Occasionally, as a rebellion against the dress code at work that requires me to wear a tie, I wear subversive buttons on the back. I had to retire one of my favorites after 9/11 (“God was my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat Him”), but I still have a few I like.
One of them espouses something I’ve believed for years: “God invented body piercing so people with tattoos wouldn’t feel so stupid.”
(There’s a variant I’ve used: “WebTV was invented so people with AOL could have someone they could feel superior to.”)
I don’t “get” tattoos and body piercing. It just screams out to me “I’m a rebel and a non-conformist, so I’m going to express my individualism just the way everyone else does by permanently mutilating my body” to me.
And this morning, I find this story of a navel piercing gone horribly wrong.
I feel so vindicated.
…..anything trendy that causes alot of pain and results in “yucky, nasty discharge”….well, nuff said.
“The piercing had pierced through the hernia sac, coming through my stomach lining and out,” she said.
The experience hasn’t completely turned her off to piercings, she said. When done right, she said, it can look cool.
Cool.
It just screams out to me “I’m a rebel and a non-conformist, so I’m going to express my individualism just the way everyone else does
I used to say this in highschool about the kids who did the punk thing. Just goes to show that there ain’t nuthin’ new under the sun.
This pretty much says it all for tattoos. 3.6 meg download but worth it!
http://www.yuzik.ca/extras/SNL_Tattoo.wmv
The article says she was 17 so her idiot mother had to take her and give permission for the piercing.
Stupidity is hereditary.
Mutilate my body to express my individuality? I’ll pass.
My daughter came home with her nose pierced once. She was 16. I verbally threatened the business owner who allowed it and made her take it out. It became infected even before it healed. She’s 27 now and thanks me for it.
I got a Kanji tattoo while living in Australia (hell, everyone was doing it at the time). Turns out it doesn’t mean what it’s supposed’ta. Ah, well. I still like it.
It’s probably a generation thing. I got my ears pierced in my 20’s though I grew up with my mother threatening holy hell for doing something so “cheap” as piercing my ears.
Now, my daughters are as responsible as young people can get…
Jennifer, 26, paramedic (starting nursing school for RN this fall)…pierced navel, blue rose tatoo on left shoulder blade
Erin, 24, mom of twins, dragon tatoo on left shoulder blade
Heather, 22, college student, restaurant manager in training, pierced navel, tatoo of moon and sun on small of back
Siobhan, 17, honors student, band drum major, off to college this fall, only 4 ear piercings but is contemplating a tatoo after she turns 18
They have all done, however, what Jay does… their tatoos/piercings are not visible in work or street clothing. They have never been stupid about it.
Come on Jay Tea…go easy big fella. I’m a VP with a Fortune 200 company and have tats and ear rings – I just have things covered up / not in while at work. When I’m not at work, I lose the exec look. It’s fun being able to play both sides of the fence.
Go easy there, Jay. And the rest of you. Don’t condemn something just because you aren’t interested in it yourself.
I’m a fresh four year college grad (in my mid-twenties) working in the medical field and I have no problem with piercings or tattoos. I’m not rebellious in any way, shape, or form. Neither are my friends, most are married and fresh out of college working in respectable professions.
I have had a body piercing, have an earring (I’m a guy), and am getting a (tasteful) tattoo very soon. People in my generation don’t see it as a rebellious thing to do. It’s pretty common and not all that individual, either. According to National Geographic News (back in April 2000), 40 million Americans have at least one tattoo. (15% of Americans back then) Maybe not so in the circles of friends that you maintain, but I have very few friends who do not have a tattoo or body piercing.
It is not inherently dangerous or unsafe as long as you do your homework and use common sense. Go to a licensed facility that has lots of experience, uses sterile one-time-use equipment, and that has a strong reputation.
Tattoos can be a unique way of express parts of your personality, faith, and credo. Body piercing can be used to tastefully adorn your body similarly to ear-piercings. I see no problem with either
Hey, I just thought it funny that people choose to express their individuality in exactly the same ways.
I see them as a fad that will be hard to deny participating in a few years down the road when the fad dies. They aren’t like platform shoes and bell-bottom pants you can hang in the back of the closet while waiting for them to come back into fashion. They also can ruin those plans of faking your death for the insurance money, not only do you need someone your size, you have to look for a cadaver with your second ex-wife’s name tattooed in the same spot. They are a lot like my second ex-wife, gotten on a whim but difficult and very expensive to get rid of. Just out of curiosity, anyone here about 6’3″ 190 pounds, with “Janet” tattooed on his right bicep?
I don’t know Jay, I think a small lil elephant tattoed in red/white/blue on your butt cheek might be just the thing to make you feel special…;-)
Tatoo America. Great place.
Our motto: “We do mutilations, too!”
Nausea had its share of cutters before it became chic elsewhere. I could never understand it.
A guy I work with did atongue ring. In a week it became infected. It took surgery and major bucks to undo that mess.
Gilchrist explained Brew’s stomach had twisted around the ring. Over time, the twisting became more and more painful, until finally Brew could no longer ignore it, she said.
Duh, she never thought to TAKE THE RING OUT !?!
bullwinkle, for the right price I’ll grow eight inches, lose ** pounds and get a tattoo.
Skybird wrote:
Just like a youth named ELLIOT CHAMBERS who was told he could wear a STREIGHT PRIDE T-shirt or the other youth who they tried to force him to turn his NRA T-shirt inside out but they refused to allow these bastions of PC nonsense intimadate them they sued in court and had the schools dress code struck down its time for the PC bunch to go home to their weird communes
WHAT???
lol
Should there be some type of punctuation in there at some point, or what? Or is that writing from the Jack Kerouac school of spontaneous blog posting???
Jay Tea:
Oh ya, about the actual topic.
I don’t “get” tattoos and body piercing. It just screams out to me “I’m a rebel and a non-conformist, so I’m going to express my individualism just the way everyone else does by permanently mutilating my body” to me.
Ya, getting tattoos and piercings are more popular these days. That doesnt bother me. If people like them, good for them.
And its not like they’re some new invention that Americans just created…both body piercings and tattoos go way back.
To each his own. No holes or ink for me though. I just always imagine how dumb I would look at 80 years old with some tribal tattoo. Nah, I’ll pass.
Bullwinkle, what an idiotic statement. It’s kind of hard to maintain that tattoos are just a fad when they have been wildly popular since 3300 B.C. And Jay, lighten up man, you don’t have much time in your skin, might as well enjoy it while you can. Contrary to your belief, not all people get tattoos to impress you.
Ryan wrote:
And its not like they’re some new invention that Americans just created…both body piercings and tattoos go way back.
Bullwinkle wrote:
I see them as a fad that will be hard to deny participating in a few years down the road when the fad dies.
Umm… they’ve been around for thousands of years. That doesn’t really constitute a fad (defined: “A fashion that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period of time; a craze”) I don’t think they’re going away anytime soon, Bullwinkle. Heck, I know plenty of grandparents with tattoos. I’m sure that my kids will be doing the same thing. And their kids.. and their kids..
Ryan’s got the right attitude. He knows they’re not for him, but doesn’t have a problem with them. And D-Hoggs is right, too: most people don’t get tattoos or piercings for your attention; they do it for themselves. (some people do it for attention, but who cares? I can think of worse things to do for attention.)
Like my tattoo, it’s faith-based and not out in the open for the world to see. It’s a private expression and a reminder to myself. Expand your horizons and embrace culture. You don’t have to participate, but learn to accept it as something other than
“it..screams out to me “I’m a rebel and a non-conformist, so I’m going to express my individualism just the way everyone else does.”” (Jay Tea)
Sorry, Jay Tea, but that comment screams ignorance to me and most of my peers.
D-hoggs, I based that on the countless people who actually grew up and wished they hadn’t been stupid enough to get tattoos. They consider tattoos a fad too, one they wish they had not participated in. As far as them being wildly popular for a long periods of time, they may have been moderately popular at different times in the past, but I doubt that they would ever be considered “wildly popular” by anyone reasonable. If they are wildly popular now then Jay was exactly right, they hardly make you unique or some kind of rebel, they make you just on more sheep in the herd. Baaaaaad choice that’s difficult and expensive to erase.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/150465_tattoo29ww.html
Imagine that, the latest fad in the non-fad tatoo fad is getting rid of them.
Bullwinkle, if you want to go fishing around on the internet for stories that support your “fad” theory, go for it, I could do the same finding stories that blow it away. Oh I don’t know, like the scores of military men dating back ages who engage in tattooing, for one. If you want to argue that tattooing is a fad, then you are basically just trying to change the definition of the word fad. Fads die out, tattooing never has and I dare say, with history on my side, never will. So get real.
Man, would you like to re-read the article you are relying on as well? “No hard numbers exist for tattoo removals” Wow, now that is a really compelling peice of evidence that tattooing is a fad. I’m sure the percentage of people getting tattooed compared to those getting them removed is overwhelming. If you want to make the argument that many people make bad choices and get stupid tattoos, by all means, you’d be 100% correct, but fad, 100% wrong.
…you don’t have much time in your skin, might as well enjoy it while you can.
Right — by turning it into a billboard sign.
And y’know, there are other things that have been around for thousands of years…
Ok, ok, tattooing is not a fad. Lets just say that it’s popularity fluctuates from a very small percentage of to a miniscule percentage of the population as it goes in and out of style. Currently it is stylish so a larger percentage of people are sheepish enough to want to try prove they are unique and dazzlingly individual that record numbers of them are being unique, which will be follow by lower numbers indulging in sheeplike behavior when the currently very, very unfad-like fad becomes somewhat less stylish and the sheep-like begin to follow whatever very, very unfadlike fad then becomes the style, I’m think that may mutton-chop sideburns. Those who indulge themselves in that act of futility in an attempt to be “different” will them point out that they aren’t engaged in any way in a fad, since mutton-chops have long been adorning the faces of men, most recently during the American civil war, but they are truly the first generation to have mutton-chops AND tatoos, and this will set them on a plateau high above other attempts at individualism. Until the art of mutton-chop tattoos then becomes the style. Yeah right. Not a fad. Not a fad. Got it!
“there are other things that have been around for thousands of years…”
Of course there are, so what? What doe sthat have to do with anything? So since other things have been around for thousands of years to than I guess tattooing really is a fad. Nice logic.
Bullwinkle, I can barely understand what you are trying to get at here. But if you think that all people who get tattoos are trying to “prove” that they are individuals, you are sadly mistaken. Sure there are plenty of girls who get the customary rose on their breast or the meatheads that get the customary barbed wire around their arm, but to make a sweeping generalization that all people who get tattooed are trying to be rebels or prove their indviduality is ridiculous. Have you ever considered that some people just like them, that its their body and that its none of your business what they do with them? Bullwinkle, do you wear blue jeans? I would assume you do, bah, bah little sheep.
Could you also please explain to me how tattoos are such a fad, and how all these people are just doing what everyone else is doing and following the herd, yet at the same time you say, “fluctuates from a very small percentage of to a miniscule percentage of the population”. If there are so few people getting them whether popular or not, then your whole argument is shot to hell and you proved it with your own words.
Hey, I agreed with you already, tattoos are not a fad, they will rule the world as the standard of exactly how everyone should use their skin as mobile art museums for ever and ever, or until the trend dies out and it’s only done by sailors, bikers, and convicts again.
So you’re just going to ignore the fact that you’ve been trying to argue that people who get tattoos are just sheep in the herd, but at the same time maintaining that those getting tattoos, “fluctuates from a very small percentage of to a miniscule percentage of the population”? Because those two arguments are in direct contradiction.
I almost forgot gang members, one of the 4 groups I think we all should immitate, sailors, bikers, convicts and gang members. Show me a guy named Popeye on death row for doing a drive-by on his Harley and I’ll show you the greatest pop-icon of the 21st century!
Yeah, because getting a tattoo, OBVIOUSLY means that you want to emulate a gang member. Some more priceless logic from Bullwinkle.
Wasn’t it you that pointed out that tattoos aren’t a fad because they’ve been around so long? You claim to be not participating in a fad because it’s not a fad, it’s a tradition, I just pointed out what groups traditionally got tattoos. If following a tradition isn’t sending the message that you approve of that tradition and you didn’t get your tattoos at gunpoint you must be paying homage to the groups that established the tradition.
That is just absolutely ludicrous logic. Not to mention I never ONCE said tattooing is a tradition. It is however an art for that has been around for ages and has been enjoyed by many more persons than bikers and gangs. Leaders of this country for example, and men who’ve died for it, but I guess they were just “paying homage” to their favorite criminals. By your logic, I could easily say that people with tattoos are obviously just trying to be JUST like Holocaust victims, yippee!!
Let me also point out that just because you think the only people that get tattoos are sailors, bikers, convicts and gangs, in NO way means that these groups “established” the “tradition” as you like to say. Tattooing has been tied to every part of every culture and because a lot of bikers and criminals have adopted the practice means absolutely nothing. Just as many regular people, military people, oppresed people (think Japanese body suits) and members of aristocracy have adopted tattooing as well. Criminals wear blue jeans too, so you better cut that practice out, unless you want to be “paying homage” to them.
Other then the current FAD that has been around for the few short years since tattoos became stylish, they were wildly popular with bikers, convicts, gang members and sailors. If you don’t fall into one of those groups it’s not traditional for you get one. It’s that simple. It’s a fad, get over it. You aren’t special because you have one or a dozen. When the style dies like every other fad has you might admit it was nothing more than a fad, unless, of course, you’re in jail, in which case you’ll feel right at home and look like it too.
I’m gonna get a big tattoo of Jay on my ass. That oughta start a fad.
Bullwinkle you are obviously grossly uneducated and uninformed on the topic and your arguments have all contradicted each other. It is useless trying to debate you as you are too ignorant and close-minded. Go on believing what you wish and living in your fantasy world.
Grossly uneducated? It’s that obvious huh? I always thought a masters was considered pretty good, so tell us all what you got your PHD in. We’re all dying to know. Anyone that has to refer to someone that happens to disagree with them as uneducated must be a liberal arts major, so that’ll be my guess. As far as my being uninformed, I’m just drawing on 45 years of experience and the hundreds of people that have told me they wished they’d never gotten a tattoo. Since I have been able to remain sober enough to not become a pincushion for some Rembrandt wannabe I can’t speak from personal experience. Maybe someday you’ll grow up and decide maybe that wasn’t exactly the best decision to make, many people come to their senses, but then again that doesn’t look too promising in your case. I’m also sorry I overlooked the other obvious demographic of body art worshippers, how many tickets does it cost to ride the Tilt-a-Whirl?
Bullwinkle:
Other then the current FAD that has been around for the few short years since tattoos became stylish, they were wildly popular with bikers, convicts, gang members and sailors.
Tattoos go back alot further than bikers and sailors here in the US, as does body piercing. It’s an old aspect of many cultures.
It just sounds to me like you don’t like the idea of any of it, which is fine. What I dont understand is why you seem so pissed off about what other people do. If people like tattoos or piercings or mowhawks…more power to them. Why do you care so much about how other people live their lives?
If you don’t fall into one of those groups it’s not traditional for you get one. It’s that simple. It’s a fad, get over it. You aren’t special because you have one or a dozen.
What kind of argument is that? So people cant do things that arent traditional for their culture? When was that rule made? So I suppose everyone who surfs in the US is really just doing it because its a fad, and all they care about is being special. They dont enjoy it or anything. I mean, surfing is traditional to Polynesians, so…
People can do what they want, they can express themselves however they want. I think thats a good thing. Some people wear tailored suits to express their identity, others get tattoos. There’s plenty of room for everyone.
Maybe someday you’ll grow up and decide maybe that wasn’t exactly the best decision to make, many people come to their senses, but then again that doesn’t look too promising in your case.
Ah, I see. You envision yourself as the older, wiser guardian of right and wrong huh? Way to take the paternalistic attitude about this.
I’m also sorry I overlooked the other obvious demographic of body art worshippers, how many tickets does it cost to ride the Tilt-a-Whirl?
…and you threw in a nice deragatory stereotype to boot, just to exemplify your wisdom.
I understand the fact that you dont like the idea or practice of any of this. But why insult people who like it? What does that do? Why not just accept the difference and move on, instead of telling people how you’re right and they’re wrong. Maybe it’s not really a matter of right and wrong, but just personal choice.
Ryan, never once in anything I have said here did I say I cared on way or the other what anyone did with their skin. I spoke my opinion on it, one a great many share, the only objection I had to what anyone said was that it has been “wildly popular” for years and that it was somehow “traditional”. Neither statement is true except that it is wildly popular fad for about the last 20 years and the groups that traditionally got them aren’t exactly the kind of people I’d want to hang out with. I couldn’t care less if half the world wants to be painted blue and wear stainless steel underwear, that’s their business, their right, and their problem. Like you say, it’s a matter of personal choice. My being of the opinion that it doesn’t exactly signal a great deal of maturity or sense in also a right. Expressing my opinion on the matter is every bit as much a right as the right for someone to tell how wrong they think I am. The funny thing about it is, that like most reasonable people I tend to not give a rat’s ass what someone covered in tattoos thinks. Their opinion isn’t likely to influence mine or anything to do with me. My only argument was and still is that it’s hardly more than a fad for most of those not involved in the maritime industry, drive by shootings, motorcycles, those living on the state’s expense and those dear souls working in the ever-important transient amusement ride business. The only people that got upset over any of it were the one’s that want to believe that’s it not a fad. D-hoggs didn’t hesitate a moment to tell me how stupid I was for calling it a fad, “idiotic” was the term used, yet somehow just by calling it a fad I’m in the wrong? scroll up there to my second comment and see explain to me what I said that makes me an idiot. Go ahead, I’ve got all night.
Ryan, might I suggest that before you ridicule the postings of skybird, who obviously speaks and writes English as a second language, that you learn to speak and write his/her language at least as well as he/she speaks or writes English?
And by the way, the Preview button is there so you can see how your comment will look when it’s posted and correct any errors. Just thought you’d like to know.
So let me get this straight Bullwinkle, you have a masters degree in tattooing? When did a masters degree all of a sudden make you an authority on all things? Cause sorry to tell you but it’s not that hard to get a masters Bullwinkle. Let me also point out that I NEVER ONCE said that you are uneducated, I said, “grossly uneducated and uninformed on the topic”, in case you are having trouble reading that again, it says ON THE TOPIC. While we’re on the topic of things I’ve never said that you keep trying to attribute to me, I told you earlier that I never said tattooing is a tradition, those were YOUR words that you keep trying to say that I said. Now, you tell me that you have 45 YEARS of experience and PERSONALLY know HUNDREDS of people that have them, yet you still maintain that it is a fad. How does that work? And why is it that you PERSONALLY know HUNDREDS of sailors, gang members and convicts? Unless your masters is in criminal law, you must hang out with a real unsavory crowd. Furthermore, since you are such an authority on tattooing, you already know that the most artists (in the U.S. at least) would never ink a person under the influence for several reasons, the most important being that they can’t sit straight, they vomit much easier, they pass out often bacause of the combination of thinned out blood due to the alcohol and the bleeding, AND, probably most important, lawsuits. But you already knew all that didn’t you.
Bullwinkle:
I dont think that you’re an idiot by any means. And as you say it is your right to express your opinion of the matter as well. You don’t have to like it (tats, piercing), and you don’t have to keep quiet about not liking it. Conversely, people who do like it should feel free to say so.
My only argument was and still is that it’s hardly more than a fad for most of those not involved in the maritime industry, drive by shootings, motorcycles, those living on the state’s expense and those dear souls working in the ever-important transient amusement ride business.
I understand where you are going with the whole “fad” argument…in essence that the practice was picked up by popular culture, and the people who had done it before in the US were gangsters, bikers, and sailors. There’s another part to that equation, and that is the tattooing and piercing that has been going on for thousands of years among other cultures. There’s some pretty interesting stuff about that in the anthropology circles; papers about the “New Tribalism”. It was picked up by the “alternative” crowd and became really popular.
So, I get your point. I just wouldn’t ever say that “like most reasonable people I tend to not give a rat’s ass what someone covered in tattoos thinks.” To me, that doesnt make alot of sense. There are all kinds of people who have tats, etc, some of them are fools and some are as “reasonable” as anyone. I just don’t like the idea of judging a whole group of people in such a general way.
By the way, I think that second post of yours is really funny.
I know plenty of people who have tattoos, and piercings, etc., and a few people who are tattoo artists. There is non one way to describe or characterize the people that I know; they are all over the board in terms of personality, income, education, etc. And alot of them are just really cool people. Not all of them, mind you.
D-hoggs, if you knew excrement from shoe polish about tattoos you’d know that almost every state has had to pass laws in the last 15 years to prevent drunks from getting tattoos. They didn’t pass those laws because parlors weren’t tattoing drunk people, they passed them because they were. Maybe if you studied up on things a little before you were so quick to claim nobody could possibly know more than you about something you might be right once in a while. I doubt it, but it could happen.
fatman:
Ryan, might I suggest that before you ridicule the postings of skybird, who obviously speaks and writes English as a second language, that you learn to speak and write his/her language at least as well as he/she speaks or writes English?
Is it really that obvious that skybird speaks English as a second language? I HOPE that’s the case, but am not really so sure. Tell me, how do you know this?
Tell me what language you think is skybird’s first language. I hope it’s not Mandarin Chinese, because that would be hard to learn.
Maybe we should ask. I’m pretty sure that English is his/her first language.
And by the way, the Preview button is there so you can see how your comment will look when it’s posted and correct any errors. Just thought you’d like to know.
Ok fatman. You really got me that time. I’m so mortified.
Various spelling and grammar errors aren’t really comparable to the consistently senseless, blatently erroneous, weird posts that skybird puts on here sometimes. But thanks for trying to show me the light.
Come on dude. Skybird writes some crazy shit on here sometimes, and I can’t help throwing some jabs back. I think it’s funny that you’re defending that post up there. Did you READ it? You know it was wacky. Just admit it.
Bullwinkle, where did you get this so called masters degree? Are you f’ing retarded? Did I not say that tattoo artists won’t tattoo people under the influence?! Jesus Christ, try READING!! I said, “most artists (in the U.S. at least) would never ink a person under the influence”. I use the word “most” because as someone who’s head isn’t up their ass, I know that not all tattoo artists are working out of tattoo parlours, and not all of them follow the law. I also went out of my way to mention they wouldn’t do this mainly due to lawsuits, whay would I mention lawsuits? Because there are fucking laws against it! Holy fucking shit, can you read?!! Let me also go back to your own words, you said, “Since I have been able to remain sober enough to not become a pincushion” alluding to the fact that people who get tattoos are obviously drunk. I never called you uneducated before, but now I am really starting to wonder.