If you don't have a tattoo, why not? (dye, product, head)
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After serving in the Navy, I still don't have any tatoos. I don't care too much for bumber stickers for the same reason... I don't care to advertise anything about me that might give a wrong impression or stereotype me.
The biggest reason is the price. One year, I decided I would either use my tax return for a tatoo or a gun. (either way, mom wasn't going to be happy) I went with a gun and, like tatoos, once you have one you start looking forward to your next one.
If I spend $500-$1,000 for something small that I carry with me everywhere, it's going to be a gun.
I'd like one, but don't have one. And I don't agree with the "trashy" part. I know OF a lot of TRASHY people, and many of them don't have tattoos.
Some tatoos are as beautiful as art...and in a way, it is. Some tatoos have meaning behind them. People who call people with tattoos "trash" are, IMHO, are racist, are like the people who would call the brown skinned people the "N" word, or vice versa. Perhaps like Hitler hating the jews. Just for the color of their skin, or for their religon. Now it comes about the art of the skin. Or the choice for the skin. Go put on a white hood. I am not against people who don't like it...but against people who are calling the people that have it names. Racist.
Anyway, back to the post. I don't have tatoos, but would like one. I have always been interested in fairies, since I was a little girl. I think it's because I never thought I had a great life and I wished for something magical...something out of the ordinary to come into my own dismal life. So I think I would have a fairy- a beautiful piece of art.
My husband has two tatoos. One down each arm. In black, elegant...cursive writing of each of my sons' names and their birthdate. Each son for an arm.
I don't have any tattoos. My nephew is serving in Iraq, and tells me we're getting one together when he comes home. I keep telling him I'm not, but he says once he gets home, I'll be so happy to see him I'll go along with it
My resistance has NOTHING to do with judgements (which I totally don't understand). I just know myself well enough to know how fickle my tastes can be. I can't imagine having the same tattoo for the rest of my life. I'm more likely to love it for a few months, then panic, LOL!
The worst tattoos are the colorful ones people get all over their necks. Like it or not, people do judge tattoos, and something like that limits the sort of jobs one can get. The moment who go on an interview, someone sees that tattoo and makes a decision about you.
Also, the problem with tattoos on the face is that they leave holes and scars on the body. I saw a guy at Whole Foods with pierced cheeks. It was unattractive, and now he's got two big holes in his face for the rest of his life.
I think everyone has the right to make their own decisions about what to do with their body, but that doesn't reserve me from my right to think that it generally just looks silly. I'm not big into overt symbolism or ritualism, so the point of permanently etching my body with some particular image - a star, a bird, a sports team, whatever - just seems short-sighted and rather immature to me; even moreso considering that many of my peers I saw getting tatoos (I'm in my 20s) are heavily influenced by fitting some image and pandering to what others will think of them - seeing their tramp stamp with their tight jeans, etc....
I memorialize the important people and influences in my life in my thoughts and actions, and I already conform enough to the influence of others as it is(as we all do); so I don't need to get anything on my skin.
When I was young I was never interested in tattoos because they were something only sailors or "undesirables" had.
When I got over that, I still wasn't interested in tattoos because I didn't want to be marked with anything in case I had to go underground to escape from the "Authorities".
Now, I am thinking of having my name, address, and social security number tattooed on my wrist in case I am found wandering around confused not knowing who I am.
Piercing and tattoos are the ultimate of tackiness and absolute poor taste. This is especially true on the feminine anatomy. Nothing more beautiful than the female body and skin in its most natural state. Nothing screams "low class" more than a woman with tats.
well said---on a male they also take away from his attractiveness(and makes you wonder if he's ever served time)
I personally cannot imagine myself ever getting a tattoo. Because of the stigma attached to it, because of its irreversability, because life is full of twists and turns, the list goes on and on under the "cons". I haven't really found any "pros" for the question of "Should I/shouldn't I".
OTOH, I have seen such amazing work done on others, and am fully capable of admiring the artistic qualities as well as the deeper meanings attached to some tats. I can certainly see why many people get them done. I think that the better part of tattoos being done lately are of the "fad" variety however, and unfortunately the people getting them will be soon trying to get rid of them. As far as the stigma associated with tattoos (prison, armed forces, bikers, low-class, trashy people) that is not a passing fad - those opinions are here to stay. I am not saying I share those opinions, but society will never be able to "get over it" along those lines.
A perfect example of why the stigma will not be lifted - the teens/twenties who are getting themselves tattooed for shock value/attention are obviously doing so for shock value/attention. There is no deeper meaning for them. If you aren't part of a tribe, why the tribal tattoos? Don't you think people whose tribal traditions involve tattoos dispise those who cheapen their rituals by mocking them?
Once Were Warriors is one of my absolute favorite foreign films, and in it they illustrate the importance of (face) tattoos to the Maori. If my son ever comes to me and says, "I want to get a tattoo" we are popping that one in the DVD player and we are going to have a long discussion afterwards. In our culture (that of my family's I mean to say) we have no traditions with tattoos or piercings, so I would question what motivation any of my children would have, aside from peer pressure, to get one. If after all that, he would still want to get one, I would have him get a washable one (or henna) first, and try that out for a few weeks/months and see how he feels about it after that.
We've all seen/heard about celebrities who take great pains to get rid of a tattoo because it turned out to be a passing fancy or the "endless love" they felt for so-and-so wasn't so "endless" after all. Who would want to go through months of painful lasering to try to get rid of something they electively had placed on their body?
1. my fear of pain and tattoos hurt getting them
2. blocks and impedes free flow of energy through energy meridians, and I want to optimize my health
3. I might not like it later so temporary body art for me is the way to go
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