Well put.
For another perspective, what is so wrong about making a choice you regret later in life? Taking those risks is the essence of living if you ask me. I know people that wear emotional scars far more ugly than a wrinkled tattoo. If my tattoo is the greatest regret of my life when I’m 80, I’ll have done well.
Think about the design you would have chosen at age 10, or age 15. Personally, I would have chosen really dumb shit that I would be uninterested in looking at, or thinking about, or having other people judge me on. I like to think that I’m going to grow and change, no matter how old I get, and while I’m willing to bear the marks that life imposes on my appearance as I age, I’m unwilling to select any permanent change reflecting my current tastes and ideas.
I mean, I really like Shakespeare’s early tragedy TITUS ANDRONICUS. But if I wake up tomorrow and realize “Wow, that play really sucks eggs, doesn’t it? I don’t know what I was thinking,” I’m okay. If I have “ANDRONICUS ROCKS” permanently affixed to my forehead, not so much.
Probably my experience has to do with that gf of mine who just radiated shame and insecurity about her two tiny tattoos (they were of a tiny rose, and an even smaller cross, totally inoffensive, but deeply humiliating to her.) I found myself feeling very sorry for her.
We are on the exact same page on this.
I’m not sure which is more amusing: bad tattoos (which as an expression is starting to seem redundant), or how defensive tattoo wearers are about them. It’s like they really do know deep inside how phony and tasteless 99% of tattoos are.
Shucks. Seemed traditional to me. I thought that was kind of cool, assuming it’s well (real well) done. But I s’pose I haven’t seen enough of that particular thing to get annoyed. shrug
I had an English teacher in high school who had a tramp stamp butterfly. Beginning of class one day before the bell rang she bent over to pick up a piece of paper and I belts out innocently “I didn’t know you had a tatoo!” Quicker than hell she pops up, spins around, my face goes red.
There was a guy I knew who had an unfinished crucifix tattoo on his lower back. He’d get real pissed off when we called it a tramp stamp. But of all the places to get that tattoo, why there?
OTOH I think that those are hot.
different stokes and all that.
Sounds like her issues went waaaaaaaaaaay deeper than those two small tattoos… :dubious: “Radiated shame and insecurity?” “Deeply humiliating?” Christ…
Neither. The folks that proudly declare how they’ve never defile their bodies for something permanent, and how everybody that does is somehow stupid or will be regretful.
They’re the most amusing of all. :dubious:
You know what I find amusing?
The people who take the fact that I don’t have any tattoos as some sort of statement. That it’s “evidence” that I agree with them about the distastefulness of tattoos. That I’m a brave non-conformist, out there fighting our needle-wielding overlords!
Er, no.
The only statement I’m making by not having a tattoo is “I just never wanted to get one bad enough to bother with it.”
See, for me, something like literature is one of the things that you will never outgrow. You really think that you’re going to look back at your youth and say, “Man, that Shakespeare was really an idiot. Why the fuck did I ever think he was good?”
I guess I could see it if you had the Hardy Boys tattooed one on each hand or some such, but Shakespeare?
It looks silly, like all other tattoos. It looks like you scribbled on yourself, permanently.
Those of you posting pictures of your tats here and saying you don’t care what other people think about them, I’m calling bullshit on that.
I have a relatively small tattoo on my back. I got it when I was 17 and rebellious. Now I’m 30 and kind of overweight, so it is covered pretty much 100% of the time, and most people don’t know I have it. I always love when the topic of tattoos comes up and people start talking about how trashy and slutty they are on women - I bide my time until the perfect moment to announce that I have one, and watch them try to squirm away from all the horrible things they just said. Fun!
Anyways, I like my tattoo. Sure the design might not be what I would choose now, but when I see it in the mirror it reminds me that I am not just the person I seem to be to other people, and it reminds me to try to reserve judgment on others if I don’t know all the facts.
More than anything else it reminds me of a time when I was young and crazy and the world seemed to be my oyster - when I wanted to show everyone that I was tough and I would make my own path. Sometimes I feel like a different person than that confused teenager, but I always have a reminder with me that I did find the path from there to here.
It’s not for everyone, but it is for me.
Here’s the thing… nobody’s done that. (Snowboader Bo said something like your post, I guess, but he didn’t post a picture and I don’t know if he has any tattoos.) This is one of the things that bugs me in these threads: a few posters always show up and start slagging on what they assume is the mindset of people who get tattoos. In your opinion, people who get tattoos are more or less mental teenagers who do stupid things to prove they are cool or unique or tough. There are loads of people who’ve gotten dumb tattoos for that reason, but I think the reality is that most people who get tattoos these days are pretty average. That’s a function of how common tattoos have become: your description may have been frequently true at one point, but today you can find a lot of office workers and so forth with tattoos and they’re not all doing it because they think you’ll be impressed.
Except they kinda are. Why post the pictures in the first place if you don’t care what people think of your gorgeous body art? Then come back and say things to the effect of, “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I don’t care what other people think…”
That’s not true, either - I think people who get tattoos are sheep (expressing their individuality by doing what everyone else is doing).
I like tattoos. They fucking rock. You don’t hear other people bitching about your stupid haircut, so stfu about their tattoos.
There’s some of that, yes.
This is the part I was taking issue with, because nobody did it. Illuminatiprimus said he doesn’t care what Cisco thinks but there are other people in this thread. 
Everyone has a hair cut, and (well, practically) everybody wears clothes. Are they all sheep?
There are more people without tattoos than people with tattoos, no matter how you slice it. And none of the people with tattoos are trying to make anyone else feel stupid or embarrassed ashamed don’t have any ink. Isn’t using peer pressure one of those “sheep” things?
featherlou, I invite you to take a step back and re-evaluate your position. I understand what you are trying to say but you are sounding more sheep-like than not.
Getting a tattoo of anything unproven with the ‘test-of-time’ will probably be a big mistake. Go for classic.
Pop-culture is a huge mistake.
Things that are personal reminders or mile-markers in your life should probably be inked in an area that is easily concealed by everyday clothes.
Personal statements might put a lot of people off, and IMO text usually doesn’t make for the best tattoos… stick with graphic representation or symbolism.
Remember! Tattoos read as art first, so if they are poorly executed or downright ugly… well, ouch. It will undermine everything else you intended for it. In otherwords, if you don’t have a trained eye for what looks good graphically, and can’t find a tat artist to match, DON’T GET ONE, or do your homework and find someone that does. Whatever meaning you want to assign to it, it should look good first, and flow and work with that area on the body. It’s permanent decor, not a frickin’ bumper sticker.
That said, I don’t have any tats, and probably never will – I’m a graphic designer… changing my mind is an occupational hazard!
your list sucks cause its missing the dumbest tat ever
YOUR OWN NAME
the end
So if you don’t speak English and you have one you’re not a tramp, but if you speak English you are one?
Maybe you need to get your language out of the gutter…