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Why Get a Tattoo?
What’s up with the younger generation and all their tattoos? I know that I sound like an old grouch, complaining about those long-haired hippies from Liverpool. But long hair can be cut off in five minutes. Tattoos are really, really hard to remove. And they are not going to get better with age.
I cannot imagine any reasonable cost-benefit analysis that would lead someone to get a tattoo.
And what is the attraction? When I see Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie, or even Charlize Theron with her little ankle tattoo, I just cringe. Like someone took a can of spray paint to the Mona Lisa.
I know that people will go to great, even absurd, lengths to be noticed and stand out in a crowd. But for crying out loud, wear a Hawaiian shirt! Get some jewelry, or a Mohawk! Dye your underarm hair green! Don’t do something permanent like cutting off your nose or getting a tattoo .
I realize that I’m ranting, but I’m also really looking for understanding.
Add me to the camp that just doesn’t get it.
Yeah I don’t really like the whole tattoo thing. I never understood how my perpetually broke friends could always afford a new tattoo……oh well I suppose there are always credit cards.
Wait, what? Megyn Kelly has a tattoo?!?
Say it ain’t so, Joe!
Add me as well.
I went to the beach this summer and I think I was the only one there without ink. I can handle piercings, but there’s something about tattoos that I find distasteful no matter what (with the possible exception of a small bicep tattoo on a Marine). AP, I’m with you all the way.
Seriously:
Have you ever read Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Sneetches’? I always assume it’s something like that.
I’ve seen some tattoos that I thought were pretty, and I would even consider having them. But then I remember that my tastes have changed over the years, and will likely continue to, but the tattoo will stay the same. And really, why bother spending the money when I could just as easily change my appearance with new clothes, haircut or makeup.
For me, the only persuasive reason to get a tattoo is in remembrance of a dear friend or relative. But then again, even some of those are remarkably tasteless.
Defeatism.
It’s the “look at me/don’t look at me” thing. Notice how different I am, but don’t remark on it, as we are all the same.
I don’t get it either.
That’s why I am investing in laser tattoo removal companies.
I can think of one persuasive reason for me. If I was a member of an elite military unit like the Navy Seals, and the guys wanted to get a tattoo to commemorate the bond of our “band of brothers,” I could imagine going along with that. But this hypothetical takes me far beyond the borders of Walter Mitty land.
Is this like stickin’ it to the man?
Maybe I object because I am “the man,” more or less. Not that I have any particular influence or importance, I just mean that I’m a middle-aged professional living a rather conventional life.
This is my thinking. As the world goes to hell in a handbasket, the younger generation start thinking, well, might as well live for today! And older generations, wanting to recapture their youth, start doing it, too.
If we could actually inculcate hope for the future, particularly among young people, I suspect tattoos would slowly go away, too.
But I am firmly in the “I don’t get it” camp. A friend of mine did the divorce-and-tattoos thing for his mid-life crisis. He seems happier since the divorce, but he looks like hell.
I’m still undecided about my mid-life crisis. I thought I already had it, but maybe not. Any suggestions?
That’s rather counter-culture in 2015.
I should confine my comments to middle class youth life style. An otherwise reasonable young fellow I worked with (about 28) at the time got a tasteful tattoo that was hidden by short sleeves. I thought you have locked your state of mind into a moment.
Gang tatoos exist. But that’s another story.
In our present bizarro-world culture, what once was a sign of rebelliousness is now a sign of conformity. And vice versa, I suppose.
For some reason, this is reminding me of Zack Mayo’s tat in “An Officer and a Gentleman” and the giant Band-Aid covering it.
I don’t smoke because I grew up with a parent who smoked. It didn’t take much to convince me that I wasn’t interested.
I can say the same thing about tattoos. I’ve never, ever seriously considered a tattoo because my father, who did a short stint in the Navy in the early 50’s, has a few tattoos that are now unrecognizable. However, the really questionable one is still very much intact (much to his consternation). When ever I consider one, all I have to do is think about what it would look like if it all went south when I’m 80.
Yup, that “pin-up girl” is still looking pretty good. Too bad he doesn’t have the guns anymore to make her shimmy.
A buddy of mine in high school used to say, “Don’t get a tattoo of a cross, when you are old and saggy it will become a swastika!”
Count me in the never get a tattoo camp. I do not understand the appeal.
Not everyone with a tattoo is a criminal but almost all criminals are tattooed.
Do the Clintons have tattoos?
I have to interview people half my age that can’t ever wear a short sleeve shirt to work. And the last year or so, the tattoos are coming out the sleeves onto the backs of their hands and up their necks.
After my 22 year old is up to 6, I just had to accept that the younger generation thinks of them as whatever, so I have to overlook them.
I’ve got a tat. Lot of guys in my line of work have full up sleeves. I just have the one; it’s the only one I’ll need or want.
I told my children they are free to get tattoos–when they are the same age I was when I got mine. In other words, when they are old enough to know who they are.
I hate 18~24 kids getting tatted up, with all their friends, to express their individuality. Uh-huh.
My tat is on the upper arm, and the deal I made with myself was that the arm would always be able to support the tat. So far, so good.
I also told my children that they are free to get tattoos. But that I will burn them off with the clothes iron.
Seriously. I mean that I actually told them this, not that I would actually do it.
But don’t let them know that I may be bluffing.
I told my boys they will always be welcome in my home, tattooed body parts not so much.
I was one of the only nurses where I worked that didn’t have a tattoo. I used to always say “Why would you want to put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari?”
I don’t have a tattoo (I don’t even have pierced ears), but I sometimes see bad boys with tattoos and feel attracted to them. I can’t explain it.
I am the anti-conformist white guy hanging out with refugees from Somalia, the Congo and Eritrea.
Most of the white people I work with have tattoos, the refugees have the elegance that either God or Nature gave them.
In terms of pure aesthetics, how did our society devolve into loving tattoos?