Wow, I’m doing bad with the you’re/your thing today. Feel free to swap them in the last two posts.
One of my closest female friends is a cop. A good cop too.
She also has a great many tattoos, including a full sleeve.
Agreed - it’s not like whatever’s on my skin really affects what’s inside. The only thing it affects is others’ perception of me, and like it or not, at some level, it is under their control.
I remember a comedian (way back, probably in the early 90’s) mentioned at the end of her bit that she was gay and then saying “I like to tell this to the audience at the end that way the only thing that’s different…is you”.
Is she partnered with a bad cop?
With regards to people who say, “Everyone has tattoos nowadays,” part of the appeal for me is that I have something unique that no one can take away. Many of my tattoos are custom art, and even if someone went to the same artist and asked for the same thing, it would still come out slightly different. Nowadays, there aren’t many things in this world you can say that of.
Bwahahahaha! I’m sorry, I can’t take that seriously. If someone is talented at what they do, it’s in my best interest to not give a shit if they were a pink tutu, have an eyeball piercing and call the nurse ‘mama’ while hopping on one foot, if they can save my freaking life. And since my husband has worked in hospitals all the 20 years we’ve been married, I have seen a handful of professionals with ink. Didn’t prevent them from being some of the best in the business. It did, however, give them routine laughs at those who judged them.
This has already been addressed as pure silliness, but I’ll reiterate that if I’m going to be decrepit, wrinkly, fat and have skin issues (tags anyone?), then I might as well have a couple of tattoos to keep me occupied and interested. I’m pretty pasty white, too, so that’s another area they’d help. Yippee!
BWAHAHAHAHABWAHAHAHAHABWAHAHAHAHABWAHAHAHAHABWAHAHAHAHABWAHAHAHAHABWAHAHAHAHABWAHAHAHAHA!!
< gasps for breath >
Such a straw man argument. Out of all 44 years and all the people I know in meatspace and online (and by extension, the people they know), there’s been probably less than a dozen that have regretted a specific tattoo. Of those, maybe two have complained that they ever got one in the first place (and it’s always them, never people with multiples). But I’ve only seen one person whine that it prevented them from getting a job. And that person was a low life loser whose lack of work ethic prevented them from getting hired, not their body adornments, although that’s what they blamed it on. Hell, that’s exemplary of what was wrong with them in the first place… always placing responsibility anywhere but themselves.
“I don’t like tattoos, so I trivialize and demean the majority that does.” Bwaha – oh, fuck it. You don’t like them? Just own it, man. Saying that most are boring and trying too hard is just juvenile. In the case of plenty of folks that no one can even see their work when they are covered up, it’s obviously they didn’t get them for typical mass consumption. Just speaking for myself, three of my four wont ever be seen by anyone unless I choose. And again, I hear that a lot and don’t normally run across many face or neck tattoos. So, I think that’s at least a partially incorrect assumption. Now, if she’s a Victoria’s Secret swimsuit model and lives year round in a bikini, I might buy it if she then goes in for a full sleeve. Otherwise, just no.
Finally, people do realize when they jump on the They’re Too Ubiquitous bandwagon that someone had to start these trends? Somewhere are the folks that had them before they became popular. When you yawn at this body art, how do you make the distinction? Or are you just content to believe everyone rushed out to the mall for flash in the last decade?
Yawn indeed though, but at this lame thread. Tattoos will never go away. They’ll just become even more mainstream then that are now. Then all those left behind in their damnation can shake their canes and yell for everyone to get off their lawn.
Where are these tattoo parlors at the malls, anyways? Piercing places, yes. But I have yet to see a tattoo parlor at a mall, let alone a reputable one.
You people probably know a LOT of people with tattoos – you’re just not aware of them. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if you had a doctor or a lawyer who was inked.
I’m going to address this statement in general, and not your reasons for having this opinion. Because it IS your very valid opinion that people get tattoos to be not-boring, which makes them, to you, boring.
But tattoos are usually pretty personal. What that person does is, firstly, for them. That’s why there are so many kinds and types and places for them, because it all comes down to what THAT person wants, not what the public wants. And if the person wants the public to notice them, or at least notice that they have ink, then it’s usually an easily accomplished mission.
But how a person responds to the tattoos typically says more about the person viewing than the person sporting. Kinda like art, it’s at least 50 percent interpretation.
I have my own reactions to tattoos, in that I just typically don’t care for them, kinda like I don’t care for comics or spinach or a lot of what is considered ‘good’ art.
BUT I have been surprised, and expect I will be again.
My biggest reaction to any tattooing was while working overtime at an office. Big office building, and all the men had to wear office professional attire, which was suits most of the time, and long sleeves + tie ALWAYS. And everyone WAS quite professional.
Now, suits don’t impress me; in fact, I think they’re boring, and I can’t tell one guy from another in them, seriously.
But when this one man, after-hours, rolled up his crisp white sleeves to help move a desk, and I saw he was sleeved at least up to the elbows, I about…well, that may be the only real, visceral, total and completely instant turn-on reaction I have ever had. It was just…wow. The dichotomy was HOT. I mean, burning hot.
Never looked at him quite the same way again, lemme tell ya. 
Ahem.
Anyway, unexpected surprises can be fun. And that’s what tattoos are to a lot of people. So, no. Not boring. I might not GET it, but it’s not boring.
I swore I would never participate in or even read another tattoo thread but as a tattooed person who usually defends it. I want to say that I actually have a hard time understanding why people “cover” themselves in tattoos.
Obviously, if one is in the industry it makes sense. Ditto if you’re in a profession where it is accepted / an enhancement.
What I’m wondering is, there is such an abundance of people with tattoos on their necks, full sleeves,women with ink all over their legs, etc.,and I wonder if all these people can be in a tattoo friendly profession.
So, if the OP actually is referring to the average person who is planning on having a traditional job as opposed to someone in a more avant garde profession, then I too am wondering what these people are thinkimg. I know as well as anyone how mainstream tattoos are becoming but the more extreme cases would seem to limit future opportunities.
I have no tattoos, they’re simply not for me, but I couldn’t care less who else has them or how many. The question of their general irreversibility has sprung to mind from time to time. Back in my wild and crazy youth in Texas, I found myself at a party sharing a bong with the lead singer of a band from California that had been playing in town one weekend. A very nice guy. But just about every square inch of his skin, including his shaved head, was covered with tattoos. What would he do if some day he woke up and decided he’d like to be a banker or go to law school, I wondered. The old hippies, all they had to do was get a haircut, put on a suit and Voila! no one’s the wiser.
Again, I’m not judging. Just something I’ve wondered.
I have none, but I have three close friends with carny ink. One is a hairdresser during the week, drummer on weekends. Another works in call center management. The third is the head chef in a small restaurant/bar. Nearly everyone I know has some tattoos, and apparently call centers, tech support, and order fulfillment jobs are cool with ink. It’s not a big deal where I am, in a community with a big art scene and several colleges and call centers around.
One thing has to be said for tattoos…they’re excellent asshole detectors. If someone throws a tantrum or acts unreasonably rude in reaction to a little ink, it gives a rather quick and accurate look at the personal character that would normally be hidden behind a few layers of niceties. 
Not everybody cares much about things like future job prospects etc. Some people just want to be happy and don’t feel a need to climb higher than they are. Others just won’t work for a company so close minded that a little ink will cause problems. It says a LOT about a company culture if they have a draconian tattoo policy in place today. Many have decided to work for themselves rather than be a salaryman. Lastly you have the people who are just committed to the scene. That is their lifestyle, their group of friends, their culture. They don’t care about other people or their views.
Right, they don’t care now. But what if they do someday? The singer I mentioned was pretty much screwed if he ever some day woke up and decided he might want to be a banker. World views change over time, and the permanency of a tattoo – and yes, I know there are laser treatments, but I’m not sure that singer would want his entire body lasered – could become an inconvenience should one’s world view change.
Again, I don’t care if people wear tattoos. These are just random thoughts I’ve had.
Yes, that would be a problem. But if you’re covered in ink, I you’re pretty certain that you’re not going to wind up becoming a banker or else you wouldn’t have done all the tattoos.
Well, yeah, then you’re pretty stuck on the non-banking path. Like I said, the old hippies just had to get a haircut and put on a suit if for any reason they ever changed their mind. What you may feel certain of at age 20 or 25 may not feel so certain at age 35 or 50.
Of course. But you don’t wake up one day and get full body art. You generally get there after years and years and plenty of money, so hopefully you have some idea of who you are and what you’re going to want to do. People’s lives and ideas change, but all things considered I don’t think a whole lot of people spend their 20s covering themselves from face to foot in tattoos and then spend their 30s trying to find a way to break into investment banking.
Of course not. But that was just one example. Like I said, just a random thought I’ve had.
Yeah, that’s the main reason why I’ve never given into a temptation to get any tattoos. I have friends who have them and they look great, so I don’t have any moral or taste objections to them–I just always think that the person I am now isn’t going to be the same person I am 10 years from now. I tend to be a bit of a “serial hobbyist,” which means I’ll throw myself body and soul into my current hobby, but when I tire of it I move on to something else and do the same thing. There are a small number of things that remain constant, but even the details of those change enough that a tattoo that might have been really cool 10 years ago I would look at now and go, “What was I thinking?”
That said, I completely understand that I am a single data point, and others might not feel the same way. If I were an employer the only reason I would object to hiring a person with ink would be if it was clearly offensive (racist, hate language, graphic sexual stuff, etc.) and couldn’t be covered up.
If I ever did decide to get a tattoo, though, I have a friend who does amazing design work and I would probably see if he could design something unique for me. I am occasionally tempted.