Tattoo Remorse

nope. still very happy with my ink. I put a reasonable amount of thought into placement and talked to my guy about it as well. I'm due for my next one next year - am thinking of having the first one brightened up at that point.

I have somewhat opposite remorse, sometimes.

I came very very close to getting a tattoo when I was 18, by a good friend who has become one of the premiere tattoo artists in the country (he's inked lots of famous people, Alton Brown is the only one I can remember right now).

I didn't, for a variety of reasons, and he's become a lot better than he was at the time so that part wasn't really a bad decision per se. The point is more that I've been very seriously thinking about it for a very long time.

It's really de rigueur amongst my set -- almost everyone my age/ education level/ politics/ whathaveyou has at least one tattoo.

OR... and here's the rub... they get it right around NOW. (40 is prime time.)

And that's starting to annoy me. I kind of wish that I'd already gotten one a long time ago so I wouldn't be one of THEM, or else just continue to go tattooless. There's a guy I know who's in his late 40's and just got some knuckle tattoos and it's just, sigh, not cool at all. Trying too hard. Sours me on the whole idea.

I've always been resistant to peer pressure, and being completely tattoo-free is almost more rebellious these days (again, within my social group, not society at large) than having one.

Anyway, that said ....

Right around when I was seriously considering letting my friend give me a tattoo, one of my best friends got a huge black handprint on her shoulderblade. It was meant to look like a hole, with a zombie or something peeking through. Creepy. Expensive. And she was completely over it about five years later, and had it removed (also expensive, and not completely gone).

Tattoo touch-up. I didn't know they did that.

I guess forethought is the key.

What were your thoughts on placement?

I sometimes think of getting one.
But I'm ascairt.

Forethought. I'm like soz in that I'd been thinking about it a lonnnnnnnnnng time. People kept saying that I'd regret it when I got older. I finally decided that I was old enough to know that I wouldn't regret it - decided what I wanted and then waited another couple of years ... just to be sure. Fourteen years after the first one I'm still happy that I started, and a bit annoyed with myself that I didn't believe in myself enough to start earlier.

The guy I go to is pretty clear on his rules - the most significant being that you have to explain the meaning of your planned tattoo to him. No random Mickey Mouse, Tasmanian Devil or Betty Boop coming out of his studio.

The three I have now can't be seen in regular work clothes. The one that is most likely to be seen is the one on the top of my right foot. The ink is for me, not for anyone else.

Placement. Tattoo 1 and 3 are on comparatively bony parts - top of foot and shoulder blade. Tattoo 2 is in a fleshier area, but not too prone to sliding or shrinking (perhaps somewhat regrettably).

I like your artist's ground rules. I would add verification of foreign
languages!

When my daughter got a tattoo, she got it on the nape of the neck,
easily concealed by a collar or long hair let down.



. . . maybe I'll get one for my 70th birthday.

oh yeah - no drunk tattoos done at the studio I go to. Similarly to most of the better places, you do a consultation re art and location at least two weeks in advance. Also - no names of partners - he will do kids' names, but no portraits.

I'm sure they'll believe you when you tell them you've thought about it long enough!

HA!

Love them, but don't have one.

Not that I haven't been tempted, but then I still scared of my grandmother.

When I was 18 I mentioned to her that I was considering getting one and she smiled and said I'd better not fall asleep in her presence. She said she knew where my grandad kept his belt sander and how it worked.

Knowing my grandmother I realized she wasn't making a joke and reconsidered.

Although my grandmother died in 1984 I'm still scared of getting a tat. She'd wait for me to fall asleep, drag herself out of her grave, find my belt sander, and perform a tattoo removal.

BTW I love going to tattoo shows, and have seen pieces of ink that I'd be proud to have on my ass, but my grandmother has always interceded.

Rap

Soz, I just gotta ask -- what would you get and where?

There's movie in there somewhere.

That's been part of my problem -- it's so cliche, but I LIKE it! So I keep going towards and away. I don't want a cliche!

A very long time ago -- 19? 20? -- I got a card that featured a biswo bazra. dorje, vajra, lots of names but a thunderbolt that destroys ignorance. I was on track to be a teacher at the time, and thought that was awesome.

I sat on it for a while, and then Sanskrit tattoos started to become a thing. That annoyed me.

I still have the card, right there <points>, framed on the top of the bookcase next to my computer.

Here's an image of it that I posted in a previous discussion....



The discussion goes into the many interesting elements of it, starting about here:

http://able2know.org/topic/46925-8#post-2348765

I'd want to get it on the upper part of my shoulder. (Like, opposite my bicep. What is that called? Blanking. Upper arm, not shoulderblade.) Preferably after my arms are a bit more buff, but maybe not.

I dunno. Reading that discussion makes me remember how much I like the meanings behind it, and I like the actual design, so maybe I have to just forget about the fact that Sanskrit is trendy and get it on my own terms.

Edit: btw ehBeth I don't consider you to be one of the annoying people, you got your first tattoo long enough ago that it was still interesting/risky to do it at the time. I'm talking about people who are early 40's now and got their tattoos in the last 2-3 years. It just reached a certain critical mass that I find a little offputting.

it's kinda like attorneys and accountants with a fancy Harley Davidson that they ride on the weekends...

I got mine almost 30 years ago, and it needs new color. the yellow is long gone, and the red is brownish.

but it still brings out comments and laughs, and it has not changed shape, even though I have...

it is a picture of Calvin that I drew and made a transfer of. he's poppin' the bird, with a big grin.

it's on the top of my shoulder where it can be covered in short sleeves, but I rarely wear sleeves...

I think it has something to do with perceived "coolness" (or not) George.
The original tattoo folk, in the earliest days, were making a sort of cutting edge statement ... or I'm thinking they believed they were.
Then (dammit!) everyone copied them!
Now their aunts & uncles, even their grandparents (!) & heaps of really uncool folk are tattooed, too!
Time for an image change! But ouch, ouch, ouch!

I don't have remorse, but I do spend a lot of time figuring out how to keep it covered for school.

People have gotten tatooed for thousands of years, for a variety of reasons. We are told (with somewhat dubious authority) that Druid priestesses among the Irish used to get tatooed from neck to wrist and ankle.

When James Cook was mapping the south Pacific, they stayed in Tahiti for a while, at a time when getting tatooed was all the rage among the locals. Many of Cook's seamen got tatoos, and in those days, that was mostly just patterns made up of dots, and the method was pretty rough, too. The person to be tatooed was carefully bathed (an uncommon experience for most English seamen in the 18th century), and then the tatoo "artist" would take a sharp flint or a shark's tooth, and cut into the skin according to the pattern, while an assistant would wipe away the blood and quickly rub ashes into the wound. To do the upper arms (the fashion at that particular time) took a couple of days.

When Cook returned to England, many people were horrified at first, considering it vulgar and barbaric--which means society people, and also means the working class from which the seaman came paid no attention. Tatoos became popular, and although their popularity has waxed and waned, it's never gone out of fashion since that time. Later European expeditions visited the Society Islands, the seamen got tatoos, and the fashion was sustained.

I went most of my life without a tattoo, wasn't opposed to it, just never saw a reason to get one.
Then, when my daughter turned 18, she had been waiting to get a tattoo for awhile. As it turned out, I was visiting her on her 18th, and rather than fight em, I joined em.
We both got our first tattoos at the same time, one artist did hers while the other did mine.
It really was a great experience and I can't imagine ever regretting it.

I suppose it all comes down to carefully choosing your reasons for a tattoo.