WTF are you smoking? Does nobody have kids on your planet? There are a billion things people do- from mortgages to felonies- that do a lot more to limit their options in life.
A smaller tattoo in a place covered by business clothes limits nearly nothing.
I think what gaffa is trying to say is go ahead, make all the porn you like, but avoid tattoos or strangers may harbor preconceived notions about you.
I don’t understand what it is you are saying. Are you implying that, if she didn’t have the tattoos she just could have lied and said it wasn’t her?
Because that is monumentally stupid.
And it seems that, since she won the equivalent of an Oscar in Germany, and is now hotly sought after for more work, according to your article, that the tattoos are not hurting her career in the least.
So you want to try again, or just admit that you have an old-fashioned and unrealistic take on tattoos, and apologize for trying to stigmatize 14% of Americans?
Ok. I thought you were also bringing her up as support for your theory about regretting tattoos. I think everyone understand what 80-year-olds look like and what happens to your skin as you age. It’s not a mysterious process and most people have seen an eldlerly person at some point.
This is absurd. Tattoos are cosmetic, so in terms of the “making choices for your 80-year-old self” theme, they’re actually one of the least significant things you can do. Compare a tattoo to choosing a major in college, picking a career, taking a job, choosing a place to live, getting married, family planning, diet and exercise, buying a house, or making any kind of significant medical decision. Tattoos actually have far smaller practical effects than any of those unless perhaps you get one on your face. It’s true that most of those other decisions are not visible on your skin. It’s also true that while they are not irreversible, many of them can be changed only with a lot of time and effort and and expense and ultimately, the choice and the reversal of the choice will cost you much, much more than a tattoo ever will.
This is the silliest and most trivial example I can imagine for your thesis.
Good point: I will make sure to cover my tattoos next time I go do porn. Thanks for the tip, gaffa!
People have all said what I wanted to say already. I just don’t understand why tattoos get all the hate, though. People have children voluntarily at 16. The online class I am in; there is a young woman of 18 who just got married. Ok, maybe it will work like gangbusters, but you can’t deny both of those are life-changing events. How about people who have children when their marriage is on the rocks?
And tattoos are what we are going to regret when we’re 80? When I’m 80, I plan to walk right up to people who disapprove of my tattoo and tell them they’re assholes, to their faces. Yup, I plan to throw all filters out the window. And you’re worried about my wrinkly saggy skin? 
Do I want to get to 80 with a pristine body?
When I look at my body, I see the effects of 36 years of living. I see scars from adventures as a kid. I have a barbed wire scar on my knee that’s about 4 inches long; it’s never going to fade. I have a scar on my wrist from falling down when I was ten. I have a fireworks scar on my right arm. I regret that one, ooo, that was stupid; playing with fireworks. On the inside of my perfectly smooth right arm I have a small scar from an iron. This one I actually like; it breaks up the skin and calls attention to the curve of the rest of my arm, rather like a beauty mark.
What I’m saying is my body is only partly who I am. You think out of all of the things my body has been through, I am going to regret the tattoo the most? I look at my tattoo every day and smile a secret little smile because it makes me happy. Every day. I kid you not. Every day it gives me a drop of happiness.
Nope. I don’t think I am going to regret my tattoo when I am old and gray. Instead, I will most likely think “I wanted a tattoo, and I was brave enough to get one. No one stopped me, even though people thought otherwise. I wasn’t scared of the needle. By gum, I went through with it!”
I think that a lot of attention is being paid to the fact that perhaps 30% of people regret their tattoos.
What about some **other **major life choices and their percentage of regret?
I can think of a few that are likely to come up with significant regrets:
Marriage
Education choice
Career choice
Having kids
Choice of residence (both city/state/country choice as well as house choice)
I’m not a good researcher, but I bet studies have found that at least some of those choices have a measured associated “regret,” and I wouldn’t be shocked at all if ALL of them did.
In addition, everything I’ve listed has a cost of removal/remediation which would be equal or higher than that for tattoos, but we don’t see thread after thread going after people for those.
“Are kids way overplayed by now?”
“People with husbands, why?”
“Do you regret your house?”
Ok yes, if we are asking every single person who has a tattoo about their regrets, then yes, there are going to be a significant portion of regrets.
I would counter that if you also asked every single person what their *process *was for getting a tattoo, that the correlation between “I was drunk” or “everyone else in my sorority has one” or “I was in jail” and “I regret my tattoo” is going to be pretty damn high. As would the correlation between “I was drunk” “everyone else in my sorority has one” or “I was in jail” and ANY OTHER major life decision undertaken in that condition.
That’s not an argument against tattoos, it’s an argument against stupid decision making.
Yes, it IS rare.
You described her as covered in tattoos from head to toe. Most people don’t meet former Tattoo Ladies from circuses. MOST people with tattoos aren’t covered in them like that. Most people with tats have some minor ink, not a full-on body suit. You can’t possibly think the two situations are the same.
:rolleyes:
Excellent post!
Wich also brings to mind; when I look at my scars and what not, I’m reminded of my youth.
It’s the same with my tattoos, everytime I see them I’m reminded of a happy time in my life.
I mean, I’m happy now, It’s just that when I’m 80, aching from head to toe knocking on death’s door; I can’t imagine I’ll be looking at my tattoos with regret.
No quite the contrary, I’m quite confident I’ll be looking at them with a smile on my face, reminiscing about the good ol’ days.
I’ve no tattoos. I’ve toyed with getting one, but it just never happened. Some people with tats are damned sexy. Some people without tats are damned sexy. And if that ever changes, I’ll know that I either need a new prescription, LASIK, or a white cane.
I agree with EVERYTHING said in this post…I just didn’t quote it all because I’m not an ass. 
I’ve done LOTS of things that ‘saner’ people wouldn’ta. I’m a much better person for it.
You might as well not get married, 50% of them end in divorce.
Riding a motorcycle is dangerous…but only 1.1% of them actually end up in fatality statistics.
Suffice it to say: If the only think I have to look back with regret is my tattoo, I figure I’ll have done pretty well for myself.
I linked to this in the (one of) other thread(s) about tattoos that was posted recently, but it seems appropriate to relink.
Here are two photographs of the same heavily tattooed man taken several decades apart.
How are all those tattoo’s going to look when you are 60?.
Clearly the answer is…Fuckin’ Badass.
I like tattoos, I have a few. I am not tatted down like a gangster, but my wife is covered with ink. She works for a major bank in a high ranking position. She has to wear long sleeves to work, but that’s the most limiting thing about them. A couple of them remind her of youthful indiscretion (including a pretty good coverup of a pretty bad piece), a large beautiful back piece she got to help her cope with the death of her mother, she has a couple others that she got just because they are pretty.
No one sees 90% of them if she isn’t in a bathing suit. My tats are the same. I am currently saving up and planning to get something that looks vaguely like thisbut in color like thisand stopping mid bicep. I am going to go to that particular artist that I just linked to (It’s a coincidence that he happens to have some similar designs in his portfolio, I have had the design in mind for a while before I found him.) . His work is stunning. Check out the gallery. The meaning is symbolic to me, as are all my tattoos and no one is going to see them for the most part. But I think it’s beautiful, and I am fully aware of what I am walking into.
Missed the edit window. Anil won’t let you hyperlink to his photos directly it seems.
Anyway the two chrysanthemum tattoo’s under the nature tab are the ones I tried to link to. One is in black and white and one in color. Put those together and you get what I am looking at.
Course they are giving advice. Venting is when you are really angry. I don’t know why you think that people are angry when they say “you may regret your tattoos”. I’ve seen no one post examples of people saying “you may regret your tattoos” in an angry tone. And along the same lines…
What hate?
Upthread *JLRogers ** started ranting about how there were “at least a dozen posters to whom other people’s tattoos are incredibly objectionable” and he was telling us that people “lose their minds” over this issue. Marley23 sees people suggesting that getting tatts could be a source of regret and says they are “venting” ie angry. You say that you don’t understand all the “hate”.
When I challenged JLRogers to provide actual examples of posts evidencing the extreme anti-tatt views he says are common he made a heap of excuses about why he wouldn’t provide cites before leaving the thread altogether.
A number of people in this thread have commented that some people are extraordinarily defensive about tatts. I don’t like to get to much into amateur psychology about other posters, but it’s hard to disagree. Merely saying you don’t personally like tattoos or pointing out that they may be a source of regret gets pro-tatt people ranting that you “hate” tattoos or “find them incredibly objectionable” or you are “losing your mind” over the subject.
Frankly, until someone actually comes up with posts evidencing all this incredible objection, hate and mind loss I’m going to stick to the conclusion that it’s all got far more to do with defensiveness than reality.
*and we won’t even begin on the topic of what might motivate an Administrator to personally take a great big shit, or totally ignore poster posting a personal insult, in an IMHO thread
Actually all of these, and regrets about them, are common human topics. What we don’t see so much is people reading advice and non-positive views on these subjects as being indicative of “hate”.
While I agree with you in theory, I would love to have an alternate word (besides hateful) to describe a person responding to someone announcing the birth of their child with “I hear that kids are just a fad - when you are 80, you’ll see that I was right” or reacting to an engagement thread by saying “You know, there’s a 50% chance that you’ll be divorcing, so I can’t really say congratulations with a clear conscience.”
Those seem to be pretty common “human topics” that come up in threads. I’ve seen similar comments all the time in tattoo threads. While they’re usually identified as threadshitting and ignored, they still happen. I’ve NEVER seen a comment like that for a new child, or a marriage announcement. Sort of makes me wonder why there’s a difference.
It’s not advice if you don’t care if it applies to anyone listening to you and nobody asked. We do sometimes have requests for advice on tattoos, but most tattoo-related threads do not take that form in my experience. Even if you think venting is the wrong word, it’s closer than advice. Call it “expressing distaste” if you think venting is too strong.
Which I didn’t do. I asked a valid question I expected the OP to answer so we could discuss if it matters that tattoos are “way overplayed” (hint: my take is that it doesn’t matter).
I don’t moderate IMHO, and you should report whatever post you are referring to in addition to letting this go.
Oh, that is really beautiful. I eventually want to get a tattoo – my name is Kat, so I want to get a cat, but in a sort of Art Nouveau style. Nothing huge or anything, probably just a small circle just on my calf.
(If I ever would get a big back piece or something – I doubt it – I’d get something by Alphonse Mucha, my favorite artist of all time)
My boyfriend’s a fairly heavily tattooed 42-year-old man who’s been doing manual labor for most of his life. He’s physically fit and attractive, but he looks a little bit…weathered. I kinda like that.
He’s got everything: almost-invisible teenage stick-and-pokes, army-related stuff, an amazingly detailed drawing he actually did himself. Ugly barbed wire and roses and his ex-wife’s name and an expensive new pretty one. He doesn’t regret a damned one, and none of them bother me, not any more than the miscellaneous scars and freckles that people accumulate throughout life.
What nonsense. You aren’t evidencing any knowledge of what the word “advice” means. Heaps of advice is unrequested and inapt. Heck, advice is notorious for being given when unwanted and unwarranted. Doesn’t mean it isn’t “advice”.
Further, giving advice to a broad audience without knowing for sure that it is apt is hardly unusual. All advice posted on this board would fit that description, to a greater or lesser degree. Most people reading just aren’t as touchy about it.
No one would say that kids are just a fad because we don’t have anyone that stupid. The point is utterly unarguable that kids are not a fad. Certainly there are any number of people who post that having kids is overrated. As to marriage, I have certainly seen posts that express considerable concern about divorce statistics and exercising caution. The big difference is that these sorts of thoughts don’t evoke a flurry of married people or people with children whinging about hate and people losing their minds.
Sure you have. Just like JLRogers. I’m practically daring you guys to come up with actual live examples, and so far all I can hear is crickets…