t like that I’ll ask her why she got it in the first place, and then showed it off with her low-rise jeans besides.
These tattoos are the kinds that irritate me the most, even though I don’t really like the idea of tattoos in general. I didn’t want to put this in the pit because I’m not really condeming anyone or calling them less of a man/woman, I’m just sharing my personal feelings on the matter. If you have a tattoo, I don’t hate you - I don’t even wish that you didn’t have the tattoo. It’s your body and your life, and you are free to do whatever you want. If you like it, do it! But I don’t like it.
I’m curious to hear other people’s thoughts on this. I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of people with tattoos, since they seem to be very popular.
I’m a big lover of body modding, but I’m with you on the mallrat/frat jock trend. If I see one more idiot 17-year-old with Winnie the Pooh or some poorly drawn fairy on her shoulderblade, all the while screaming about “I was SOOO FUCKING DRUNK WHEN I GOT THIS!”, I’m gonna… well. Nothing. Just stew in my juices, I guess.
Argh. Just… argh. You numb cunt, that’s going to be there the rest of your life. Every time you wear a tank top, every time you want to wear a SO AWESOME strapless gown, every time you wear a swimsuit. You had damn well better LOVE you some Pooh bear or that ugly ass fairy!
Leave the tattoos to freaks like me who think about them forever, plot them out, have them drawn up by 60 different people, and pay an arm and a leg.
I agree with you on the ubiquitous tribals and small of the back tattoos. It’s kind of like how Harleys became the new status symbol for accountants, attorneys and business execs. Back in the day, a dude worked his ass off at the plant for his Harley and poured endless hours maintaining and babying it. These new Harley owners take their bikes to the shop for a simple oil change and don’t deserve to call their machines “hogs.”
I have 3 tattoos, myself. But they’re all in places that are covered when I’m in public. I got them because they’re a very personal and permanent reminder of certain stages of my life, and not even close to the trendy styles young folks opt for.
I’m glad this isn’t the Pit. I’d get flamed to hell and back for the Harley thing.
Dunno about that - I agree with you 100% on the Harley thing.
And, like tattoos, Harleys can leave the stupid and foolish with permanent “reminders” - like missing limbs, skin grafts, and brain damage. Which is arguably worse than a really bad tat in an embarassing place.
It’s just skin to me. If the most regrettable thing you’ve done by the time you’re 65 is get a silly looking tattoo, then you’ve done well. If my tattoo/s remind me that I was once young and a little nuts when I get to be older, then they’ll have paid for themselves many times over.
I understand the slight bitterness over something that used to be a serious subcultural status marker being absorbed by the mainstream… but since lovers of tattoos are capable of discriminating between the type of tattoo someone has and making assumptions about the intent behind getting it done, that doesn’t worry me too much either.
Full disclosure: One tattoo where no-one gets to see it unless they’re going to be sleeping with me or they’re my doctor, and plans for one on a much more public area of skin once I can find an artist I want to do it. As I heard someone say once, you only get one body, might as well decorate it!
I can relate. My husband has numerous tattoos, several of his former girlfriends. Imagine trying to uh, provide oral pleasure while looking up at “KAREN” under his belly button. :dubious:
I like them and dislike them. If that makes any sense. Some of them look nice, or even good. But the idea of having something permanently drawn on me? No way.
But of course, this is just all my opinion. No offence to anyone with a tattoo. It’s your body and all that jazz.
I agree with the Harley Correlation (as it shall be known). I’m not a fan of tattoos and so hey, I didn’t get one. I don’t care, whatever people want to do is fine by me.
But now that it has trickled down to the wannabes/mall rats/fratjocks/accountants, it’s off to the Hall of Shamefully Unhip Outdated Things along with acid-wash jeans, etc. But that’s a good thing, really, to let tattoos go back to the seedy underside again. Wheat/chaff, and all that.
I don’t like them either. I wouldn’t like them even if they washed off…I just think they’re ugly. Lots of times I see them from a distance and think they’re a bruise or a smudge of dirt.
Something I’ve noticed about myself in the last few years may be of interest here: I don’t really care for art. I know that sounds bizarre, but it seems to be true. Maybe I just haven’t run across the right combination of shapes and colors that I would care to look at for more than a moment or two.
Nods violently in agreement (Mrs. Call, too, was once young and foolish and I get to be reminded of it daily in glorious bruise-blue).
My brother just got his first tat - a small, tasteful maple leaf on his shoulder. Safe.
I can’t imagine that I would get one, two reasons: 1) can’t think of anything I know I’ll still be into later in life. 2) I’ve heard that some people discover ink in places far from the tattoo, like under the armpit. That thought more than anything scares me.
If I did though, I’d probably get a barcode pattern on my shoulder encoded with something nasty. I heard of a guy who had his name in ASCII binary tattooed around his arm. Now that’s cool too (I’m such a geek).
If I was really drunk, I’d be tempted to get 666 tattooed on the back of my hand or forehead.
Argent Towers, you are my new best friend! (I change best friends here about once a week, but you are the latest who seems to have read my mind )
I’ve said something similar at least once before on these boards, though less diplomatically and I think I offended a few folks. For that I’m sorry, but I still dislike tattoos. Like pullin said, they never improve someone’s looks; to my eye they’re only a detriment. I’ve never understood why an otherwise attractive person with a nice body would mar it with a tattoo. Not trying to be inflammatory with the word “mar,” that’s just how I see it - sort of like, oh I don’t know, painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa.
To me tattoos carry a connotation of low class. Bikers have tattoos. Truck drivers have tattoos. Bowling alley waitresses have tattos. Intelligent, attractive, well-groomed professionals who aspire to a classier image don’t have tattoos. My knee-jerk reaction when I see a tattoo is to wonder what trailer park or ghetto this person lives in.
This is strictly a gut-level feeling that I can and do disregard when dealing with people. There’s no need to point out to me that many well-bred people have tattoos, and many truck drivers and bowling alley waitresses are perfectly classy people. I know this. My brother is a Harley guy, with the requisite long hair and head-to-toe tattoos, and he’s an okay guy. Maybe not one I would choose for a friend, but an okay guy. What’s more, my SO, who is intelligent, educated, professional, conservative, clean-cut, and from a well-to-do family, has a tattoo. So it’s not a deal breaker or even a significant criterion for judging people. I just prefer the absence of tattoos to their presence.
With regard to the ubiquity of tattoos, I have a friend who calls them “me toos.” Pretty apt, IMO.
My advice for any of you young people going into med school: Dermatology. You should graduate just as the tatoo trend stops, and man the money will be pouring from the skies.
I don’t get it either. An out of date haircut? all you need is a quick trip to the Barber. Regrettable clothes? Goodwill. But that tatoos going to be a pain in the ass–maybe literally–to get rid of.
Not a slam on people who are really into tatoos. But even then, have you thought about what it’s going to look like when you’re sixty?
I don’t like tattoos (or Harleys). The only tattoo I would even consider getting would be a maple leaf on me somewhere inconspicuous, but I wouldn’t even get that, cause I don’t like tattoos. I would get those air-brushed ones, though, if I was in a trendy mood.
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