Tattoos...how do you feel

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This is a poem explaining how I feel about tattoos:

Take my word and leave your temple clean, or let the world destroy it with images obscene.
For it is a place where your soul is stored, and a tattoo just means that it is ignored.
Your body is amazing, and if you can't see, that it works its best toxin-free
If you don't understand that a tattoo is bad, let me tell you this, it will make you sad.
I will leave you with one closing thought, this is the only body you've got.
If you mess it up, there is no redo, so think a little bit before getting a tattoo.

Tell me what you think about tattoos!

Great poem ! I'm against tattoos too. I know people who've gotten diseases by getting tattoos. Although it's a free choice and that's great, I'd rather see more people without tattoos. In today's world you're more original if you don't get tattoos it seems like.

Takes me back. Tattoos were not the thing in those days but there was the day I noticed my [girl friend like object of interrest] had just had her ears pierced and I was shocked and concerned.

It saved my life not that long after - but that is another story.

>> Tattoos...how do you feel ...

Uh ... needled?

to each, his or her own. this said, i find nothing attractive about 'em. they ruin god's perfect artwork, debasing it with a vastly inferior atavistic scrawling. they are the equivalent of the ruination of a fine phonographic recording by playing it back with a needle and paper cone, or of a ruffian graffiti marring the rare silken wallpaper of a kingly mansion. just my jejune opinion.

I find it amusing that lots of people feel the need to express their 'individuality' by doing exactly the same thing as everyone else who wants to express their 'individuality', i.e. get tattoos and piercings in weird and wonderful (and not so wonderful) places.

I don't think they've thought it through, in all honesty. I think that any young person who's getting a tattoo should be made to look at a tattooed 80-year-old with sagging, wrinkly skin and faded tattoos and then have a long, hard think about whether that looks attractive or not.



I think not.

Well, they look ok... At least they're not mutilated, are they? (those people you've shown photos of)

I don't mind tattoos. It seems those of my parents's generation have a problem with that. (They complained when my sister got a small pocket watch tattoo on her ankle, she also got a "devil" and an "angel" tattooed on her back shoulderblades)

I mean, unless it's something really explicit, i don't see how it would bother people, maybe they're overthinking art too much.

I've had some boyfriends who had tattoos, one had been in the British army, and he had a couple, but they weren't too big or horrible. And another guy I had a fling with had a red star (he was a communist turned anarchist) and that was okay, quite cool in fact.

But one guy, I saw that he had a really big yin-yang symbol on his upper arm in that blue-black colour tattoo ink, and perhaps it was because half of the image was blocked in colour, I thought it looked really horrible. When I first saw it, I shuddered, and I must admit the thought crossed my mind: "Oh, having seen that, I can't now imagine you as the father of my children." I did put me off him.

Likewise, there's a guy I know who's a neighbour of mine, he's somewhere between acquaintance and friend I guess, he's good friends with another good friend of mine. And she told me that he likes me. But he has quite a lot of tattoos and I must admit I find him less attractive than I otherwise might because of it. (Although he also has a dog, and I don't like dogs, so I wouldn't date him anyway).

I have my ears pierced, but that's it. I'm kind of conventional and straight-looking, with a bit of a radical heart really.

Oh, you've reminded me, my daughter had her army number tattooed on her foot.

But do you really think they look okay? I think those tattoos look hideous.

I don't know that it's a generational thing. You might think it is, because you're the same age as my daughter, so you might assume it's your parents' generation, because I'm old enough to be your mother, but I don't think it is, because I have lots of friends with tattoos, who like them, some who had them done when they were younger, some who had them done in the past year or so (part of an art project that involved 100 people getting a tattoo of endangered species of plants and animals).

I think it's more that it's a trendy thing, it's fashionable. I just worry that it might be a phase people go through.

I mean, there are young people who are emo or metallers or whatever are the names of sub-culture groups, but some people will change, like it was a fashion or something, and in a few years, they'll change their dress, their hair, the music they like or whatever, people change and adjust and adapt over their lifetimes. But having a tattoo isn't like growing your hair in dreadlocks or dying it pink or having green streaks, or whatever. It might be trendy or fashionable now, but will they still look at that tattoo in 20 or 30 years time and think, yeah, cool. Or will they think omg, what was I thinking?

I know that might be hard to appreciate, because you're only 24, but think back to the clothes and hairstyle that you had when you were 10 or 12. Were you quite a cool kid? Or do you look back and think, Oh, I was a bit dorky, my mom cut my hair, I cringe when I look at those old school photos!

I think we all look back and cringe at some of the fashions we wore a few years ago, the way we styled our hair. I just think that a lot of people are going to look back in a couple of decades at this trend for getting tattoos and wonder why they went with the crowd, why they had to follow their friends like sheep and get a tattoo, like everyone else, as a symbol of their 'individuality'.

now that prim sunday school teachers have gone the 'too route, the bohemian crowd has moved on to even more radical body modifications, including implants, where they stick these weird metal objects under their skin, and on their private parts. blech. where will it end?

I never really saw the point. It's cool that people want to express themselves but the fact that it's permanent is a pretty big turn off for me. I can't think of anything I'd want on printed on my body forever. I guess I can understand if it's something deep and really important to you like the name of a loved one that has passed or whatever but I see a lot of tribal armbands, flames, logos, and other stupid stuff.

I doubt that God cares about tattoos. In some cultures tattoos symbolize something spiritual. In Korea there are artists who place them on people to protect them from evil spirits. Seventh Day Adventists believe that it is sinful to tattoo the body. I think it is silly to think that this is something that God would care about. Jesus said that our body is a prison and teaches (in the Gnostic scriptures) that if we worship the body we are Luciferians. It is not a temple to be worshiped. Our bodies do not last forever but our spirits do.

Personally, I think that if tattoos are performed reverently then they are very special to that person and we shouldn't judge them. If they are marked up carelessly with tattoos, then that does appear to be sort of ugly because it lacks harmony. I've experimented with cosmetic tattoos and have performed them on others. Some people have scars and I worked on camouflaging them as well as enhancing women's lips and eyebrows. It's tricky working with the blood though. It gets tattooed back into the skin and is a pain to adjust the colors. People who are diabetic can't be tattooed as their skin is thin and won't heal properly. People who get cosmetic tattoos can be judged as superficial, but who cares. What is the difference between putting on make up and getting a tattoo? If applied for purposes to have sexual appeal, is that something that is good? What is the intention of wearing make up? I wear it because I like to look better and that is weird isn't it? I don't feel free about it either because I have to do it or else I don't feel right.

While we are at it, answer this: Why do we comb our hair, color it, straighten it or curl it? Because deep down we are all evil I tell ya. I hate myself for it too. So, I will put on some make up to get into the part try to be someone I am not and while I am at it...I'm going to put on some nice clothes too that I just bought from the thrift store because after thinking about it I've decided that spending too much money on clothes is materialistic and evil and I don't want to represent myself like a yuppie whore who only cares about designer brands. What would Jesus say about spending a lot of money on purses and ipods and jewelry when people are starving in this world? We go into debt to represent ourselves as if we are some kind of important people who have these God temples for bodies and prance around to show off that we are better than the next person and then we are silly enough to brag about it and think that God would condone judging people for getting tattoos or sillier still, that we judge those who get tattoos in the name of God. It's all absurd.

I have two tattoos. I got my first one of Jack Skellington on the day after Christmas in '09, and my second one of a raven (as homage to Edgar Allan Poe) in July of this year.

I got the tattoos because it made me feel grown up and a little badass. Also, it probably made me feel empowered, in the sense that I could do whatever I wanted with my body.

The whole "your body is a temple" argument could go both ways. Who says you can't decorate your "temple" any way you wanted? It's YOUR temple, so only YOU can do whatever you want with it.

what diseases? in what situation were they tattooed?

True. Who cares what someone else wants to do to their own body?

I've got one. Maybe it wasn't the smartest decision I ever made, but I was 18. I did a lot of stupid stuff at 18. I just don't see tattoos as being a big deal, at all.