OK, biting the bullet here (generally a look, listen, learn and say nowt type-although quite a bit of agreeable nodding, coffee splattered screen/keyboard and even giggling here - although I will deny the last if it becomes public knowledge)
I'm a lurker who usually visits to remind myself I’m not as strange and unique as everyone here (UK) always says (meaning my politics, interests, opinion and, that rarest of all commodities, common sense – and mines very common. I'd include sense of humour too but since everyone, particularly ladies, laughs at me regularly (usually when I ask them for a dance or a date for some strange reason) and not a day goes by without some friend or acquaintance telling me I'm full of wit (at least I think it was wit they said) that is the one aspect of myself I'm sure of).
But … I have to ask Why? I've often wondered and since you mentioned this ….
Tattoos used to be the 'rebellious' thing to do … but now every Granny has one it's a mark of conformity.
Fashion is a fickle thing. I remember the 70's/80's/90's and what I was 'into' fashion/interests and opinions wise, and yet I can't think of anything from then that the me now would want a permanent reminder of (I'd chew my own arm off rather than be made to wear 70's clothes again for the record). These things are 'permanent' – choices now will be what you will be showing to the nursing staff who help you wash when you're 90 (from personal experience, my second career is/was nursing – every elderly patient I can think of either looked embarrassed or voiced regret at having them done in a fit of youthful fervour – and whilst they 'may' have looked good at twenty, they … well sort of go a bit saggy later). Would you commit yourself to the same dress, make-up, hair-style for the next … 60+ years?
I understand your support for that particular cause, but why show it by having it engraved on your skin? Campaigning, collecting, supporting I understand but a tattoo to me, and not insinuating/suggesting anything about you here, would feel as if I was 'boasting', 'seeking recognition' … do you know what I mean?
I was military (one of those 'specialities' where easily identifiable/describable marks were contraindicated and thus banned) when I was young enough to be willing to follow the crowd, so I never got one. Here it's only a 'certain type' of male (outside the very limited allowed in the military) who get them, yet it now seems a … craze amongst women. It's common now to see school-girls, twenty-something professionals, middle-aged 'house-wives' and even pensioners with walkers sporting everything from weird, misspelled (and really saying something about laundry or noodles rather than something profound) Chinese characters to full sleeves/stockings, To me this 'detracts' from their looks rather than 'enhances/decorates'?
Not sarcasm, bitching or judging … just seriously curious (I've asked many here before and have yet to actually get an intelligible answer).
I suspect that one of the greatest growth industries in the future will be ... tattoo removal (with all the attendant scars that leaves. Me, I have enough involuntary scars, I just can't see voluntarily adding to them).
I know a young adult (chronologically, I think she may be late 20's, but she rocks the daily selfie like a teenager) who had a black line tattooed around her wrist. I asked if it signified anything (infinity, no beginning-no end kind of thing) but no. She just wanted a black line. Saw it again a few weeks ago and it now looks like she doodled on her arm with a Marks-a-lot.
I have a Molon Labe tattoo on my wrist done in white. I like it, looks like a scar. Not readily apparent unless you are looking for it.
You know my thoughts on it, I still say go for it if you want one.
And, an answer for Able. Everybody is different, does things differently, thinks things differently, different things make them happy. I have several tats and every one of them has a personal meaning to me. Someone could look at my foot and up my ankle and think is was silly or whatever that I have bubbles, but they don't know that when my kids were little their favorite thing was to go outside in the way below temps and make me blow bubbles for them. The bubbles freeze and they could catch them and hold them and be amazed. That simple tattoo always reminds me of the wonders of the world, to be amazed at things, not to be so damn cynical. So much meaning to me in my simple bubbles... I also have wild oats on my other ankle, I got that one after my sisters identical twin boys died of SIDS, my grandfather passed away, and my children's father passed away all in the same year. Wheat to wheat and corn to corn... the seasons change, life moves on. It was one of the hardest times in my life and that memorial tattoo was when I finally allowed myself to have a break down and then move on. I also have a very large tattoo on my lower stomach, belly button down and hip to hip. Seascape with two sea turtles. Covers my stretch marks and the turtles convey the attitudes of my children that caused them. I've had family comment on all life coming from the sea, etc, which I never put that much thought into. It was for my kids that caused the scarring, and I love it. I have never regretted any of my tattoos. I also do not have any that do not have a meaning for me and have never gotten one just to get one. It has absolutely nothing to do with fashion, with what anybody else does or doesn't do, or with showing off. I don't have a single one anywhere that anybody can see them. Rare occasions I wear sandals and someone could see the foot, but that's it. And I don't give two shits what anybody thinks about them, they are mine and mine alone. I can not even begin to imagine ever wanting them removed. They are a part of me and will always be there. Course, at my age, forever ain't as long as it used to be, to quote my mother when she got a huge back piece done in her 50's. (A memorial piece of her own for my sister's boys. No, not the same thing I got.)
OK, biting the bullet here (generally a look, listen, learn and say nowt type-although quite a bit of agreeable nodding, coffee splattered screen/keyboard and even giggling here - although I will deny the last if it becomes public knowledge)
ReplyDeleteI'm a lurker who usually visits to remind myself I’m not as strange and unique as everyone here (UK) always says (meaning my politics, interests, opinion and, that rarest of all commodities, common sense – and mines very common. I'd include sense of humour too but since everyone, particularly ladies, laughs at me regularly (usually when I ask them for a dance or a date for some strange reason) and not a day goes by without some friend or acquaintance telling me I'm full of wit (at least I think it was wit they said) that is the one aspect of myself I'm sure of).
But … I have to ask Why? I've often wondered and since you mentioned this ….
Tattoos used to be the 'rebellious' thing to do … but now every Granny has one it's a mark of conformity.
Fashion is a fickle thing. I remember the 70's/80's/90's and what I was 'into' fashion/interests and opinions wise, and yet I can't think of anything from then that the me now would want a permanent reminder of (I'd chew my own arm off rather than be made to wear 70's clothes again for the record). These things are 'permanent' – choices now will be what you will be showing to the nursing staff who help you wash when you're 90 (from personal experience, my second career is/was nursing – every elderly patient I can think of either looked embarrassed or voiced regret at having them done in a fit of youthful fervour – and whilst they 'may' have looked good at twenty, they … well sort of go a bit saggy later). Would you commit yourself to the same dress, make-up, hair-style for the next … 60+ years?
I understand your support for that particular cause, but why show it by having it engraved on your skin? Campaigning, collecting, supporting I understand but a tattoo to me, and not insinuating/suggesting anything about you here, would feel as if I was 'boasting', 'seeking recognition' … do you know what I mean?
I was military (one of those 'specialities' where easily identifiable/describable marks were contraindicated and thus banned) when I was young enough to be willing to follow the crowd, so I never got one. Here it's only a 'certain type' of male (outside the very limited allowed in the military) who get them, yet it now seems a … craze amongst women. It's common now to see school-girls, twenty-something professionals, middle-aged 'house-wives' and even pensioners with walkers sporting everything from weird, misspelled (and really saying something about laundry or noodles rather than something profound) Chinese characters to full sleeves/stockings, To me this 'detracts' from their looks rather than 'enhances/decorates'?
Not sarcasm, bitching or judging … just seriously curious (I've asked many here before and have yet to actually get an intelligible answer).
I suspect that one of the greatest growth industries in the future will be ... tattoo removal (with all the attendant scars that leaves. Me, I have enough involuntary scars, I just can't see voluntarily adding to them).
I know a young adult (chronologically, I think she may be late 20's, but she rocks the daily selfie like a teenager) who had a black line tattooed around her wrist. I asked if it signified anything (infinity, no beginning-no end kind of thing) but no. She just wanted a black line. Saw it again a few weeks ago and it now looks like she doodled on her arm with a Marks-a-lot.
ReplyDeleteI have a Molon Labe tattoo on my wrist done in white. I like it, looks like a scar. Not readily apparent unless you are looking for it.
I say do what makes you happy.
Remember, except for children and grand-kids, no names. Been there.
ReplyDeleteAw, c'mon! ALL the hot chicks are getting a "Property of Wraith" tat. Really, I swear!
ReplyDelete;)
You know my thoughts on it, I still say go for it if you want one.
ReplyDeleteAnd, an answer for Able. Everybody is different, does things differently, thinks things differently, different things make them happy. I have several tats and every one of them has a personal meaning to me. Someone could look at my foot and up my ankle and think is was silly or whatever that I have bubbles, but they don't know that when my kids were little their favorite thing was to go outside in the way below temps and make me blow bubbles for them. The bubbles freeze and they could catch them and hold them and be amazed. That simple tattoo always reminds me of the wonders of the world, to be amazed at things, not to be so damn cynical. So much meaning to me in my simple bubbles...
I also have wild oats on my other ankle, I got that one after my sisters identical twin boys died of SIDS, my grandfather passed away, and my children's father passed away all in the same year. Wheat to wheat and corn to corn... the seasons change, life moves on. It was one of the hardest times in my life and that memorial tattoo was when I finally allowed myself to have a break down and then move on.
I also have a very large tattoo on my lower stomach, belly button down and hip to hip. Seascape with two sea turtles. Covers my stretch marks and the turtles convey the attitudes of my children that caused them. I've had family comment on all life coming from the sea, etc, which I never put that much thought into. It was for my kids that caused the scarring, and I love it.
I have never regretted any of my tattoos. I also do not have any that do not have a meaning for me and have never gotten one just to get one. It has absolutely nothing to do with fashion, with what anybody else does or doesn't do, or with showing off. I don't have a single one anywhere that anybody can see them. Rare occasions I wear sandals and someone could see the foot, but that's it. And I don't give two shits what anybody thinks about them, they are mine and mine alone. I can not even begin to imagine ever wanting them removed. They are a part of me and will always be there. Course, at my age, forever ain't as long as it used to be, to quote my mother when she got a huge back piece done in her 50's. (A memorial piece of her own for my sister's boys. No, not the same thing I got.)