The appeal of tattoos

People also used to drill holes in their heads and treat many medical problems with bloodletting. What’s your point? Mine is that, back in the 70s, I used to own a powder-blue polyester leisure suit. I no longer wear it, and am glad I no longer even own it.

Clearly you are not to be trusted on matters of taste.

I don’t know what a butterfly on the back of a girls next or a star on their foot has to do with expressing personality when they are so common. Same thing with guys to get tribal tattoo’s around their arm. It’s not some tradition where you are allowed to join the ranks of other men in the tribe, it’s more like,“I was shitfaced spring break '99 and I thought it would get me laid.”

I know this isn’t everybody but I see more shit like this in my generation than I ever care to. To each their own but the self righteous spiritual part of the reasoning of tattoos is mostly bullshit.

IMHO

What is it with this place and tattoos?

Here it is, once again: most people don’t get tattoos to be cool, or rebellious, or to “express their individuality”. The vast majority get them because, surprise suprise, they like them. A tattoo might have meaning for them (I worked with a guy who had his daughter’s name on his arm), or it could just be a design that they really, really liked. That’s it. I’m guessing you know a lot of people with tattoos, and you’re not even aware of it, because they keep them hidden.

Are there stupid tattoos, and people who regret them? Of course. But does that mean that ALL tattoos are stupid and everyone will regret them? No.

YOU don’t have to like their ink. But it’s not about YOU. People mostly get tattoos for themselves. Period.

To paraphrase a saying about abortion – don’t like tattoos? Don’t get one.

Thanks for the responses - and sorry for the redux thread, somehow I missed the others.

I’ve nothing against tattoos and one or two on someone doesn’t bother me, but it all seems rather silly to cover your body with them. Most of the people I know who are getting them seem to have turned it into a hobby. Whatever.

This one? Print it out and heed thyself to the nearest tattoo artist.

Clearly you weren’t a teen during the 1970s. That shit was in style. My point is that styles change, and styles expressed indelibly on human skin are the definition of “a poor choice”.

The point is this: the person you are at this moment is making an irrevocable decision for all the people you will be in the future. I don’t know about you, but I am a substantially different person than I was at 18, and I am glad that I am not living daily7 with every poor decision that I made at that age.

As I told my niece when she was 14 “Wear anything you wish. Do anything you want with your hair - cut it, dye it, shave it all off. The clothes will wind up in the trash or at Goodwill. The hair will grow back. Just don’t put indelible ink into your skin. Don’t make any decisions that you can’t reverse.”

I have to look at them. (I watch a lot of porn, and they’ve pretty much ruined current porn for me.)

You know, it might benefit you to try to get over this distaste for tattoos. It’s just body decoration. If it’s interfering with your personal time, that sounds like the very definition of a personal issue.

Even as I type this, I’m kicking my own ass (how’s* that* for multi-tasking?) for allowing myself to get dragged into another tattoo thread. As I declared before; there’s really not a whole lot more to be said.

But something occurs to me that may be a hijack, I dunno.

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a “why do you hate tattoos?” or "why don’t you have a tattoo?’ thread. If I did, I would igonore it because

A) It doesn’t apply to me

and

  1. I’m pretty well cognizant of the views of tattoo haters, so what would there be to learn?

So it occurs to me that the folks who are anti-tattoo (which they have every right to be and do not offend me in the least) sure like to voice their opinion about it. A LOT.

Seems like we inked people are livng in a lot of other peoples’ heads, rent free.

You do not have to look at them unless you are strapped into a chair with your eyeballs propped open, Clockwork-Orange-style. And the defence “well I watch a lot of porn and it makes the actresses ugly” is not a very good one. People get tattoos because they like them. You are not qualified to tell people what they should or should not do with their bodies.

No one has ever said “Oh, it’s PERMANENT? My god, I didn’t know that! Well I won’t be going down to the tattoo studio if it’s going to be on me FOREVER!!!”

Boy that’s the truth. It seems like the ink haters here really hate tattoos, hate them and are not just bothered by them, but offended by their very existence (on other people!) at some deeply primal and irrational level. Huh.

I’ll say what I always say in these threads — that I can’t understand how a woman who buys new shoes 20 times a year can possibly think she’ll never get tired of her tattoo.

I’m even okay with the hate, I guess. Everyone has their preferences and prejudices; heaven knows, I have mine.

But there seem’s to be this universal attitude. First, it’s the “fad” argument. Not sure how long something has to be around before it’s not considered a fad anymore, but I think tattoos have been around long enough to get a pass.

Then there’s the “you’ll regret it later” harangue. Some may; most won’t. Sounds like a personal issue on the part of the tattooee to me, but I swear, I think some people pin their freakin’ hopes and dreams on all the tattoed people “ruing the day”. Get the fuck over it. I don’t mean to speak for all tattooed people, but we really don’t think about it much, if at all. I’ve never been more inclined to use the phrase “what’s it to* you*?”

+1

A friend of mine has the Quake symbol on his shoulder. I knew it was a silly idea when he did it, and warned him against it. Not three years later he mentioned he may already regret it. Now Quake is barely remembered at all! I wonder if he’s covered it up or done anything else about it since.

What, by wearing an onion on their belts?

Thank god we can get white onions now.

I am currently having my only tattoo removed. It is not because I hate tattoos, rather the opposite. When I got mine it was impulsive and poorly thought out from the design to the artist. I see some amazing work these days, true art. If I ever decide to get another one it will be stunning.

I guess she’d better not have kids, then. Those little buggers won’t come off even with the laser treatments. :dubious:

We all make decisions that are difficult or impossible to reverse in life, many with far more serious, far-reaching consequences than getting some ink injected into your skin.