Quote: Scatterbrained Floozy @ May 8 2011, 10:25 PM BSTOh, crap. I didn't realise tattoos were permanent. Back to the drawing board about how to express my otherwise completely stunted individuality and creativity.
Just be yourself. You're a nice person. Life needs nice persons.
Quote: Chappers @ May 8 2011, 10:23 PM BSTYou can always get your hairstyle changed - and wear different clothes.....but a tatoo is there FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In fairness only if your corpse is preserved in anaerobic conditions. Some of those peatbog bodies have some lovely tats.
I slightly regret not going for a tattoo when island hopping in Tonga; the traditional tribal patterns and insanitary and insanely painful techniques would have made for an interesting conversation piece. But I feel no temptation to have bad comicbook graphics indelibly scrawled on my pale freckly flesh by someone who looks like the human equivalent of pimp my ride.
Quote: Scatterbrained Floozy @ May 8 2011, 10:25 PM BSTOh, crap. I didn't realise tattoos were permanent. Back to the drawing board about how to express my otherwise completely stunted individuality and creativity.
In actual fact you can get non permanent tats, I don't know how good they are or if they do what they say, but there are tatooists on line advertising I think 3 year lasting tats if you want to check them out.
I'm not the one bothered about it lasting forever. By the time I am old enough to care I will hopefully be wrinkly anyway. I was being totally sarky, and am now going to (again, hopefully) restrain myself from looking here and so upsetting myself a little.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ May 8 2011, 10:41 PM BSTIn actual fact you can get non permanent tats,
I remember those as a kid; they came with bubblegum.
I suspect the hang up with tats may be a generational thing; since these things go in cycles, Robyn can look forward to being an embarrassment to her children. Making the ungrateful brats squirm is one of the guilty pleasures of parenthood so this is not a reason to not go through with it.
It's not so much the "desecration of the flesh" issues that have ever bothered me. If people want to scar their flesh permanently with a design then that's entirely up to them. What I've never understood is what people feel they're gaining from having a tattoo. It puzzles me as to why having a permanent embellishment on one's skin should make one feel happier about oneself - or indeed, about one's life. The reasons that people often give about their reasons - that the design has Eastern/"spiritual" significance, that it's "in memory of" an (often deceased) loved one - or any number of other justifications - I'm afraid never cease to bemuse me.
I guess I'm just one of those people who will never understand why anyone should want to get one. If either of my daughters wanted one, I'd be powerless to stand in their way (and indeed wouldn't try to), but I'd be ever-so-secretly disappointed.
I find it so odd that something which hurts absolutely no one else attracts so much bile. It just seems odd.
Quote: Nat Wicks @ May 8 2011, 10:59 PM BSTI find it so odd that something which hurts absolutely no one else attracts so much bile. It just seems odd.
What bile?
In general, in life. Tattoos attract a lot of prejudice and negativity. I think that fairly evidenced in this thread.
Gah- tiny phone keyboard 
I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow, just as I have ended up looking at this thread again after I said I wouldn't, but I have been very frustrated with this place today. So this seems like the perfect place to say adieu to you all for a little while. Getting involved feels like too much effort right now.
Quote: Nat Wicks @ May 8 2011, 11:03 PM BSTIn general, in life. Tattoos attract a lot of prejudice and negativity.
Where has anyone stated (other in obvious jest) that they would treat someone who chose to have a tattoo differently than someone without? As it happens, my girlfriend has two (albeit relatively modest) tattoos. Can't say I particularly like or care for them, but I don't judge her for having them - just to my mind I don't really understand why she would ever have wanted them. Just a personal view, not a generalisation.
This really isn't an emancipation issue.
Other peoples aesthetics are always the subject if not of bile, then certainly of comment. If you make a statement about your taste you can expect it to be challenged. The point about tattoos is that the statement is so definitive and undeniable.
It is a bit as if I had bought a pair of bondage trousers at the height of punk and was committed to wearing them every day for the rest of my life. Or if I had made an irreversible choice to sport an eighties mullet (though the chance would be a fine thing in my case).
However if it is something Robyn really wants to do then I would not discourage her. Life is to be lived, and that means risking mistakes. I would not want her to be shuffling along on her walking frame in her nineties thinking, I wish I had had that tattoo after all, if only I had not listened to those bastards...
Scats, if you want to have a tattoo then go and get one. Simple as that. Don't make it any more complicated.
Come on guys, respect the Scats. It's fair enough to discuss the pros and cons of getting a tattoo but show a little tact with our friend. Who clearly was a little hurt with the brash comments.
I hate tattoos for aesthetic and intellectual reasons.
The skin isn't a good stage for art, it's not neutral enough in colour and has to act as white in a tattoo, which it can't do effectively. Does it matter if the white in your image is not white? Try it, colour the white area pink or yellow or grey in an image - I guarantee it will look shite.
Aesthetics don't bother a lot of people but tattoos are also a sign of conformity and insecurity. They are always used as either the badge of a group, gang or subculture or a way of proving you mean something - "see I'm earnest enough to get it carved on my skin..." If you are an individual with the confidence of your views you won't feel the need to do that. Nominating yourself for inclusion in a group or gang is also a sign of insecurity. Tattooing 'love' and 'hate' on your knuckles won't make you good at fighting.
Although I hate tattoos a lot of the women I've had have had them. Piercing's too. Unfortunately the kind of women I like tend to like both.