# Teach me about tattoos **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 9, 2025, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368 "2025-06-09T14:30:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/61 "2025-12-01T15:41:48Z")
Are there robot tattooers, like for getting photo tattoos? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/62 "2025-12-01T16:17:15Z")
Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/63 "2025-12-01T16:28:14Z")
Why would there be if people can do an amazing job? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/64 "2025-12-01T16:33:57Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Are there robot tattooers, like for getting photo tattoos? Now I’m thinking of the machine in Kafka’s “In The Penal Colony”. > **[In the Penal Colony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Penal_Colony)** > > "In the Penal Colony" ("In der Strafkolonie") (also translated as "In the Penal Settlement") is a short story by Franz Kafka written in German in October 1914, revised in November 1918, and first published in October 1919. > The story is set in an unnamed penal colony and describes the last use of an elaborate torture and execution device that carves the commandment that the condemned prisoner has transgressed on his skin as he slowly dies over the course of twelve hours. As the plot unfolds, the ... ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/65 "2025-12-01T17:32:26Z")
My, but that Kafka guy was a cheery fellow. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/66 "2025-12-01T17:33:36Z")
Always first on my “DO NOT READ” list, I can depress myself just fine, no need for literary help. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/67 "2025-12-01T18:27:42Z")
When ever I see a tattoo, I just say - why? There are plenty of ways to express yourself. Use your voice, use music, use art. Do you want that expression to be who you are? For the rest of your life? We hopefully grow. Things change, YOU may change. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/68 "2025-12-01T18:31:15Z")
We should definitely all do things that meet your approval as opposed to a different art form that dates back millennia and is a significant part of some cultures. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/69 "2025-12-01T18:34:14Z")
It’s a fair question with an invalid premise. Namely: I’m not doing this to “express myself”, I’m doing it because I promised I would if we won the world cup. On the other hand may be the premise is not so invalid, I’m expressing my love of the national team in a near-completely indelible way. Sure there are other ways but this one shows _compromise_. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/70 "2025-12-01T19:01:36Z")
Decades ago I was kind of an ignorant ass about tattoos. I didn’t like them. Of course I never thought that people shouldn’t get them or wondered very silly things like why anyone else would get them because that’s beyond obvious. I think the turning point was my divorce twenty years ago. That was when I started taking hot yoga classes and went through a promiscuous phase and had the opportunity to see lots of ink. I shouldn’t have been but I was surprised by how many people had tats that you wouldn’t see with clothes on. I very quickly realized that to me most of them are beautiful or at least benign. I don’t have any ink and it’s unlikely that I ever will by the way. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/71 "2025-12-01T19:10:10Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > My, but that Kafka guy was a cheery fellow. [off-topic] You wouldn’t believe it if you only knew his most famous works and general reputation, but he could get quite funny at times. Not in “In The Penal Colony” though, that was his bleakest work. [/off-topic] ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/72 "2025-12-02T00:38:47Z")
Change is cumulative. I may move beyond the man I was when got my tattoo, but that person will always be a part of me. Tattoos are mementoes of the people you were when you had them made. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/73 "2025-12-02T06:09:55Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > When ever I see a tattoo, I just say - why? Because I like it. My tattoo, like my pierced earlobes, is a minimally harmful body-mod decoration. I think ink is pretty, although my own is very minimal and discreet compared to some. > [@enipla](#): > > There are plenty of ways to express yourself. Use your voice, use music, use art. Not mutually exclusive. Why can’t people express themselves in multiple ways, including clothing, hair dye, makeup, tattoos, piercings and other body mods? Why are you insisting that self-expression should be kept separate from the physical body? > [@enipla](#): > > Do you want that expression to be who you are? For the rest of your life? Yep. A small part of who I am, anyway. Why do you have a problem with that? (And since I’m 60something now and got my ink nearly 20 years ago, you’ll have a hard time persuading me that I’ll eventually grow to regret my decision.) Yes, some things about people change, but some don’t. I’ll always be about this height, with about this nose shape, and with this tattoo. Human life is made up of both change and permanence, and I think silly prejudices against tattoos are refusing to acknowledge that reality. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/74 "2025-12-02T15:07:52Z")
Ok Alessan. I accept that, and was a good explanation. I hold onto my past in my head, and certainly have mementoes. Mostly scares from injuries. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/75 "2025-12-02T15:58:09Z")
I’ve heard that some birders get a tattoo of their 1000th bird. Some go on special trips to try to make sure that number 1000 is a pretty one. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/76 "2025-12-02T17:11:31Z")
I don’t exactly know what birders are, are they hunting for birds with guns or cameras? Because the second option I’m very sympathetic with, while the first I find just horrible. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/77 "2025-12-02T17:12:37Z")
Cameras or just to look at them ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/78 "2025-12-02T17:15:01Z")
Ok, then I’m relieved. I actually have a cousin who’s a bird watcher/photographer, and he regularly posts wonderful pictures. Don’t know if he has a tattoo though, but I’m sure he did watch more than 1,000 birds. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2025, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/79 "2025-12-03T09:15:26Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Some go on special trips to try to make sure that number 1000 is a pretty one. I can see them now, riding with their hands over their eyes. “Ooooh! Lookit the starling!” “Dammit!” ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2025, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368/80 "2025-12-03T11:00:50Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I’ve heard that some birders get a tattoo of their 1000th bird. Some go on special trips to try to make sure that number 1000 is a pretty one. That’s cool. You can get a tit on your tit! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-about-tattoos/1019368.md?page=5)