Real,
The reason it may have appeared to
you that I am against tattoos is that
my initial response to you was NO! NO! NO!
that, was just my response to you though.
The reason ,for you ,is that I have come to
have a lot of respect,despite our differences
of opinion, for you. While I am usually able
to find respectable qualitites in just about
everyone, your level of quality is more
nearly distibuted overall than alot of
other people, not here at totse neccessarily,
but just in general, at least from what
I perceive from reading your posts and your
responses to other peoples posts. All in all
what I am trying to say is that I think
highly of most aspects of your entirety.
Therefore, since your intensity and strength
of conviction serve you so well in the way
you present yourself,i.e. what has led me to
see what I see in you- and since I like to
pride myself on my ability to appreciate
ability,( sans the presence of much of my
own),-
and the desire to enjoy the
fact that the objects of my note, approval
and concern, in short, I like to feel sure
that those, to whom I have afforded a measure
of respect above and beyond that which I have
for everyone,(unless they detract from it of
course), are not going to prove me wrong,(As
has been pointed out , overly idealistic, but
somebodies got to do it), my somewhat round-
about opinion is as follows.............
The creator gives us all miraculous vehicles
in which to drive our lives. Should we wish
to differentiate ourselves in the effort to
express ourselves in ways other than action
or spoken and written word, we may shave our
bodies
, or dye our hair, we might dress all
in black, or as the oppossite gender, um ,
girls get boob jobs, men have hair trans-
plants, you get the picture.
Most all of forms of expression could be,
should the person in question , at some point ,
feel different about the form of expression
that they'd chosen and with some effort or
none at all, they could return their gifts
of creation(bodies) to the original state and
go about their business. Tattoos are 4keeps!
Back to strength of conviction, to get a
tat is to permanently alter your body, at the
very least, the appearance of your body, in
a way that is for the most part irreversible.
Looking at it one way is that a tattoo is an
awfully attractive scar. One gained from an
intentional injury. Would I say this to some-
one else? It all depends on who it was I was
saying it too. I would consider what I
thought their motivation was and then tell
them, if they asked, my opnion, so since you
asked, I don't think that you should get a
tattoo because their is no particular subject
that you are intensely enough interested in
to warrant the permanent disfiguring of your
skin/body. Once you have a tattoo, you have
forever changed the image of your body. If
it comes out bitchin, great, bitchin even,-
over the years though, it will fade and fade
and your skin will loosen and I don't recall
the last tattoo I saw on a 40 or 50ish type
that I thought still looked bitchen. That is
not the only factor I'm considering though,
the fact that all tattoos get old and green
or black depending on your skin tone, and by
the time you're middleaged, they become more
liabilities to attractiveness than assets is
one major consideration, so consider it well.
END OF PART ONE.
Another thing I considered is that you didn't
say how long you had been wanting to get a
few tattoos. Since you've also posted about
having a new lover,or I'm assuming she's more
new than longstanding, I thought it might be
something you were considering due to some
sort of impetus to do so on her part, whether
it was a direct statement she made or a
comment in passing, or maybe even your own
personal observations of who she is that
haven't even been discussed by the two of you
Whatever,I ended up with that thought and w/o
any elaboration on where the thought/desire/
idea to get "a few" tattoos came from I gave
benefit of the doubt to preservation of body
I am who I am and don't care much about what
people think about me, on a public at large
level. Of course if someone expresses disdain
for me who I have in some way had contact
with, it is a simple matter of determining
who and what they are to me, as to wether or
not I give a fuck if they do or do not like
me. Tattoos can say alot regardless of what t
picture is of. For instance, I worked with a
nice enough yet shallow lady, who over the
months that we'd been working together, had
through phonecalls impossible not to overher
made it fairly clear what the situation betw
her and her ex-father-of-child guy was. A
couple of times in an effort to comfort her
from crying in the back where she'd come, as
her day was spent up in the front, I tried to
help her see the true nature of the situation
so as to operate from a more realistic frame
of mind- to absolutely no avail btw-It's her
business anyhow,so I'll not elaborate,it
suffices to say that some people can earn my
respect ,others have it,and others cannot,in
all probability, not that it really matters
to anyone but me and the other person. I
never treated her any differently, but as
far as I was concerned I knew we'd never
socialize beyond the job and I thought she
was pathetically impaired on an emotional
level although quite proficient on many
others. Anyway, this other girl who worked
there had a bitchen tattoo on her back, the
kind I have always wanted to get, but as yet
not enough to get it, Hawaiian style if that
means anything to you. Anyway this girl took
the other girl out after work one day. The
next day they both came to work with a new
tattoo, the girl who already had one had
had some cool stuff added in to it. The girl
I'd lost pretty much respect for had one too
and a boring story about drinking, who cares
??????maybe I'm a bitch or something but
unless you got chased from and outran the
cops or perpetrated some mischeif that show
ed superior intelligence while not only in-
toxicated but in general, then it's all just
yap yap shut the fuck up already willya yap
yap yapping. This stupid bitch had had her
five year olds name tattooed on the top of
her tit! It was hilarious, I mean just bec-
ause she was insecure about the dad ever bein
with another woman, which he was,or about any
one but her being able to be kind and caring
toward her son , which apparently the new one
was, and because her son had actually been so
naieve at 5yrs. old to say that he liked to
go see daddy and that the new girl was nice,
this dingbat, gets the kids name tattoed on
her tit! Well I guess you could look at it as
devotion or something like that, but since
she had never mentioned it prior and she was
pretty good at relating every little detail
of her life aaaaaaaaccckck!, It seemed most
probable that she'd done this disfiguring
deed to herself impulsively and then not even
in a way that had much merit from an asthetic
point of view anyhow. Point being if she
wanted to prove to her son or herself or
whatever how she cared the most! well, there
are probably other things she could have done
and depending on how much emphasis she gives
it to him over the years, maybe he'll view
tattooed people as likely to love him more
than anyone else, just like mom, or tattooed
people to say they loved him the most but
deprive him of the thing that he really felt
a desire to do, who knows? enough about her.
Point being that to get a tattoo for any
reason other than you really have a desire,
long standing if at all possible(insert the
count to ten proverbial mindset, unless you
don't beleive in it) and especially if the
design you choose is overly telling of your
level of maturity at present possibly being
less than it might or a design that is not in
itself particularly appealing asthetically or
comically or something, then you shouldn't
get one. If under those circumstances you
do get a tattoo or even a few of em',like-
liehood is that sooner than later you will
consider them bad tattoos , and since I
consider you among my circle of cyber friends
I would be remiss did I not offer my 2cents
at this point.
END OF PART TWO.
A good tattoo is the one of a tombstone on
the arm of the arm of a dealer I used to
know. It has the name of his dog, SLUGGO,
the family dog that he had taken with him out
into the great big world, the dog who had
loyally protected his house while he dealt
out of it. The dog who the cops shot dead
because they had to in order to raid the
place, which they were intent on doing, the
dog who, in my humble opinion, had more right
to keep his life, based on the way he carried
about to the task of living in a positive way
than did the dealer, but I'm not in charge
so......the tat is on his forearm, in plain
sight, a tombstone surrounded by vines and
roses at the bottom it says R.I.P. SLUGGO
and the years 1984-1993. Alone it is a very
nice drawing,in theory it is a lovely tribute
in comparison w/ the other tattoos he has on
various parts of his body, names(turned into
drawings or otherwise camoflauged, moron),as
well as numerous faces and clicheish and
greening tough guy designs, it is by far the
best. Were it the only tattoo he had, it
would be indicative of something meaningful
that he valued and a gesture of deep regret
that was as permanent as the tattoo itself.
Actually it may be that anyhow, I have not
seen him but a few times in the years since
that happened, but when I have, he has been
clean and gainfully employed in a legitimate
industry. Then there was this girl we knew
and though it worried me to no end to know
she was often places where my boyfriend was
when I was not, I have to admit that the tat
she had on the back of her shoulder was a
very good one. She was quite the little tramp
but friendly and w/ a big heart, just a slut
that's all, far be it from me to...anyway, it
was the fluffy ,curvy , image of a pussycat
showing the view as the cat walked away, it's
tail was sassily curved and the artwork was
superb, but what made it really cool was that
instead of the cats butt, was an oversized ,
(for an anus:P), red heart and the cat was
looking back over it's shoulder at you. It
was very cool and suited her well. Also the
vet I work for recently got his first tattoo,
he is in his 50's and he got a cool one of a
cat and a dog on his upper outer arm, he said
he'd always wanted one but didn't like the
way they looked when the person got older,
smart guy, he'll be .., well, it'll look good
for most of therest of his life. So, a good
tattoo is one that looks cool , is well done
well positioned, and in some way relates some
thing about the person who has it. I really
don't know you, but I would think that maybe
something with a beaker frothing mist or you
know, something cool related to who you are
would be a more fitting disfigurement for you
to embrace on a long term basis, oh, wait...
I'm sorry, silly me, maybe you have thought
all this out and the Popeye thing is a parody
of Popeye, except instead of the anchor, you
get Popeye, that's interesting, maybe I ought
just wrap this up and be quiet! OK....
END OF PART THREE.
Whatever you decide, just try and be sure
it is as dignified and respectful as the
better more well developed aspects of your
self-image are and hopefully of the same
level of credibility, which I'm not sure how
one acheives a credible tattoo, but you're
smart so just keep it all in mind when you
decide.
THE END------> CHECK YOUR E-MAIL FOR PS.
2000-08-16, 03:58
Tatoos and Piercings
heh