Tatoos - classic or dud / search and destroy?

But I've talked with the boys and we've decided that whenever we formalize this relationship then we'll probably all get small tatoos placed on our bodies, to signify that connection and committment. We're currently talking about designs that would mean something specific to us, but that would not be obvious to others (I'm thinking along the lines of a stylized turtle and a quill with an ink pot, or something like that). I'm also thinking that I want to start working with henna tatoos, to see if I can find some designs that I like.

I once was engaged to a man who was covered ankle to neck in tatoos, in various stages of completion. They were stunning. I used to spend hours exploring the intricate details of some of the images.

i have none, as of yet. which of you lady ilxors shall accompany me to get a large bass clef inked upon my right upper bicep?

J - you can come with Sam and I when we do the nipple thing and we'll watch you get tattooed.

If I were going to get a tattoo I'd have to get something useful, like a tattoo of a better looking guy on my face.

(my wife hates that joke because I've told it at every opportunity for ten years. Thank you for the opportunity to tell it again).

it's a deal!

The best tattoos, I suspect, are generally the ones designed by the people who wear them. Anders Nilsen, the cartoonist behind Big Questions, has a row of birds on his forearm that's just spectacular.

I think tattoos and piercings can be beyond hella hawt, but can also go too far. Fr'instance, if I can put my finger through the hole in your ear without touching your flesh, I'm prob'ly gonna say "ew".

I would never have a tatoo myself tho.

Pierced noses and ears are classic. Otherwise - dud.

Can anyone account for the fact that tatoos seem to be getting more popular for women and less popular for men?

(And maybe it's more causal than that: tattoos becoming less popular for men because they're becoming more popular for women, cause if every third high-heeled ankle you see has a butterfly on it, ink doesn't seem quite so manly anymore.)

Ah but in Bloomington they do!

(I so miss seeing the 10 a.m. walk of shame girls tripping down 46 on a lovely hoosier sunday morn!)

So far, aside from some overaged trick-or-treaters last night (...), things are not much different than during the summer. Much much more crowded (I wanted to pick up some comic books downtown; we made trips on three separate days before we were able to find parking anywhere remotely nearby), but so far, not very loud or drunk or etc.

There are more tattoo parlors here than in New Orleans, though, which is crazy insane.

not just overaged but EARLY!

http://www.soulfulliving.com/tools/images/MA_Tranquility_Lotus_Decal_204.JPG

or

http://www.soulfulliving.com/tools/images/MA_Golden_Lotus_Decal_204.JPG

But yeah, um, no.

Out of the many, many tattoos I've seen, just a couple have actually looked good. But nothing that would be worth permanently marking yourself with.

-first if you get clip art (flash for the ink-literate) tattooed on you then yes you are lame.

-I seriously doubt any tattoo artist would do the lenticular thing. They'd go blind.

-I do not like tribal. Played out. Unless you are from New Guinea or something.

-If you think tats are becoming less popular with men then you obviously don't move in circles with the kinds of guys I do.

-I understand Nickalicious' piercer friend. She sounds like my tat artist/friend D. who often refuses to do pieces. Inkers/Piercers are artists, not just service people. While you must both agree on the work just because you're willing to pay them doesn't mean they have to be willing to do something they don't like. If you look at them as talented artists and open yourself up to their expertise and opinions you're much more likely to end up with a beautiful one of a kind piece.

People who don't realize this are the dolts who walk around with flash butterflies on their ankles and give all us other inked people bad reputations.

It's not that men aren't getting tattooed, it's just -- it seems to me -- that it's no longer the trendy default, the way it was for a few years there when it seemed like nobody got through sophomore year of college without ink somewhere.

I have both my ears pierced twice. When I went to get my ears pierced a second time, I was nervous, but when it was over, I realized just how much *fun* it was to get my ears pierced. The afterward procedure was a bit involving, but still much easier than having to take care of a surgical scar.

Now I wouldn't mind one bit getting my ears pierced again. And again. And again. I think I'd be happy with four piercings in each ear -- three on the lower part of the ear and one up near the top. And there *was* the time when I wanted a nose piercing *so* badly. I think it was back around 1995 or so when I started getting into Joan Osborne and I remember seeing those close-up photos of her with her nose piercing, and I realized just how pretty it looked.

Dud:
http://www.profitsontheweb.com/texastattoos/images/75061.jpg

Classic
http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2002-10-10/goods_mystyle-1.gif

Dud
http://www.liberationtattoos.com/tattoos-human_animal_lib2.jpg

Apart from a bloody episode after I lost a drinking game in college (resulting in a Maltese Cross earing in my left lobe for a grand total of about fourteen swollen, painful hours), I've never been pierced, nor harbored a grand desire to undergo it, nor quite understood its appeal. Tatoo-wise, there've been moments I flirted with it, but I don't think I could ever settle on an image I'd be happy with for the rest of m'life (contenders at the time were: the cover or Kiss' Rock'n'Roll Over, the Stranglers' Raven logo, the ribbon design on Killing Joke's Revelations album or a portrait of Brak from "Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast"). Glad I never did, and I dare suggest that I probably never will.

I've never understood this. Why does everyone assume that "wanting to be an individual" is the motivation for ink? I wanted a tattoo. I picked something I liked the look of. I got a tattoo. There was no soul-searching here, or pining to burn with a flame of a brand new color.

I have T-shirts. A bunch of them. I bought them at a store. Other people obviously have the same shirts. It's never bothered me.

I have a haircut I didn't have custom-tailored, so hey, somebody's got my haircut, too.

These shoes? Footlocker. Thirty bucks. Couldn't pick my own feet out of a lineup in em.

I'm 28, not 14. The fuck should I care how well I blend into a crowd?

Yeah, you know what? I AM gonna be a wrinkled 80 year old woman with faded, sagging tattoos (well, no, knowing me, I'll get them touched up), but I'll enjoy every last minute of it and I don't give a flying fuck if I'll look like every other wrinkled, tattooed woman of my generation.

It's part of who I am.

Oh, maybe. You mean to get a tat that's unique even if tattooing isn't? What I said about mine still applies -- it's just a bit from tons of comic strips, by way of Brat Pack..

Traditionally tats have usually been intended to make an outsider/rebel/status type of statement - so while this may not apply to the "tat as aesthetic choice" attitude that's common now, it's still a relevant comment on the phenomenon as a whole.

Yeah, but going from that to "it's silly because everyone does it, so you won't be different" just seems like a retread of the "I don't like Nirvana now that everyone knows who they are" crap from high school.

(whoa, shitload of xposts)

Maybe there ought to have been, seeing as you're going to have it for the rest of your life (although I know this is no longer the case either, as tatoos can be removed.....and doesn't that aspect of it cheapen the whole concept for you?)

i>

Well, granted, in this case I'm not really saying, "... and everyone else did it that way, too," that's just a me thing. I'm more likely to do something like that when it's an impulse than when it's something I thought over, cause it usually works better that way. The tattoo's generic enough -- it's the @#*! comics use instead of swearing -- that I figure it's pretty timeless, unless there's some kind of politicized ASCII movement in a couple decades.

The removal, nah, it neither cheapens it nor appeals. I like the idea of having permanent things I might not like later. I mean, we get those sorts of things all the time -- things we acquire that can only be removed with effort and cost -- but at least I can see this one.

and I say something pretty similar!!

I said nothing of the sort. I merely expressed my opinion. If you wanna go tatoo a big ol' Yin Yang on your buttocks framed by a halo or ornately detailed barb-wire and cirlced by vengeful poi fish, that's your perogative. Just don't ask me to be impressed.

Seriously, Alex, what?

I didn't get my tattoos to be a rebel/unique/whatever. I already AM unique without them. I just happened to like the way they looked.

Oh! Ok, that makes sense then, considering I didn't see it (the ring) highlighted on the cover of her Righteous Love album. Hm, gives me an idea -- should really get me one of those fake rings. Will still probably spook the 'rent, but won't freak her out nearly as much as a permanent piercing. Still, it would be nice.

and it seems virtually every person that strolls by me has a navel piercing and at least a tattoo or three (it seems just about every girl I see has something inked between the small of their backs and the crack of their posterior)

This is not just a NYU thing. I see tons and tons of females my age or younger with navel piercings, though the majority of them who would also have a tattoo have one that circles around one of their ankles, usually the left one. It just makes me feel even more like a throwback from the teenaged '50s, which is great for me.

*tosses back ponytail, neatly arranges pleated knee-length skirt*

http://lookinside-images.amazon.com/Qffs+v35leqva7a3vToXQEojHzXHwAfnbGXbu8iu+QsnMZB20b/NKMnwIlKPDbAU7kV+a32iFxo9T3WBke4MkPAUdXGrgrYOAF5UYtyuP30SU2X73oZIqMAw3ZFAp5SrixnrDvQiYdisMrFQ6fEiqwocqpkJO6riyj3OZ92ZxX7GBokqBJmkLZnYH/fj5ay4

http://images.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2003410573,00.jpg

Ha ha, this comment is particularly well timed, no? Huh, Alex, huh? *nudge nudge, wink wink*

for me, i want a sense of personal iconography. I came REAL close to getting a Factory Records "circle-F" logo on my arm(think the cover of Still or a Husker Du circle-icon.

Now, i'm pretty much set on a bass clef for my right upper bicep, since i play bass, and a treble clef for my left upper bicep, for symmetry.

altho, i'm not a fan of piercings, really, since i see so many locally where the point seems to be complete plastic deformation of body tissue.

or sneeches.

(btw i wasn't talking about you specifically.)

This image (just the face, no logo), on my back across my left shoulder blade.

http://www.redvicmoviehouse.com/images/nosferatu.jpg

On Monday one of my kids came in with a big black blob on his shoulder and said 'look at my tattoo' i thought 'yeah whatever.' He came in today and his arm was all wrapped up in gauze. I asked what happened he said he peeled the scab off his tattoo and a lot of skin came off. I asked who did the tat and he said "I did!" I then launched into one of my lectures against home tattoos telling him how careful professionals were about cleanliness. (By now a crowd of students has formed since it's obvious I'm a Tattoo Expert.)

I tell him doing it himself he can catch Hepitatis (unimpressed) and the tat could get infected and he could lose his arm.

Squalls of disbelief. I struggle to keep a straight face.

Yes, I tell him, if your arm gets infected you could get gangrene and they would have to amputate. He says he doesn't believe me but I can see the look of worry in his eyes. heh heh.

Your thoughts:

A red turntable arm running down from my shoulder to just before my elbow where there is a stylus.

this is either the worst or best idea i've had today.

i have plans of getting a tattoo myself:

http://www.plainparade.org/etc/metuchen.jpg

its a silouhette of my hometown -- the heart is where i live in relation to the city. i think im going to get it on my arm, about 2 x2 inches.

- a fleur-de-lis sorta like on dis flag:

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/u/us-ky-lv.gif

on my right arm, three or four colors (sans clunky bad computer img)

- an eternal knot like dis:

http://www.zambalagifts.com/images/products/FA-PI-001_t.jpg

on my left arm, three or four colors.

-a quarter and dime (not to scale), each on the insides of my wrists (quarter on right, dime on left), two colors.

-a nickel and penny (not to scale), each on the insides of my leg just above the ankles (nickel on right, penny on left), two colors.

-a compass point, five or six colors, not sure where it would work tho.

i would only let d3r3k snodgr@$$ and daniel higgs tattoo me, if i ever got these done. but i don't think i ever will since i hate needles, am poorish, and generally have gotten over the idea of getting them.