:smack: The above is a satirical newspaper. I was sent the article a while back without the source. I did a search to get a quick link and posted it before I looked at the site. It’s not a true story. Gonna go get a tattoo of “moron” on my forehead now. In whatever language.
But the reports about Britney Spears’ tattoos are true.
I have a tattoo on my left ankle. It is of a stick figure camera operator that I drew. I love it. I see it every day and it makes me smile every time.
I am considering a piece for my back. It will be fairly large, but it has to have meaning to me.
I don’t get tattoos to express myself or to please other people.
A friend of mine once said: My tattoo makes me feel like now I own my skin. That’s not exactly how I feel but it’s close.
Male, mid-30s, with my 2 cents. I fully agree with:
Well said!
The popularity of tattoos is utterly baffling to me. The vast majority of them are crude, cliched, and in very poor taste. Worst of all, they’re all going to look like utter crap in about 10-15 years. It’s not just the wrinkly, sagging skin: also the colors fade and the edges blur. Combine all that together and you get tasteless gibberish. Wrinkly, tastless, and dated gibberish.
Think about how many people are embarrassed about pics of them with the hairstyles of 15 years ago. You think tattoos are going to be any different? There is one significant difference: tattoos are permanent.
Hardly well said. In fact, he contradicts himself there. You are a sheep if you follow fashion, but you need to choose an acceptable way to express yourself? Acceptable to whom? The same ones who make them sheep in the first place, or acceptable to whoever makes you a sheep for following their particular guidelines.
And not for nothing, but there’s another thing, other than tattoos, that follows the same path thatKnorf lays out. It’s a phenomenon that young people usually do, sometimes rashly. The thing they acquire usually doesn’t look nearly as good in 10-15 years, and generally gets progressively worse as time goes on. They get wrinkly skin, and they get sagging skin, their colors fade, and they certainly blur at the edges. It’s called a spouse, and if you believe in marriage, that is supposed to be permanent too. You people need to get off your high horses. Nothing stays perfect and pretty and sterile forever. It’s the way life is. Besides, you can NEVER know why a person does what they do. And if you assume the reason, you’re a prejudicial ass, no better than the morons who think someone is a criminal simply because they are black.
Oy. Before this gets completely out of hand, can I just point out that tats =! skin color? The key element here is choice.
We all make judgements every day based upon incomplete information. To do otherwise would effectively paralyze us.
If you choose to get a tattoo in a conspicuous place, please be aware that you are adding something to the thousand other signals that you send to everyone you meet. Sometimes that will work to your advantage, sometimes not.
Platitudes like ‘it’s what’s on the inside that counts’ are great, but I’d not stake anything important on it.
1st, and snarkily, tattoos kinda do equal skin color… think about it.
2nd, and seriously, prejudice is prejudice, regardless of the reason you’re doing it.
I’m sure you mean that we all do little, inconspicuous, things that lead to harmless judgements every day, but there are some that you can turn off. Because, conversely, if we all gave in to the little pre judgements we make every day, we’d be just as severely paralized.
I doubt that anyone in this thread is going to look at a person with a tattoo and be like, “I won’t talk to you, you obvious peasant.” But it’s disheartening to see people that list, as reasons for their distaste, the supposed reasons for other people doing something.
Ok…my opinion is pretty much the same as everybody else’s. Small, hidden areas and not too many. And they have to mean something.
I am a 26 year old female and my tattoo was designed by myself and my sister a few years ago. No one else has it. We are very proud of our Irish heritage, so we designed a tattoo - a shamrock w/ a claddaugh in the middle (as Hal said before). We got them at the same time in the same place - the small of our backs.
Only one other person will ever have it (maybe). My brother’s girlfriend is also Irish - she looovves our tattoos. My sister and I decided our gift to her when she gets engaged to my brother will be the design for the tattoo.
I have also been thinking about getting another tattoo, but I can’t think of anywhere to put it that I would like. I also can’t think of anything else meaningful enough to have permanently on my body. So, for now…no more for me.
To put it mildly, I don’t care for them on either sex. But especially females. Circle tatoos around the upper arm, arm tattoos especially sleeves, and ‘large’ in general look the worst to me.
I saw you post something about tattoos and permanence in a different thread, and agreed with you about your own reasons for not getting one. I would not get a tattoo because I don’t believe for a second, I would not later on regret my choice of design. It’d be like lamenting after getting a horrible haircut, except the hair would never grow out without surgery. Having said that, that’s my own reason for not wanting a tattoo. I admit that sometimes I look at people’s design choices, and think they’re probably going to regret it later (had a good friend with “born to loose”, misspelling and all on his shoulder until his death). With other people, I admire their assuredness about their choice and wish I could be that decisive about such a long term decision, whether I agree with their choice or not. So, for someone like me temporary is the way to go, but I don’t believe it’s true for everyone.
I’m not a fan of tats on women. Heck it’s a rare day when I see a tat that I think looks cool on anyone regardless of gender. I love womens breasts, but one with a tat just ruins it for me. (Okay, I can get past it, but it’s a negative and not a positive).
Most of the tribal art I find goofy unless the wearer has some knowledge of what the tribal symbolism really is.
Chinese or Japanese kanji are goofy as shit. Many if not most of the Chinese character tats are nonsensical. Just a meaningless combination of random characters. News flash: if you want to get a Chinese tat, at least get one that makes sense. :rolleyes:
(Male pushing 40) Frau Xiao got a tatto above her right breast some years back. They (honestly) don’t do anything for me. I know it’s there, I see it, but it’s far less important than the other parts.
I am a neo-hippy and don’t care for cosmetics and trying to make yourself something you’re not (bio-mods and piercings aren;t my thing). I thought that I had the answer when frau Xiao came to me with the idea of getting the flower on her tit – I said. Okay if you tell your mother (we’d been married for a while then). Her mother, the Baptist bible thumper said okay. Had to live with it.
Churchill’s mother had one as I am told. hope our Kids come out so well.
I am in my 30’s and never thought I’d get one, but recent events have changed my mind. If I do it (still doing research), it’d be an Arabic word on the inside of my left wrist, the size of a postage stamp. I frankly don’t care what anyone thinks of it either, and I don’t care if it hurts, which is how I know I really want to do it.
If you feel strongly about it and it will enhance your inner happiness to have it, do it. That’s my only advice.
Tattoos are not analogous to skin color. They are a choice. And if you choose a tattoo, you are sending out a message about yourself. I believe that you know many people associate tattooing with prisons, low-class people, etc. So if you go ahead knowing that, then accept that not everyone will interpret your message in the way you intended.
Mmmm, Yes! and that’s what makes them SO damn hot!
I will say this tho’ I like tattoos that are thin and stream lined.
What I mean by that is: Say like you were going to get a tattoo of a vine. Doesn’t matter really how LONG the vine is but it shouldn’t be any thicker than say 1/4 inch or so.
I’ve seen girls with the thick vines or tribal lines or whatever. They just don’t look very feminine to me.
I suppose I kind of like the ‘idea’ of a sexy tattoo on a woman, but I’ve never seen one that I’d want on a woman I was in a relationship with. If I see a woman with a hot body and she has one of those tattoos just above her tailbone (and is consequently wearing clothes that reveal this), then my response is that I’d like to have sex with her immediately. However, I wouldn’t find this attractive in any long-term sense and hope not to fall in love with a woman who has such a tattoo. As others have said, I think it would be neat in the short term–maybe a few hot encounters–but after that it would just seem to get in the way of the ‘real’ person and her own beauty. So I’m looking for a woman with a temporary tattoo, so we can pretend she’s dirty but then move past that after a while.
Then another problem I have with tattoos is that I can’t imagine a specific tattoo or location that I would like enough that it would warrant its permanence.
Okaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy…
I’m a professional. I dress and conduct myself as a professional. No one in my office has ever seen my tattoo, or for that matter even knows I have one, much less what it is. Were you working in my office, you would not know it, either, unless I chose to tell you. If I did, apparently your opinion of me would change based on the knowledge that, for very personal reasons I chose to enhance my body in a way that is very meaningful to me, specifically for reasons which were my own and not to please anyone else. The fact that your opinion of me would change based on this says more about you than me, I think.
Quite a few strong feelings about tattoos around here. I’d like to add a few thoughts, as a bearer of 2 tattoos (male, pushing 40).
Some people do, certainly, get them too impulsively. Because of their permanent nature, it’s best to be sure you really want that image for the rest of your life. For my first one, I waited 5 years after deciding that I wanted it, because I wanted to make sure that desire would be a lasting thing. Some people are sure without such a long wait. Some people never are. For anyone considering a tattoo, I always recommend that they wait if there is any doubt. Waiting to be sure never detracted from a tattoo.
And yes, some people do get designs just because they’re popular. But, in my experience, far more people get imagery that either means something to them or looks particularly beautiful to them. Most people I know with tattoos make their choice because it suits them, not because it suits someone else. My own designs – an Eye of Horus on my back, and a Hammer of Thor on my shoulder – both have historical significance and symbolic mythological meanings that really appeal to the history and mythology buff in me.
As far as associations with prisons or low-class? I will grant that those perceptions are still there, but they’re fading as more and more “respectable” people get inked. I’m not particularly concerned about people with those preconceptions, myself. My ink is for me, first and foremost, and to share with those whose company I enjoy.
Just my tuppence.
Considering how much I have paid for my tattoos I definitely don’t think they say “I’m low class and I love it.” A professional high quality tattoo costs at least $100/hour, often much more. You get what you pay for when it comes to tattoos. A good quality tattoo that is taken care of can still look remarkable 20 years later. And as for the Prince of Denmark, I wouldn’t want to marry him anyway. 
Also, although I do have numerous tattoos, I don’t understand why people get tattoos of words in a language that they can’t read. That has just never made sense to me.
Actually, this has happened to me. A woman I work with and like very much revealed to me that she has a tattoo, and I still like her. I didn’t say, “You have a tattoo? That must mean you’ve been to jail, you skanky trash!” It was more along the lines of being told that she used to pick her nose and eat it, or that she has sexual fantasies about Michael Jackson…in other words, “Ick! But I still like you.”