Inked Up., opinions on people with tattoos. Options

[mytangerine]

alright, so if you're walking down the street & you see someone hella tattooed up; what is your first reaction?

examples;
"omg totally awesome!!"
"they're so brave, i'd never be able to do that!"
"they are such an idiot! it's PERMANENT!"
"AH! scary!"

i dunno, what do you think? i personally am amazed & completely admire them.

[Rosemary]

Personally, I can't see myself getting a tattoo at any point in the forseeable future, part of that is probably because I can't even comprehend what I would get! In all honesty I can't see myself finding one on my own body particularly attractive, but I have absolutely nothing against tattoos in general, and I think they can look completely fabulous on some people, I neither glorify them nor hate them. My housemate has a beautiful, large tattoo that wraps around her calf, and it really suits her. I once very briefly dated a man with tattoos all over his body, and he really suited them.

I do think it's somewhat sad that tattoos are viewed in such a negative way by employers, but at the same time everyone is expected to conform at work by wearing suitable work attire (and therefore look roughly the same), so I don't really understand why people are offended when tattoos aren't an exception to that general rule. I don't know, people seem to take it more personally in the workplace when they're being asked to confirm with their skin than with their clothes. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's necessarily right that in this day and age that tattoos and any "unconvenional" appearances are frowned on at work (that's a whole different topic!), but it's the way things are at this point in time, so getting tattoos in places that are difficult to cover up when you still have plenty of jobs to apply for in the future is a little foolish in my opinion.

when a person is old & got tattoos when they were young, i'm sure that they would still look at it as being a way of remembering the kind of person they were in the past. sure, people change & tattoos are kind of risky since you might end up hating it a few years later, but normally there is a purpose to getting one/some. the whole tramp stamp & hip bone star/heart/butterfly thing can be considered pretty pointless. But even that could be a 'coming of age, look what i can do' thing that could mean something to the person.

I agree with this :) Many people are so concerned about their external apperance that doing anything that may compromise physical attractiveness is often deemed completely ridiculous and insane (how often do you see really extreme reactions to tattoos/cosmetic surgery?). It's only skin, and if what you're doing means something to you then go with it. Nothing is permanent, tattoos can be covered up or removed to some extent, just as your perfect tattoo-free blank canvas could be destroyed if you were involved in an accident tomorrow. When my housemate is old and wrinkly I'm sure she'll look back at her tattoo with fond memories of being in her twenties and won't regret it at all. :)