It’s not like there’s a vigilante movement to remove your tattoos. To me, a tattoo is like jewelry that you can’t take off. Who cares?
Just one thing: If you get a tattoo just in order to be cool, you’re pretty pathetic.
I’m not offended by your sentiment at all. The beauty of life and love is that there’s someone out there who wasn’t turned off by my tattoo and he’s been the love of my life for over 10 years. Long as you don’t judge me as some white-trash, good-for-nothing because of my tattoo, I’m cool if it doesn’t make me attractive to you. Different strokes, right?
I hope nobody pits you over this because that would be stupid and I’ll be the first to bring my tattoo’d self to the thread to defend your personal preference.
My oldest tattoo is 9, but I don’t regret it. There are a couple of flaws in the tattoo (it tickled, and I had a hard time keeping still) that I keep meaning to get touched up, but never do. Someday.
I have 13 tattoos. Some have deep personal meaning, some are silly superstitious sailor tattoos (which still have deep personal meaning, because I am in love with the ocean and any ocean-going vessel). You can’t see any of them if I’m wearing jeans and a tshirt (my usual uniform).
Sometimes I get annoyed because I have to go out of my way to cover my tattoos up (at work, for example), but the more people getting tattooed today the more likely in a few years tattoos won’t be so shocking anymore and might become a bit more mainstream.
Well that’s different becuase he’s never seen the shirt to begin with. But if a certain shirt reminds him of his old army days, then let him wear it, even if he can’t see it.
Okay, that didn’t make sense, maybe he went blind after he left the army.
I know everyone has already refuted this a million times, but the idea is so stupid that it bears repeating again.
Nobody with a tattoo gives a crap how it will look when they are 70. Who the hell cares? It will be one more thing that thousands of 70 year old people will have…wrinkled skin, hairy moles, liver spots and old tattoos.
You are supposed to be wise enough by then to not care about such superficial things as how a tattoo looks, right? Got my first tattoo at 18, second one at 21 and third 1 year ago.
I am nearly 34 and I regret none of them. They are a part of me, my style and my expression. One of the few expressions that I was certain enough of to feel it will be a permanent idea in my life. That is the interesting thing about tattoos, to me. We all like to think we can grow and learn on all topics all the time. But there are certain ideas that we intuitively know we be a constant in our lives. Our moral or ethical ideas…things that mean something to us right down to our cores. We don’t worry that we will ever regret those ideas.
That is why you see so many folks choosing ‘mom’ or their child’s name. I haven’t chosen those, but I can see why lots of people do.
I don’t think they shock anyone, unless maybe the subject matter of the picture is offensive.
ETA: If I had to guess why workplaces like them covered, I’d say it’s so they don’t have to make decisions about what’s offensive and what’s not, and possibly because they are meant to be so expressive of meaning about the wearer. When you work, they would like you to be seen as a representative of Company X, not as a very special snowflake.
I have two tattoos. I got my first one 32 ( :eek: ) years ago. It in on the inside of my right wrist, and most people don’t notice it unless I want them to. I was raised Pentecostal, but was going through a huge religious crisis. This tat signifies to me that religion is bullshit, but God isn’t.Picture
The second one I got in December 2006 after my son died. It is over my heart. He had the bluest eyes and always wore a silver ear ring. It broke my heart. Picture
I haven’t regretted my tattoos for even one minute. Yes, I’m a girl, I’m 49 and I was “cool” decades before everyone 
Um, well, I’m one of 'em, I guess.
I’ve always thought I’d like to have my family’s livestock brand tattooed on my butt. There is only one reason I’d do that, though: At some time in my life, I’m going to need some kind of medical injection in the buttocks, and when the needle goes in, I’m going to moo like a calf in the chute.
I don’t find the sentiment offensive at all. You like what you like, and there’s no law that says you have to find tattoos a turn on.
What is - well, it’s not offensive, but annoying - is that, once again, we’ve come back to the crux of the argument … you don’t like tattoos. To which I say, OK, then don’t get a tattoo! But why do you (general you, not you you) have to try to convince me that I don’t like tattoos, or I shouldn’t like tattoos, or I won’t like tattoos in X number of years? It’s ridiculous, really. There’s not really a greater likelihood that I’ll stop liking them than that you’ll start liking them. I’m not trying to convince you to like them, so stop trying to convince me not to like them!
And, in turn, I hope you don’t find this offensive. I don’t really see you, specifically, trying to talk anyone out of a tattoo, and I thank you for that. But your post, coupled with the quoted post in the OP, gave me the perfect set-up to take a few whacks at this particular issue.
A bit over 10 years on my tat and it’s never even occured to me to regret it. I’ve been ignoring that niggling itch that I need to get another one, but I expect I will before too much longer.
What it will look like when I’m 70? I hope that will be the worst of my problems.
If you really want to worry about what something will look like when they’re 70, consider boob jobs.
Why are gramma’s boobs nicer than yours momma? 
I don’t have any tats simply because I never thought of anything I wanted on my body forever. And although I have thought the occasional tat attractive, I’ve sen far more that I thought not. But I’m very aware that that is just my personal opinion, and I could not care less what anyone else wishes to do with their body. And whether or not someone had tats wouldn’t stop be from hiring them, socializing with them, whatever. Well, I must admit, I might make an exception for someone who had major facial tats, implants, and such.
Same with piercings. Do with your body what you wish. Heck, I’m a lawyer and have had my left ear pierced for 25 years or so (believe it or not - back then it actually was somewaht unusual!) Personally, I think ear plugs and nose rings are unattractive. And I could imagine not hiring someone with those for a position that involved public contact. But otherwise, do with your body what you wish. But don’t be surprised when people react to your choices.
I got my first one 12 years ago and the second 2 years later and don’t regret them at all even though they’re not very unique. I don’t have any others not because I don’t want any but because I can’t decide on what I want. The first one is in very poor shape (it’s now a pink/skin colour Canadian flag instead of a bright red one) and until that is fixed I don’t want to get any others. I also don’t want to just fix it but expand upon it and just can’t come up with anything good.
There was a neat article in Parents or Parenting magazine or something similar around December I think about mothers with tattoos. Unfortunately I can’t seem to google it up right now.
To a certain extent I kind of agree with the no visible tattoos at work at least in my industry (white collar where we do have clients coming by). We do have one admin assistant with several including what I swear looks like a Nazi SS symbol on her neck.
You make me laugh, Sunrazor.
Naw, what’s really funny is that poor Eleanor is being taken to task (in 2 threads nonetheless) for agreeing and expanding on something that I originally said in the Sacred Cows thread. 
Sorry, Ms. Rigby - didn’t mean to get you in trouble.
Thanks. … I suppose I should have mentioned that I’m still young (26), so it’s not really that progressive, considering. I just don’t get the hate and see no reason why it has to affect someone’s work. Actually, I know people my age who are awfully close-minded, so…
Well…I dunno. If a person has their ears pierced, can they see them without a mirror? If not, what’s the point of getting them pierced? Who did they get them pierced for, “themselves” or others?
Here’s mine, along with the story behind it. If I regret getting that thing in nine years, I’ll be surprised. It’ll also be bad news for my brother, who plans on getting the same design when he’s old enough.
I’m disappointed that my clever “if that’s the biggest problem I have at 70” crack has been used. But I’m annoyed by the presumption that everybody who gets a tattoo did so for trendy, vain, shortsighted reasons. And if they did, unless they’re being jerks about it, who cares anyway?
As I said in the “right of reply” thread, people who pull the “how’s it gonna look when you’re 70?” thing sound like crotchety old folks themselves. No offense to older people, but when somebody my own age tries to make me look stupid by imitating my grandmother, I’m not impressed. There’s a reason I ignore advice from my grandparents. And on a philosophical level why should I not do something now because I’m worried about how it’ll look in 30 or 40 or 50 years?
Oh, and my girlfriend still thinks my tattoo is sexy. So that’s a nice bonus.
Sunrazor, I’ll give you a second reason not to get the brand tattoo: they itch a lot at first, and you don’t want to be scratching your ass all the time (not to mention rubbing cream into it). People will look at you funny.
I was cool first. June of 1974 for me, so this summer will be the 34th anniversary. I got mine in a scary place in Portsmouth, England after my first trans-Atlantic cruise a young Coast Guardsman. It’s an anchor that’s fading but I am still glad I have it. I’d get it touched up, but that would take me off the blood donor roles for a year. Right now I think being able to give is more important.
I’m planning to get my first tatt this month when I’m in Canada visiting friends. Mine will be a Celtic-knotwork type horse in mid-jump, probably on my left calf. Horses and my Celtic ancestry mean a lot to me and it took forever for me to find a design that captured both. It’s taken me a lot of thought and soul-searching to finally get up the guts to do this but when it’s done, I’m going to be happy. I’ll always have something to remind me of where I come from and the thing that means the most to me in my life. The next design is going to be a totemic bear for my husband, whose totem is Bear.
I don’t understand the hate for tatts or body piercing at all. I recently read a rant on a horse forum where the poster was having a hissy fit over some “tramp with everything pierced and tatts all over her!” beating her kid at a horse show. When the truth came out, the girl did have a few tatts and piercings, but not like the OP said. It was sour grapes. Why in the world should it matter??
Ah well. To each his/her own.
I’ve regretted specific tattoos, because the images were poor choices, execution was bad. One I don’t regret is a shamrock, and I’ve actually had another tattoo drawn around it rather than obliterate it. The shoulder pieces and the celtic knot on my back, the koi on my shoulder: I don’t regret them.
I do wince when I see the “tattoos are skanky,” etc. posts, especially when the poster apparently shows up in a tattoo thread specifically to threadshit.