Tattoos

Amber posted about tattoos, and I replied with a comment about how I don't like them. This post isn't meant as an argument to her blog, but I've had all these thoughts today about tattoos, so I wanted to write my own post. I may have written about this before, but not in this depth. Here are some reasons I don't like tattoos:

1. I think they look cheap, or lower class. They kind of remind me of dime store jewlery that tarnishes after you wear it a few times. One of the things that really looks tacky to me is when you see a beautiful woman all dressed up walk by, and then see a tacky tattoo on her leg. It just de-classes her.

2. I can't even stand to wear the same shirt twice in the same week, why would I want a permanent thing to wear? That's one thing I like about jewelry, earrings in particular. I love being able to change them every day according to what I'm wearing.

3. As you age, some tattoos shift, or fade, then they look even more tacky. I had this older Chinese friend who went back to Shanghai for a visit with her family. While there she had her eyebrows removed and had new ones tattooed on so that she never had to draw on her eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil again. I told my beautician about it and she told me that eyebrows shift as we get older. So eventually, my chinese friend's eyebrows will be in the wrong place on her face. Not to mention, I felt the shape they gave her was not attractive.

4. Tattoos aren't easy to remove, and sometimes can only be faded, not entirely removed.

5. Tattoo artists can make mistakes. My son's friend had a tattoo done on his arm as a way to celebrate his entrance in to the Marines. It was a picture of flesh torn, with a flag showing through, and Khaki under that. But the tatoo artist put the flag on backwards....

6. The other thing I can never understand is why people put tattoos in places they can't see without doing some major acrobatics with a mirror.

7. Tattoos and extreme piercings send out a message of a certain image that I don't want to identified with. I heard this radio ad today for a company...can't remember what the company was. The owner of the company said, "We believe in having freedom of choice. We believe that if you want to have tattoos all over your body, go ahead. And if you want to have so many piercings that you set off the metal detector at the airport, more power to you. We appreciate your freedom to choose what you want. But we reserve our right to freedom of choice too. If you have tattoos and piercings, don't come to us to apply for a job." Another voice said, "You mean you won't even hire someone with a tattoo or piercing?" The Owner said, "Let's put it this way, what did you think when your daughter brought home her date named, "Slash"? Exactly! We don't want our customers alarmed by our servicemen's appearance. We will only hire people who we feel represent high values and trustworthiness." I'm not sure I remembered that exactly word perfect, but I think that's pretty close.

Do I think tattoos are evil? No. Do I think God will punish you for having one? No. But I do believe our bodies are temples, and frankly, I don't want graffitti on my walls. The only tattoo that ever even crossed my mind was a very small script written on my wrist that says, "Allergic to morphine" ;)