Your issues with tattoos

[Pirate Wench]

What I find tedious is the few times I brought up the subject of tattoos with my MIL.
She'd say something nice about the colors....and then say how disgusting she thought it was for someone to scar up their body like that.
I decided the subject will not be brought up around her again.
That "casting pearls before swine" thing.....

It's always fun to surprise those who never thought I would get a tattoo.
95% of the reactions are positive......but then both of mine are custom work.

I have a sunset colored (mostly a hot coral) sunburst around my navel....not symmetrical....kinda crazy looking.
And a jaguar lounging on a horizontal branch on my lower back.
Lots of greenery and 9 flowers fitted in and around it.
I'm about to add a few poisonous frogs and a little more greenery in a few spots that are still open.

I'll never be covered with them.....but I SOO understand that addiction.....

Just for grins:
Tattoo Studio Etiquette - Common Sense Behavior For The Tattoo Shop

Maybe they should have added "Never eat beans and/or cabbage within 24 hours of getting a tattoo"

No, nothing embarrassing like that happened to me......it's sort of like the courtesy of not eating raw onions before getting dental work done.

 

[salinger]

I've seen some interesting tattoos on people and there's nothing I find inherently wrong with them, I just would not be outright attracted to someone with them. I agree that it seems to cover the body where nudity is never truly gained. I also think their permanence is what I find so offputting. I can't understand wanting anything like that forever and ever.

I've certainly met my share of people whose tats have been beautiful. And they're good for a few looks, but just like I wouldn't want the same piece of art in my living room, year after year, I wouldn't want the same body ink to look at as well.

And that cliche about tattoos and prisons could also apply to black people, which I think shows the downside of stereotyping. I have never once thought "criminal" when I've seen someone with a tattoo. It wouldn't have entered my mind that it's a common thought.

As far as piercings, I feel the same way, but their lack of permanance makes them more tolerable. Besides I've gotten some really great blowjobs by someone with a tongue stud. A tattoo has never made me come.

 

[AlteredEgo]

I've certainly met my share of people whose tats have been beautiful. And they're good for a few looks, but just like I wouldn't want the same piece of art in my living room, year after year, I wouldn't want the same body ink to look at as well.

What's the difference between seeing the same tattoos and seeing the same back, legs, butttocks, arms, birhtmarks...?

 

[D_Kay_Sarah_Sarah]

Im planing on getting my first at christmas. Pretty late at 27 but i think ive always put it off becasue i knew what some people reaction would be. Now i figure its my body and i will do as i want. Mind you it will only be a smallish bvand around my wrist i can cover with a watch,,but its a start.

Also everyone has the right not to like tattoos but not the right to make you feel less or cheap for having one, thats just snobby, judgemental people with no tact

 

[Chrysalis]

What's the difference between seeing the same tattoos and seeing the same back, legs, butttocks, arms, birhtmarks...?

Well said, AlteredEgo.

My husband has a mole on one ass cheek that I've looked at for 17 years. I'm definitely not tired of looking at his ass. :biggrin1:

 

[Male Bonding etc]

It's all very subjective: we each have our reasons for liking and not liking the things we do, and that doesn't make one right and another wrong ... or better and so on.

However, personally, seeing a tattoo on someone is about on the par with seeing a person light up a cigarette: it pretty much kills any personal interest I might have in that person. One is a permanet attack on both the health of the smoker and any who must share air with that person, the other is a permanent statement of artistic and cultural taste that I don't find appealing.

I have worked with people who smoke and people who have tattoos, and I have been friends with them also. I have no problem appreciating them under those circumstances, but it is a major inhibition to any interest I might have in intimacy.

 

[Wrat]

I have some letters on my left forearm near the elbow, mostly for identification. My ex wife hated tattoos and fixated on it and wanted me to go and get it burned or scraped off. She also wanted me to get a vasectomy and to wear hawaiian flowered shirts and to grow a moustache and to spend my dentist money on her birthday present and she threw a goddam fit when whe didn't get her way. Then she wanted me to come back for more of that shit. So here I am with a tattoo the size of a thumb print, a gold tooth, no vasectomy, not a single hawaiian shirt and I've never had a moustache in my life. It's the principle.
Your tattoos are fine. You are fine. Don't let anyone tell you what to do or what to be.

 

[jordanj]

I pity the folks who all opted for that barbed wire tattoo around the biceps. An entire generation it seems.

Oops. :redface:

 

[CherAlways]

First, let me say that you are an awesome writer ClaireTalon. Having said that, I have nothing against a woman or women in general, having a tattoo or tattoos. It is their body and they have the right to do what they want with it: as do men. I do agree that there are some truly BAD tattoo artists out there, and it is one risk you are often left facing with. As for the person looking at the tattoo, she should keep her mouth shut; as long as it doesn't contain anything which could be deemed offensive she has not right., for it is not her body.

 

[Gillette]

I've never been turned on by a tattoo, but the wrong one can certainly turn me off. I think having one should have meaning for the wearer, so when I see a grown man with Tweety Bird on his shoulder I have to question what that means.

I worked with a guy who wanted to have the bar code from his ex-gf's favorite beer tattooed on the back of his neck. Talk about deep personal significance.

The artistic quality matters too. If you're going to get a skull or dragon tattoo I don't think it should look like a kid's cartoon version.

 

[IntoxicatingToxin]

I have 6 tats, with 3 more planned. In a way, it works out though. I would hate to marry a man, then decide LATER that I wanted a tat, only to find out he wouldn't approve. Granted, we probably would've found that out before marriage, but still. You never know. So I'm definitely gonna have to find a guy who doesn't have an issue with tattoos. I thought long and hard about each one I got, and they are custom for the most part... simple, but custom. I have a couple japanese symbols, which are pretty mainstream, but they have meaning to me, so why not? As far as piercing goes.... I'm not huge into piercings on my own body, but I do have my eyebrow pierced and would like to get a few other things on my face pierced if for no other reason than to say I did it. I don't care if my man does it or not, but he has to at least accept the fact that I'm going to! I'm kind of different... one day I also swear I'm going to give myself a blue mohawk. Don't see a lot of girls with those, but I want to do it... again, just so I can say I did. I like trying new and fun things, especially when it comes to a persons self expression!

 

[fratpack]

Personally, I don't want a tattoo, it just isn't my style. Then again you will never find me wearing a t-shirt with slogans or logos on them...gain just my style.
A lot and I mean a lot of my gay friends have tattoos and some are interesting but for the most part they are the same ole same ole tribal designs and quite honestly I am so over them....the tattoos, not the friends..lol. Ialways ask then why do you spend so much time working on your body to get it in such great shape and then cover it over with tattoos.
No one really has a very good reason.
Now as for women with tattoos, I have to say that almost every woman I know who has a tattoo, has a work of art on her arm leg back, wherever. Currently I am taking a metalsmithing class and out of ten students, half are my age or younger (mid/late twenties) and they all have multiple tattoos.
Every single one of them is absolutely stunning....One has a peacock on her arm that just for the brillance of color alone is awesome. So I for one love tattoos on women, as for men, get some diversity, something interesting, be creative.

 

[salinger]

What's the difference between seeing the same tattoos and seeing the same back, legs, butttocks, arms, birhtmarks...?

Because one's an option and one isn't. I'm not saying that it couldn't be attractive, but the things I liked enough at 18 are not the same things I like, nearly a decade later. It's all personal taste and I'm pretty sure we were asked for those responses.

I would never turn someone down because of a tat or break up with them for it, because in the scheme of things it's not that integral but if I were picking out a list of things that make someone less attractive to me, tattoos would be right up there.

 

[Ummagumma]

What the fuck is going on here? Last week I post in a thread about the skinny guy/small dick issue, and I encounter it in real life the very next day. Today, I spend 4 hours in my local tattoo shop, and sign on here... to this topic right at the top of the latest posts page. I (up until the site loaded at least) was going to create a thread about the 'attraction to tattoos', but considering the similar subject matter... I'll just post here and let my words sink to post number 35. I apologize if my story veers too far off the original question, but I think I'll be able to answer it as well:

I haven't spoke too much about this part of my life (never had any reason too obviously), but to understand my fixation and appreciation of tattoos, you need look no further than to my life growing up...

When I was about 7 or 8 years old, everyone in my class took a test. I scored really high on that test, and spent the better part of the next decade in this sort of 'advanced program'. I grew up alongside the same circle of 'high scorers', and since the 'nerd life' was the only world I ever knew, I was perfectly fine living out my life in it.

Until my final year of school.

Naturally, my first girlfriend was from this same small circle of people as well, and when we broke up I was labeled the bad guy by the rest of the group (not saying I wasn't...) and was basically outcast from the circle. Instead of 'toughing it' through one last year of the program, I decided to pull out of it entirely, and landed, for my first time ever, in 'regular' high school classes.

Within my first week of that semester I sat next to a couple 'goth' kids. I guess you could say they took me under their wing... although joining them was a concious effort on my part as well. I covered why here. I'm like the antithesis of "why do the good girls go for the bad guys" I guess.

It was through them that I met my 2nd girlfriend. She had like a half dozen tattoos already (at only 18), and each one was hotter to me than the last. Why? Maybe because of everything they stand for I guess. I mean, I spent my whole damn childhood being forced into this, forced into that, without any regard to what I wanted. Ink today is the exact opposite of that. A part of your own body... but you're not born with it. You get to choose where it goes, how much you get. You get complete control of it (provided you find a good artist, of which there ARE many). It's like your own little way of telling God: "Hey, you missed a spot". :tongue:

Sure, tattoos have become like so many other counterculture staples (music, art, drugs, etc.), just another part of corporate America - a way for some to make money on us, nothing more. And I've met grandmothers and bosses, cops and politicians with them. But you gotta admit it still takes some guts to walk into a room and willingly burn something into your flesh that will be there forevermore. And to some (like me), that fact alone is sexy, like some sort of warped visual representation of confidence (and confidence is sexy, ask around). To see someone who's willing to do something so out there to their body is a just a huge turn-on for me.

I've encountered numerous people who don't approve of tattoos. We all have. Some of 'us' are those people. But you know what I've noticed? The people who are steadfastly against them are usually people I don't want to associate with anyways. The people with the ink always seem to have the best stories. They are more likely able to open up, let loose, and have fun. They have less reservations. I can only speak for myself... but I'd most certainly rather be with them than with my old 'circle'.

EDIT: Please understand that I don't immediately ask a person "Do you have any tattoos?" right away and treat them accordingly. I fully understand the reasons so many don't want them, and most people seem largely indifferent to them in general. I'm just saying that tattooed types have long since proven to me to be, time and time again, just plain more fun. :smile:

 

[salinger]

Not that I'm placing my thoughts of any import here, but my not finding tattoos attractive is not at all a sign of disapproval. I think it's such a weird word since I have neither the right nor inclination to approve/disapprove of anything on a stranger.

And given that about 70% of the population has tattoos now. It's like a friggin' Starbucks drive thru for ink now. I can't see how anyone could possibly lump that many people into a group to say positive things about. That's like saying people who wear watches are so much more interesting than those who don't. There's narrowmindedness and then there's taking it another step. If you think people with tattoos are more interesting, you must be hanging out with a select group of people given that you've just described about a million people.

 

[Ummagumma]

I think I've described much more than a million people then... especially if it's 70% of the population. :tongue:

I never said I wasn't narrow minded either... I am very much so. Also please keep in mind that I am still very much young and stupid.

 

[salinger]

Where's the fun in arguing if you're going to be making all my points for me? A million isn't 70% of the population? I need to work on my math.

 

[tattooguy]

tattoos are a beautiful aristic expression of where you are in that moment of your, a marker, now that we longer have initiatory rituals in our culture to mark changes in our lives, maybe this a way for us to create some, a personal reminder of who we were in that moment. Or maybe it can be that anyways. Ive tattoed my face 11 years ago and have never regretted it, and am thrilled when i see others doing do. Its obviously not for everybody though.

 

[salinger]

If everyone getting a tat was doing it for artistic expression, I'd be a bigger fan, but when most people are jumping on the bandwagon like it's a fucking GAP sweatshirt, it doesn't hold a lot of water with me. I live in Hollywood, though, so everyone is like that.

 

[Love-it]

Tacky, trampy, unnatural, tattoos have always made me uncomfortable. Maybe its my New England background and age, 57. I don't think that lipstick, other types of makeup and painted nails, finger or toe, adds to a womans beauty, I think that it is false or at least bad advertising. Eye shadow makes it look like a woman has black eyes and who likes that?

The natural, clean, fresh and healthy look is natural and beautiful.