No worries-at least about this thread. I think the OP just pulled a quote from me–I don’t feel any strong hate vibes coming in on my tinfoil hat.
I had no idea there was another thread on this as well. If I’m being Pitted (no time to check at present), so be it. I don’t see the appeal of tattoos.
That doesn’t mean I think the people who get them are stupid–to each his own. I (seriously) have known many people who have regretted the location, execution, presence of their body ink after a significant number of years–the one woman I posted about with the unicorn that looks more like a giraffe, for example. I pulled 10 years out of the air. If you love your tatto and are happy with it in 10, 20, 40 years–that’s fine by me. I just won’t be in the tattoo parlor anytime in my lifetime. I don’t understand the impulse for permanent graffiti anywhere, really, on the body or on pavement. That doesn’t mean I disapprove of the practice(of tattooing–other graffiti not so much).
As to the question, can we quit grousing about tattoos, I say no. I have no desire to start an anti-tattoo campaign, but one thing here is the freedom to speak your mind, within limits. Expressing an opinion about something like tattoos is hardly hate speech or inflammatory, so the right to do so I will defend. So, I’ll grouse and you’ll grouse back. Sounds like a whole lot of threads here.
The second thread I referenced is the “reply to the sacred cow” thread in CS, where your “10 years” comment was also quoted. I don’t think you’re being pitted.
But if you insist, I can start one for ya! How about “People who name themselves after song titles PISS ME OFF!!!” Or “People who express their gender through their user names are JUST PLAIN STUPID!” But then, that one would include me.
I wear earrings b/c I can match them to my clothing and I think they’re pretty. This is something I did for myself, but because I like the way it makes me look. If someone created “magical” earrings where only I could see them, and no one else could, I doubt I would bother.
What I want to know is, if they created a “magical tattoo” where only you would see it, and no one else, how many people would actually bother to get the thing done? And what about if only other people could see it and you couldn’t (i.e. on your back)? Seems to me that a tattoo that you can’t see, and other people also can’t see, is sort of the definition of useless. No one would go for that! Hence, they’re plainly meant for SOMEONE to see.
Remind me, are the tattoos to show the world that you’re a nonconformist and you don’t care what anyone thinks? Or are they something completely mainstream that “even stockbrokers have nowadays”?
Hey, no hate from me here. There’s no accounting for taste
Seriously though, I will never fault someone for their personal preferences and attractions. What I object to is…
…what I object to is not the idea that tattoos are “fugly”, but the idea that there is no one who doesn’t eventually regret their tattoos. That’s why I responded to eleanorigby’s comment and not yours. There’s nothing I find objectionable about your thought.
Oh, of course not. Like I said, it seems to be a common idea expressed whenever the topic of tattoos comes up. You just happened to be the first to say it, this time
I’m agreeable to that, too.
I don’t even mind when people complain about tattoos or how ugly they are and how they destroy a woman’s appearance or any other personal opinion on the topic, so I guess the thread title is way off on that one. What I mind is the idea that WhyNot expressed–that anyone else knows best what I feel about my body and my appearance, and the judgment that implies. Also the inherent judgment about a tattooed person’s… what? Lack of impulse control? Lack of foresight? Lack of ambition or future plans? Or just their regrettable decision-making history, in (generic) your eyes? There’s a world of difference between “I dislike tattoos and wish women wouldn’t get them” and “everyone regrets getting a tattoo and if you get one, you’ll eventually hate it, too”.
Well, I feel pretty qualified to answer this, seeing as how the majority of my current work is on my back.
It starts on my upper right shoulder cap and across the nape of my neck, runs down my lumbar area and across my left hip. Of the currently completed work, the only piece I’m able to see without mirrors is the shoulder cap and the tip of a hawk’s wing. I’ve showed it to friends who know it’s in progress and have specifically asked to see it, but otherwise the only one to ever see it is my husband (and, I suppose, my tattoo artist). My husband doesn’t care much one way or the other about body modifications, so I certainly didn’t get them for him. Most of the time am dressed in a hoodie and jeans, so while I do have a forearm tattoo, it’s a simple line drawing; the really elaborate work can’t be seen.
Why did I do it? It’s an excellent question. It’s taken solid days of work–eight hours in a tattoo chair, many days–which is painful, stressful, supremely unpleasant. Imagine rows of sewing machine needles buzzing into your top dermal layers, creating open wounds which the needles rake over and over, in the coloring process. It’s incredibly, remarkably expensive. I get a cost break for such a large project and for buying whole days worth of work at a time, but even still, other than my car, my tattoo work and my dog are the two most valuable things I own, and together their purchase value comes to more than the car.
I did it for spiritual reasons; some of the images are animal totems (blue armadillo, purple platypus), some are protection and healing symbols (waxing/full/waning moons, rowan berries, willow branches, water) some are friends I’ve known (a Harris’ hawk, hairless rat). I did it as a way to “reclaim” my skin and my body as my own. I did it to tell a story, even if no one will read it. I did it to carry around a gorgeous piece of installation art on my hide. Also, the experience is something like an ongoing private piece of performance art. A lesson in endurance and testing of limits. I did it just for the fun of it; there’s a bit of cheeky glee in the idea that I look completely unremarkable to the public world; but… It’s a beautiful secret piece of myself.
I chose my back because it’s the largest blank canvas on your body, and I designed the art to fit the space. Eventually I will be able to see at least some of it–the next stage will blend the backpiece into one that wraps around my left thigh and knee–but the fact that I can’t see my backpiece doesn’t make it any less meaningful to me. Since I didn’t get it with the desire to affect/please/appall other people in the first place, the fact that they can’t see it surely doesn’t bother me.
I can’t answer for other folks, but there you are.
I’m not entirely sure what you’re getting at in the first sentence, but plenty of professionals have them. Actually, I’m not sure I get your point in the second sentence, either. People have been getting tattooed for at least as long as, well… the oldest human mummy, or are you still imagining that there’s a “type” of person who gets tattoos, and that people who get tattoos are trying to fit that image?
Actually, I don’t have any tattoos, and kinda go back and forth on the issue of getting a Tattoos vs. disliking tattoos (on myself obviously).
But if such a magical Tattoo existed, I would get it. If I got a tattoo, it would be for a personal reason, more of for MYSELF than for another person to really understand.
As for the other example- well, that’s where I currently stand- if I HAD to get a tattoo, I’d get one on my back rather than my front. I’m kinda hypocritical like that, or contrary I suppose. Knowing that I have such a Tattoo on me would be comforting enough. As the design I would get would be one that is spiritual for myself. So it would be almost like a comfort blanket or such. I don’t need to “See” it all the time, but knowing it’s there is good enough- just like how I feel about some things in life.
So if I had to get a Tattoo that I couldn’t see, well, I prefer it*.
But if I could get a magical tattoo that Only I could see- well that would make me go out and get it even quicker. As the only reason I could see myself getting a tattoo would be for something that was inherently personal to myself, and not others. YMMV, of course.
*And at the worst, I can just use 2 mirrors to see the Tattoo, if I suddenly forgot what it looked like.
I’m with you on this. I never bought the whole “they are for me and me alone” thing. However, what some folks may mean when they say, “they are for me” is really deeper than that…they are saying “they are for me, and any kindred spirits I may have”. You know?
I have an ankh over my breast. 99.9% of people I meet think they know what it means, and they like it…great.
But once in a while…once in a blue moon, I meet someone that begins to really get into what it actually means. We begin to build on that together. The person seems to deeply appreciate my tattoo, and that is nice.
I posted flippantly in the sacred cow thread. Even when I posted I knew there were people who never would regret their tattoos, so there was no real judgement there–just some trash talk to skewer some popular trends.
In keeping with whoever said they don’t like tattoos on women, I don’t like them on men. It may well be a deal breaker for me, not that I’m in any shape to be making any deals (married). I don’t see their appeal. But as I said, YMMV.
Thanks for the clarification on the title, Naja. And actually, I can see why some people want a tattoo where no one can see it. They know it’s there, and it means something to them. I can’t see my uterus, but it means something to me (ok, that was a weird analogy. Never mind!) Maybe I’d like them better if no one could see any of them!
Or just because it’s something you like? My oldest is 10 years and I’ve never regretted a one. They can all be covered (one on an ankle, another on the top of my foot, a “tramp” stamp before I even knew that was what they are called and the last, a quote around my wrist to commemorate my brother’s death) and, amazingly, they really are just for my consumption. I can share them if I wish, but most times I do not.
Also, I think they usually make people more interesting to look at and here the stories regarding. The same thing, in my humble opinion, applies with piercings. But I also respect others’ right not to want or like body modifications. I just honestly don’t understand the disdain (for lack of a better word) some feel towards their owners. Where there’s a moral judgment or something passed.
However, there’s a lot of things I don’t get.
Finally, I figure I’ll be even more banged up and amazed that I live to 70, that what my tattoos do or don’t look like will be beside the point.
I can’t speak for the world, but both my tattoos have very special meaning to me. The are permanent memorials of very personal milestones in my life. I designed them myself, I knew exactly what I wanted, I didn’t get them for anyone but me. I could care less what anybody thinks about them, they are not obvious, but I don’t hide them either.
Funny this thread came up… I was just now, in this moment, planning an addition to my current tattoo, which I mentioned not-too-long-ago is the Sanskrit word for impermanence (okay, technically ‘‘transitory’’), and which is small and I think rather tasteful black ink on my left wrist.
Ever since I got the thing 3 years ago, I’ve been planning to add suffering and equanimity. These three in the Buddhist tradition are considered the Three Marks of Existence and they all three have deeply personal and profound meanings to me and my life. Oh god, how clishé that sounds, but I mean it.
They are going to be in order.
suffering – suffering is an unavoidable hallmark of existence, and when I mean suffering, I don’t mean just pain, I mean the trauma we perpetuate on ourselves with our thoughts and judgments
impermanence – the first step away from suffering, the recognition that everything ebbs and flows, pain and joy alike are transitory, therefore we must be calm and compassionately accepting in the face of pain
equanimity – (’‘no-self’’) The universe is made up of interdependent phenomenon and once we recognize this we find our true identity – as everything – and we respond out of self-compassion to every sentient being, extending beyond the illusion of self to participate with loving-kindness in our community, and by community I mean everything that exists everywhere
They are all about the perfect length to wrap around my wrist like a bracelet – problem is I can’t find the Sanskrit for anatman in written form (anyone?)
When I got my tattoo, I wanted to be able to look at it as if I were reading it. ‘‘You sure you want it upside-down?’’ he said.
‘‘Yes. I want to see it. It’s for me.’’ The whole point of putting it on my wrist was so I could see it. I think it is aesthetically pleasing, but the real reason it is there is for ME to see, to remind me of the impermanent nature of all things. There may have been aesthetic considerations for placement, but this was not an aesthetically motivated decision. That tattoo is a little life preserver in the midst of this chaotic ocean madness we call living.
[farnsworth]
‘‘Ocean madness is no excuse for ocean rudeness!’’
[/farnsworth]
I really don’t want people to judge me because of my tattoo, or make assumptions about my character, but ultimately I really don’t care so long as it’s there for me to see. I cannot count, in the three years I’ve had it there, how many Long, Dark Teatimes of the Soul it has gotten me through. I don’t care what it looks like. It was inked imperfectly, so there are specks of skin showing through, and I don’t care. It is absolutely beautiful and it is a part of my body. I really don’t care if anyone else sees it, either – it’s not for you.
I think the OP just pulled a quote from me–I don’t feel any strong hate vibes coming in on my tinfoil hat.
