Permanent Ink

My friends mostly seem to think I'm against tattoos. I'm not against tattoos.  I'm against ugly, thoughtless tattoos.  I'm against tattoos you can never cover or that you will regret sooner or later.  I'm against tattoos that make people think "what is wrong with you" or worse "I know exactly what's wrong with you".  It's true that I don't have any.  I've been unable to commit to any design that I would want to keep for the rest of my life, much less any acreage of skin that I would care to display it on.  There are just so many bad choices for tattoos.  There is what has become known as "the Tramp stamp" on the small of a woman's back.

It's a little sad that this particular part has become stigmatized as a slutty place to get tattooed because it's one of the few places that is unlikely to be subject to a lot of sagging as age sets in.  I cannot say I condone the fact that 90% of them seem to be thoughtless designs of a butterfly or a "tribal" design. 

I am against cartoons permanently inked on one's body when really a rub on transfer should have done nicely.  

It seems to be bad luck to get anyone's name on your body who is not your child, and bad taste to get your own name tattooed on ("who am I, oh yea it's written on my wrist")

Often there are many tats that people will tell you they got because "I was eighteen".  Meaning they wanted one just to have one, not because there was any particular meaning or love of the aesthetic. 

Getting a politician or a celebrity seems like you're a stalker or that you cannot think for yourself.  Wouldn't you feel like a schmuck to get a Nixon tattoo the week after his election and then... oops.  How about a photo tattoo of your favorite celebrity?  

What do you think Conan here is going to look like in another 20 years?

All I'm saying here is that there are so many options to get a bad tattoo that I wish people would really think hard about the how where and what of tattoos.

It seems to me that if one is going to invest hundreds of dollars on what should be a piece of art on your body there should be a Lot of consideration that goes into it. Sometimes it seems like people spend more time thinking about their daily outfit than their tattoo, and you can change your bad fashion choices.

I guess that's all I have to say about that today. This was actually a tangental rant brought on by a tattooed man I saw in San Francisco... To see what instigated this rant please check out Urban Hierogliph.