Could you please tell me why you got tattooed?

[trof]

Disclaimer:
Yes I'm a geezer. I'm 72.
I'm also a devout life-long liberal.
I believe in everyone doing whatever they please as long as it doesn't frighten the horses.
OK, that's an old joke.


But seriously...I do not understand why anyone would want to get a design painfully applied to their body.

I don't like Walmart or like to shop there, but once in a while I do.
And I see more tatts there than anywhere else here.
They are usually on unattractive, overweight, poorly dressed women.
(Yeah, I know I'll get flamed for THAT comment,)
Usually down the outside of the lower leg.
At least the ones I can see.

I wonder what they're thinking?
"This will make me more attractive."?
"I'll look cool to my family and friends."?
"Well, I got drunk and it seemed like a good idea at the time."?

I'm sure I've offended all manner of folks here, and for that I apologize.
I'm just really curious about why you did it.

(Dons Nomex suit, crawls into bomb shelter)
OK, hit me.

[loli phabay]

1. no offense, i have various tattoos for religious and cultural reasons

That i would rather not go into, but you are right some tattoos are awful and just dont work.

[trof]

6. I understand that tattoing is common in some cultures.

And for the reasons you give.
What I don't get is what I guess I'd call 'redneck' tattoos that I see where I live.
Most of them are just 'scrolled'(?) designs. No words or message.
They are usually on younger or middle aged women.
And I see a lot of 'barbed wire' tatts around ankles, wrists, necks.
Is there some significance to those that I'm missing/

Thanks for your reply and for not opening a can of whoop ass on me.

[loli phabay]

7. a lot of tattoos are just ugly, the barbed wire and webs originally were prison tattoos

With each part of the web or wire meaning a year inside. Lot of people get tattoos without knowing what they really mean.

[Jenoch]

30. I did not know the barbed wire

tattoos were originally prison tatts. I remember seeing them everywhere in the 90s. Now they look dated.

[loli phabay]

31. in russia and eastern europe in particular.

[Jenoch]

32. I saw a lot of NBA players

with the barb wire tattoo and that was before they were all mostly tatted up.

Pam Anderson had one as well.

[loli phabay]

33. well jail tats probuably suit a lot of sportsmen, the wire was one year in jail per barb

Sometimes they had differences to signify the fifth year, same with webs on the elbow, it was easy to add jail time by expanding it.

[Jenoch]

34. The NBA player I was thinking of

is about as far at the other end of the spectrum of prison tatts as I can think of. He played for the Timberwolves for a few years in the 90's, Tom Gugliotta.

[pinboy3niner]

2. I've got a couple of military tattoos

A bunch of us all got them together. And no, we weren't drunk. It was a Sunday morning, and we got some ink that was meaningful to us.

[trof]

9. Yeah, I kinda get that.

AIRBORNE!
MARINES!
SEMPER FI!

I can understand how you felt back then.
The esprit de corps, etc.
Especially if you were in a shooting war.

My military experience was entirely different.
Long story, but I became a second balloon with no boot camp or OCS.
Learned to fly the man's airplane with a class that had just graduated from the Air Force Academy.
Class of '63.
There wasn't much esprit de corps.
Just get this fucking thing over with and let me get my wings.

[Sotf]

44. Jumpers hit it!

Context for this one is important based on gender and location of the tattoo...

[pinboy3niner]

46. Mine are on my upper arms, so no one can see them unless I strip off my t-shirt

Some of the guys got a tat with a C.I.B. or a Purple Heart, but I got a Screaming Eagle insignia with my battalion designation (2/501 Infantry) on one shoulder, and the red dragon/green bamboo design of the VN Service Medal (with "Vietnam" above, and my tour dates) on the other.

Actually I was a "leg" in the 101st, having joined them in-country when they were off jump status and fully airmobile (or air assault, as they call it these days). I'd gotten my 2nd Lt's bar at 19, after 6 months of Infantry OCS at Benning (OC 502-68, 54th Co.). I'd gone in as a draftee in '67, and they gave me a Good Conduct Medal because I had more than a year of enlisted service by the time I graduated OCS. Little did they know...

Your experience of getting flight training the way you did is unique, and more power to you for earning your wings. My OCS roommate went straight to Ft. Rucker for chopper flight training after OCS, and he was KIA flying a Huey in VN in '69.

A lot of guys think of being in the Infantry as too hairy, but I felt I knew what I was doing on the ground, in the jungle, and at least I had some control. I did a lot of combat assaults/extractions by Huey, and it was in the air, especially when we were under fire, that I had that awful feeling of having no control. One of my men volunteered for door gunner to get out of the field--but he was soon shot down, and he spent 3-1/2 years as a POW.

Aviation is a pretty foreign subject to me (even though I once worked for NTSB), so I always appreciate it when you bring your knowledge and experience to bear in a thread on that subject. As long as you're flying the plane, and I'm just along for the ride.

I trust you less on the subject of window calibraters. But you do a good fake-out there , lol.

[Wait Wut]

3. I wanted one since I was a teenager.

Many of them are really beautiful. I was picky and never knew exactly what I wanted. I finally decided on a logo I had created for a freelance company I started. It's three intertwined scorpions, all black.

After I got the first, I wanted more. I wouldn't classify myself as a masochist, but the feeling was exhilarating and relaxing all at once. To the point that I dozed off for about 15 minutes until my artist poked me and said, "this is supposed to hurt, not make you sleep". He was going to use me (actually, just my back) at a tattoo competition, but it was cancelled. I had the design ready to go.

It's not for everyone. Some people find them silly, gross, unnecessary. For me it was a personal thing. I don't criticize people for not having them. There are a lot of people that criticize people that do have them...for the wrong reasons. Yes, there are the 'drunk' tattoos and stupid tats, but many people have things tattooed that have deep personal meanings.

[LWolf]

4. Sure.

Almost 4 decades ago, I was a very defiant 15 yo girl. My single mom, who didn't know the meaning of the word "discipline," and thought it was cool to pretend that we were "friends," or "sisters," hit a wall with me at about 14 and tried to become a disciplinarian, which I laughed at and ignored.

She didn't like my boyfriend when I was 15. She was right. As a matter of fact, I picked him because she didn't like him, and he seemed to like being a source of conflict. When she told me not to see him anymore, he took me down to Van Nuys Blvd to a tattoo parlor. He knew the owner, who would tattoo his underaged girlfriend. I picked out a tattoo, something completely inoffensive, and it went on my shoulder. With his name underneath it. I was pleased, because I was doing what I wanted without her telling me what to do. He was pleased because I was branded as his possession. Permanently.

My mom didn't see it for 18 months, when she walked into the bathroom while I was in the shower. She threw a fit, of course, but couldn't sustain it for long when she learned she was 18 months late. A few months later I graduated from HS and married the boyfriend. Not because I wanted to be married; I wanted to go to college. BUT...she kept telling me not to get married; to travel and go to college. So, of course, I had to marry him.

The marriage lasted a decade and 2 kids. When it finally ended, ten years too late, one of the first things I did was to go back to Van Nuys Blvd.. I was of age by that time, and went to a different tattoo parlor and had the name covered up with something that went with the original tattoo, removing his brand. Finally.

That tattoo has been there for 38 years now. I never see it, and often go years without thinking about it. I don't dress to bare my shoulder, so people who don't know me well don't know it's there. I once, about 7 years ago, made the mistake of wearing a slightly sheer shirt to work on a hot June day. The ink showed through the shirt, and some of my students caught sight of it and were shocked. It didn't fit with their version of me.

[trof]

11. Thanks for telling me (us) that.

I understand your act of defiance.
Glad you're past it now.

[LWolf]

14. Yes, at 53

I've left the teen-age nightmare behind, and, for some reason, my mom still loves me.

[RevStPatrick]

5. I tattooed my wife's initials on my ring finger.

She's got my initials on her's.
Strangely enough, that's all the tattoos either of us has.
Most of our friends have lots of tattoos, and some of them are quite beautiful.

But yeah, I've seen LOTS of tattoos that made me go "WTF???"

[trof]

12. Oh hell, that's kinda sweet.

Don't tell Miz t. or she'll want to do it.

[rug]

21. My wife tattoed her name on my ass.

No joke. She wrote her signature down. The tattoo guy enlarged it and made a stencil he followed. Fortunately it's only her first name and it's only three letters long.

[olddots]

8. I wish I didn't hate tattoos so much

I love so many people with them but tattoos freak me out for many reasons ,the best I have seen are Yakuza tattoos , and enough of that .

[trof]

10. Hate is a bit strong. It's just this:

When I see a person with a tattoo the first thing I think is...DUMB.
And then...low class.
What do I mean by that?
Someone that it would be impossible for me to have an intelligent conversation with about just about anything.

Not that I would be considered 'high class', but I do have a certain level of education and knowledge. Self awareness? Vocabulary?
I dunno.

[loli phabay]

17. i think its a generational and cultural difference, not necessarily an intelligence thing

Some people just get artwork, for some its a life story for others a commitment thing, some religious. There are just so many different reasons to get them. The dumb ones get svaztikas on their face or MS plastered on their chin but even these having meaning to the people who get them. I look at it the same as any body modification, for some its a good thing for others its what were you thinking.

[valerief]

22. I think you'd be surprised. A lot of smart, interesting people are tattooed. I myself hate tattoos.

[a la izquierda]

26. I have a PhD and a book under contract.

I have half sleeves on my arms and am tattooed from knee to Achilles on both legs.

And my students would have no idea, but they see me in the gym sometimes.

[Locut0s]

39. Some VERY intelligent people are tattooed...

Like I said further down it's more about expressing ones self and it's also a cultural thing more than anything. I've met some very very intelligent people that would surprise you from their outward appearance. I never got to know the guy but the smartest student in one of my physics classes in university dressed up as a goth and probably had lots of tats. This guy wrote answer sheets for the other students and they were fucking PERFECT. The teacher even commended him in class for the quality and elegance of his cheat sheets before telling us all not to use them

[raccoon]

13. This is something I wonder about too. I'm in my 60's.

I see lots of tattoos on people in my job. Both sexes, some with tattoos all over their
upper arms. Some on their legs.

Some of them are artistic designs, but I have to say, I don't get it either. Maybe it's a
generational thing...

[trof]

15. I just want to thank you all for not kicking my ass. Where was Skittles?

I asked a serious question here, about something I was seriously curious about.
And I got serious and informative answers.
I understand a little better now.
But I still don't like 'em.

[panader0]

16. When I was young, in Abilene, Tx., my parents had friends whose son had just been released from

prison. He had the big boobed naked lady tat on his arm. He was older than I was and told me (about 1958) "Don't ever get a tattoo.
It's hard for me to get a job. I have to wear long sleeved shirts." I remembered that.
That said, it's a different world now. Tats are much more accepted.

[OriginalGeek]

18. Like I said in the other thread

I don't have any yet but I seriously want one (or 2 or there might be more) and it will be some version of:

or

When I get really ready I'll start fooling around with lay-outs and what else I might want to put in there...

[loli phabay]

19. placement is everything, some tattoos work on certain people others not so much

Nothing worse than a bad tattoo in a bad location.

[Locut0s]

40. An old Scottish clan I see...

You're a member/descendant I'm guessing?

[easttexaslefty]

20. Ok. I'll bite.

Because I think they're beautiful. Because my deceased son had many. Because they reflect who I am.
Why do you wear the clothes you do. Or style your hair in the particular fashion that you do.
Self expression..

[Common Sense Party]

35. Yes, but if I ever regret a sweater I bought or I tie that was once stylish,

I can just give it to Goodwill and never see it again. Clothes and fashion are not permanent...and not painful to remove.

The clothes that I wore when I was 20 I wouldn't be caught dead in now--for one thing I wouldn't fit in them.

I understand that tattoos, to some degree, reflect a bit of who a person is--at the time of getting inked. But people change. Something that reflected who I was at age 20 would not reflect who I am today.

[pipi_k]

23. Second

hubby had some. We knew a guy who did them, so...

Anyway, it was 1981 or so. My first one was a red rosebud on my left shoulder (just above my vaccination) for my daughter who passed away as a baby in 1974.

Next, a heart on my right breast, then a butterfly on my right thigh.

The heart and butterfly aren't very good, (not done by the guy who did my rosebud) and I've often thought about having them covered by something else.

[a la izquierda]

24. It's not painful in a traditional sense of the word.

Tattooing is as much art as release for me. My tattoos all mean something deep to me, based on spiritual and cultural elements of my life.

And I'm neither fat nor low class.

[Neoma]

25. I'm not tattooed but...

I love science and literary tattoos. I've known people to have drop dead gorgeous tattoos. My friend Robin who has a bird tattooed on her makes perfect sense to me, for example. Since I'm an artist, I think I'd design my own tattoos. I love bright colors.

Ultimately, I'll probably end up with an Alice in Wonderland tattoo. (Not the Disney version.) I haven't ever grown out of loving those books. Chess boards, tea cups, keys, watches, playing cards, Flamingos... How can you go wrong? Make Alice into a raging psychopath and it's a done deal.

[cliffordu]

27. I'm almost 62.

I got tatted at 14 in lockup. With a nickname.

Then, after I got out of kiddie jail and the uh, club I was in, I had a cover job put over the 'club' tattoos.

Then, my ex-wife gave me an Airborne medal tat over my left nipple for my birthday.

Just at the spot my wings would be on my uniform if I hadn't buried the real ones with a brother in arms some time ago.

I see them and remember him every day of my life.

It is an honor.

[woodsprite]

28. I don't understand it either, but my new SIL said for her,

It's about the pain and adrenaline rush. She just got her latest design done on their honeymoon and is now nearing 100 tats. She had a tattoo artist doing tattoos at her wedding reception. When asked if I was going to get one, I said what kinda design would I get. Since I'm 50, I couldn't think of one that would work both folded over and laying flat

[Inkfreak]

29. They look good on me.

I spent time & money to get my arms & chest covered with black & grey. With a few splashes of color, but not much. I get plenty of compliments. I even took placed in a show once. It felt great.

There is a ton of bad ink out there tho. And it's become hugely popular. So it's gonna happen I suppose. I dunno if that's much of an answer. I guess it's just something that has always fascinated me. And in a weird way empowered me. I love my ink. Every piece.

[Common Sense Party]

36. The follow-up question I would ask is: Did you ever regret getting a tattoo?

And not just, "Yes, I regret getting my boyfriend's name because he turned out to be a loser."

I mean: Did you regret getting ANY tattoos at all? Do you wish you had never gotten one?

I haven't run into anyone who will admit to regretting it, so I assume that everyone thinks it was a good decision.

[Locut0s]

38. I think you nailed it with that last part...

Not many people are going to ADMIT to regretting something like that for fear of looking really stupid. I'm sure lots of people do though.

[Locut0s]

37. I don't think it's very often about beauty, it's about making a statement...

That statement could be anything from, hay look I'm a nerdy chick who likes video games (has a tat of a video game character on their leg) to, I'm a tough guy and I'll kill you if you look at me the wrong way (insert stereotypical "bad ass" tats here). Sadly very few people are creative or "think outside the box" when it comes to tattoos which boggles my mind cause it's permanent and on your fucking body. This is THE place where you would want to be the most original and expressive I would think. Why so many skulls and cross bones, so many 1/2 naked pixies and fairies. That part I don't get. But a small unique, and well thought out tattoo can be eye catching and nice IMHO. I'm not a fan of them otherwise for the most part. But to each his own I don't really care.

I think what you really see with tattoos sadly is just how conformist and uniform people really are. No offense intended to anyone who has really generic looking tattoos but that's how I feel.

[a la izquierda]

42. I have a Book of Kells version of Adam and Eve...

Under the Forbidden Tree.

Pretty darn unique, I think.

I also have wisdom eyes tattooed enormously across my shoulders. That piece will eventually watch over a silhouette of the Buddha on my back. I have a Celtic dragon on my leg. I have a bunch of other ink, too.

[nomorenomore08]

41. The only tat I've ever considered is the Scottish flag, maybe 3 by 5 inches, on upper arm/shoulder.

Just because my heritage is 3/4ths Scottish, and it's a simple design that looks cool.

[canoeist52]

43. I have paper and canvases full of my art that will well outlast my body so...

I guess I never felt the need for using my skin as expression. It's funny, neither my husband 57, or kids 27, and 24 years old, never felt the need.

I don't understand tattooing either

[hobbit709]

45. Never got one. I always wanted to leave the tattoos, scars and other marks space blank.

[pink-o]

47. No tats here!

A tattoo requires a HUGE commitment, and I've never been good with that. (BTW, I'm a woman, so the stereotype stops here). Also, I can't imagine anything I might have wanted inked onto my bod 25years ago still being relevant to me today. Not to mention, now that the estrogen has left my old carcass like rats deserting a quickly-sinking ship, the tat prolly wouldn't look like anything but a Rorschach today.

No thanx!

[pinboy3niner]

48. On the other hand...

We may not want to make those permanent alterations to our bodies when we're young, but when we get old it's less of a big deal. And it will give the morgue attendants something interesting to look at...

You deserve special props for "the estrogen has left my old carcass like rats deserting a quickly-sinking ship,"

[antiquie]

50. Faded roses

are okay until they crinkle!
I'm with you, no tats here.

[JoeyT]

49. All of mine are references to stuff from being VFD.

They really don't hurt to get. If you've ever ridden a motorcycle or stuck your arm out the window in the rain doing about 60, that's what I'd describe it as. The only time they hurt is when it's a ton of detail in a small area that takes forever to fill in, but most of the tattoos you're seeing in Wal-Mart aren't going to be that kind.

None of mine came off flash (Generic tattoo you walk in and pick out), all were drawn by someone. I don't understand why people would get flash "art" any better than you do.

[frogmarch]

51. I got mine on a dare

in the mid-1980s. At the time, I was high from unavoidably sniffing preservatives, or I'd never have done it.



It's not a big deal, really, just a small black heart at the nape of my neck.

[UTUSN]

52. The older U & I get the more truth. 1) My REASON, & 2) my SUSPICION/projection:

1) manly/"tough"ness

2) People like to git nekkid and touched.


******Now waiting for Pinboy39ner smartass remarks: ...

[BarbaRosa]

53. I was in a local garage/party band during the late 70's-

early 80's. One of our 'fan' base was. . ."Tattoo Louie", who was so impressed offered the band a tat. By today's standards it's a rather crude maple leaf, but in that the other two in the band have long since passed (and for all I know so has Louie) there is a lot of sentimental value to it and I would never think of having it redone.