I was in Thailand last year and a western girl was thinking about getting her first tattoo done, on her ankle. She was easily young enough to be my daughter, and I did my best to dissuade her.
I told her about a friend of mine who, having joined senior management in a college, had tried to get tattoos taken off his forearms, so he could go short-sleeved at work, without embarrassment. The result on his arms was horrific.
I told her about my sister who had a badly written bit of grafitti tattooed on her lower back, with an arrow pointing down at her bum.
I pointed out that the design this girl had come up with.... it looked like a phone pad doodle.... was going to be there for the rest of her life. She had a mohican and I said it would be like having to wear the same hairstyle for the rest of her life.
But, do kids listen to the older generation? She had it done, it looked pretty crap.... and I couldn't (for the sake of her sanity) bring myself to be anything other than enthusiastic.
Am I just an old fuddy-duddy..... or are tattoos a really bad idea?
I agree!! I dislike tattoos a lot, and getting them done abroad freaks me aout a little.
However I think tattoos are a little bit like marmite; love them or hate them. I find them annoying and unattractive and coud safely say I would never get one, but I know pleanty of people who love every one of their tattoos.
So nope you're not a fuddy duddy, plenty of younger people dislike them too.
im a tattooist so i think its bretty obvious im gonna wholeheartedly disagree . some people will regret their choices .. but pushing other peoples horror stories is about aspolite as me telling a pregnant woman whis terrified that my baby was so big he tore right through my ass . its just unneccesary . id personally try an dissuade any man from going out in public wearing flipflops so we have to see his ugly toees cos that s a horror i cant erase from my mind .. others would disaggree so i dont . live & let live . its ignorant to think we will all feel the same as everyone else about choices made when we are older . really ignorant .
I would never get a tattoo, my son and his girlfriend both have them, but i have to say they both thought about what they would look like and where there were on the body so that they would not be visible when at work.
It would not be appropriate for them to have visible tattoos as they both work with young children
i helped out at my sons infant school a lot when he was younger and i have one almost entirely blacked out arm , hand and knuckle tattoos , facial tattoos and my neck an chest are covered . made NO difference to how i was with the children . i LIKE being so heavily tattooed as it seems to be a great way to sepereate the wheate from the chaffe of humanity for want of a betterturn of phrase ... the people who look at me with a sneer for my tattoos .. clearly not worth bothering with if theyre willing to be that horrid to a stranger , the ones who take the time to get to know a person irregardles of wheat is JUST essentially a picture on skin ... theyre the ones to bother with :)
Love tattoos as long as they are tasteful and well done. I've seen girls with entire sleeves and they were absolutely gorgeous. They were so well done and beautifully designed.
However, a picture of a woman with her boobs out on your forearm is not cool. Especially when you start having kids! x
I have 2 tattoos & I thought about them totally before I got them they are both butterfllies one on my foot and one on my back with 3 butterflies . I got my 1st at 21 and my last one at 23 I really love them and I love them on men . They can actually mean something to people there is a story behind them.
I do think some people dont think about what they are getting before they get them done and you have to live with them for the rest of your life , hence why I got mine where I can either cover them up or not see them . Each to their own but at the end of the day its a form of art and it can be very beautiful.
I think tattoos can look great. My partner has a few and i love them, think they look really sexy.
I don't have any, i have considered it but couldn't think of anything that i really wanted and again i think you do have to give it a lot of thought and remember you will have to live with it for a long time.
I got my first, and at the moment only tattoo at 43, a winged heart with my son's initials inside. It is on my hip so is only visible when I choose it to be. That doesn't stop his sisters from gleefully shouting 'look at mummys tattoo' while yanking my top up. I don't mind but it is normally when we are working and they always lift the top higher than necessary.
I think that it is a very personal choice but one which needs to be made carefully. Choose the design and location wisely and the tattooist even more so.
To be honest I don't really understand why people want them. It's something that's just never interested me. I think some look nicer than others but persomally I just don't get it. As for looking sexy if someone looks sexy then suerly the do with or without a tattoo. Someone who isn't sexy to me doesn't become sexy because of a tattoo and similarly someone who think is attractive isn't less sexy without one.
I got my first tattoo done last October ,I had thought about having one for ages ,it's on the inside of my hip so it's only on show if I choose to,have to say I love it makes me smile every time I see it :-) x
i have a "tramp stamp" tattoo, and i love it, i often forget about it, then glimpse it in the mirror and it makes me smile and reminds me of a certain time, its very personal to me
my friend hates them and said how would i feel when im sat in nursing home and somebody is wiping my arse and seeing that - i replied i would have worse things to worry about and if i still had my brain cells would smile and say ah, that was a good time of my life!!!
but, (always a but) my daughter wants one and i have told her that she has to have it where she can cover it up as she doesnt know where her career will take her at 17 and not every job aproves of them
My kid sister has a skull inside a rose tattooed on her arm and my brother has a chinese dragon. It looks awful on both of them. My brother also has the names of his children and his wife on his skin, which is fair enough, but we're not allowed to mention the one of his ex. I love them dearly but wtf were they thinking!
I've got a curiosity about tattoo's and always ummed and ahhed about getting one but was never sure what I wanted or where. Its a big decision to make and I never felt sure enough to be able to make a permanent decision about what to adorn my skin with. So I decided not to.
I do find my partners tattoos sexy, don't know why but i always have. Or course it may be to do with the fact i find him very sexy in general and they're a part of him but obviously i wouldn't any less attracted to him if they weren't there nor are they what attracted me to him in the first place.
I don't think its that unusual for people to find things that might be considered extensions to us as people (clothes, makeup, hairstyles, jewellery, piercing, tattoos) sexy or attractive but i doubt anyone would base their attraction solely on one of these things.
Just to throw more fuel on the fire...... at one time, I did some work with old folks and one chap, an 80 year old ex-sailor, had tattoos on his forearms that had been there for 60 years. Over time, they had blurred so much that they were totally unreadable. So it's all very well getting a butterfly tattooed on your breast, but when you're an OAP, it's going to look like a misplaced third nipple :)