<p>I’m considering one, and I’d probably get it if I had the funds (mom and dad don’t wanna fund that one ;)).</p>
<p>My mom and dad told me that it’s my body and my decision, but also that I should try considering the same one for at least 6 months before I put thought into action.</p>
<p>I don’t have a problem with tattoos, but I agree that they don’t look great on 80 year old bodies. I’ve always wanted one on my ankle.</p>
<p>My younger daughter got a tattoo as soon as she turned 18 last summer. ( you must be 18 even with parental permission)
It wasn’t what I would have chosen ( her adinkra symbol), but it is tasteful and she likes it.
Most important qualities to me. </p>
<p>I expect she will be getting another one soon, the first was to celebrate her trip to Africa, and next week she is going to India- as long as she waits to get back to Seattle to get her tattoo- anything she gets will be fine with me.</p>
<p>Reminds me of my daughter’s trip to India. She had I were e-mailing back and forth and she commented on day that she wasn’t sure if she would get a silk sari made or not.</p>
<p>Fast forward three or four weeks. I get an e-mail saying that she is “thinking about” getting her nose pierced. I e-mailed back an eight word reply:</p>
<p>“Maybe, you should just go for the sari.”</p>
<p>She said she and her friend read my e-mail in an internet cafe and burst out laughing. Of course, they went next door to the piercing guy. Oh well.</p>
<p>Tats look horrible with any sort of party dress or even casual wear. Yeah, that $3k wedding dress just isn’t complete without a tat, right? In fact any clothing where it’s showing will cause people to give her looks and not the looks she wants. How will her future supervisors, mentors, fellow doctors fell about it? Most of the ones she will be trying to impress for her residency and future offers for departments will be older and not so accepting. If the head of the department was considering two equally qualified interns does she really think she’d get the position because she has a mermaid? Sure, she’s going to say the supervisor will not see it, but he/she will as social gatherings, the Christmas party, the bbq to welcome a visiting VIP, dinner/drinks after shift, etc. As a patient, I would change doctors if I saw a tatoo or body piercing. Sorry, but impressions do count. </p>
<p>Putting aside the debate of to tat or not to tat, a mermaid is a little bit juvenile. Will she still be into mermaids at 30, 40, 70? Not that the blob would remotely resemble a mermaid at 70, but whatever. </p>
<p>Which brings up the permanent aspect. Has she bought a new pair of jeans in the last 6 months or is she still wearing the same ones she wore 10 years ago? She won’t be ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the latest spring sandals in a couple months? She hasn’t changed her hairstyle since 6th grade? We all know the answer to those questions, so how can she justify getting something drilled into her flesh that could remain there for the next 50 years? </p>
<p>You say her bf didn’t like the belly ring so she removed it. A tatoo isn’t so easily removed for future suitors or a husband. Many a young man has said they think any girl with a tat is trashy. To each his/her own but we’re back at impressions again. She’s young and needs to get her foot in the door, not have the door slammed shut because she thinks a mermaid tat is today’s “in” thing.</p>
<p>I don’t think most people feel that strongly about tattoos. I know doctors, lawyers, CEOs with tattoos.</p>
<p>I grew up on a farm. Tattoos always remind me of the ink stamps on pig carcasses… Some examples:</p>
<p>[Ketchum</a> Meat and Poultry Processing](<a href=“http://www.ketchum.ca/pages/meatpacker/meatpacker7.htm]Ketchum”>http://www.ketchum.ca/pages/meatpacker/meatpacker7.htm)</p>
<p>When I see a young person with a tattoo, I always wonder where they got it and whether it came with a little bonus (HIV, HCV, HBV, etc.).</p>
<p>I think your D needs to see this thread.</p>
<p>“Maybe, you should just go for the sari.”</p>
<p>mine already has her nose pierced- I have wanted my nose pierced since I was 16 and a friend had it done. It looked really exotic on her. But I am not really an exotic type- unless I went to India- then I would be pretty unusual I guess.</p>
<p>My H doesn’t like tattoos, but I have wanted one of those too. I am thinking a peony- on my shoulder ( the same place where D has her symbol) I don’t worry about them being old and saggy- I eventually will be old and saggy with or without a tattoo, and if I like it- that is all I think is important.</p>
<p>( I would be concerned if she got a tattoo in India however- the tattoo shop in our neighborhood follows sterile practices and won’t even pierce minors without parental permission, although that is not required by the state.)</p>
<p>I would also say, that if a future romantic partner didn’t like it- then that is a good way to screen the control freaks out.</p>
<p>I also have done massage and you would be really surprised at the numbers and ages and incomes of people with tattoos. I know I was. ;)</p>
<p>BB - I grew up on a farm too but we didn’t tattoo our pigs - we only had a few though and killed them and prepared the meat on the farm. I can’t get near fresh pork to this day. I hated hog killing day.</p>
<p>I, too, am of the crowd that cannot stand tattoos, I don’t have any moral or ethical issue with any of you getting one, but I really prefer my DDs not get one. They look trashy in my opinion and since i am old and cranky, I don’t think my opinion will change. I have said if they ever decide to get one on their own put it somewhere private (hip covered by bikini bottom, etc) so that should they later regret it, it stays private.</p>
<p>My nephew is a gifted and talented tattoo artist who works around the world, Europe, Asia, etc for months at a time and I can truly appreciate his aesthetic talents, but on my DDs lower back it is still a tramp stamp.</p>
<p>I have found that I do well at not judging their friends who do have tattoos just based on the tattoo or any of those unpleasant parent behaviours, but I still don’t want my kids to get one. I try to remind them how badly we scar and suggest if they ever go there, they keep it hidden so if they do keloid, that too is not in an obvious spot.</p>
<p>I think a lot of people have negative views of tatoos…maybe not as strong as nunya, but some very valid points brought up in that post.
I think most people who get them would be sick of them at some point. I have seen a young lady I know that tatooed a sun around her belly button. She has since had a baby and it looks pretty bad now…</p>
<p>This is not a judgment. But, if the purpose of the tattoo is just for the enjoyment of the wearer, why is it ever in a place where the wearer can’t see it, and only for others to see? I mean, when it’s on the back of the shoulder or lower back.</p>
<p>My D has a tattoo. I would have preferred that she did not get one. We discussed it. Ultimately, she decided to a get a small one in an inconspicuous place. I went with her when she got it. We shared the moment—lol!</p>
<p>I remarked to my sister–Won’t all these kids be embarrassed later in life with these tattoos? Her thoughts were, no, because there will be a lot of folks their age w/ tattoos. In other words, we think 50+ yr olds look creepy w/ tattoos, but by the time they are 50+ it will be fairly common place.</p>
<p>BTW, my mom would not let me get pierced ears when I was young because it had a lower class stigma. Obviously that is not the case now. AND, my 83 yr old mom nowhas double piercings in each ear!!</p>
<p>I think this is a generational thing and maybe even a regional thing to a certain degree. I know doctors with visible tatoos. I know quite a few business school professors. In fact, I know a female Ivy League business school professor, who used to appear on the back cover of several major magazines scaling a rock cliff (advertising their top business school). She had MANY tatoos (one of which was under her hair which she wore down but if she lifted it up, her head was shaved at the back and you could see one of her tatoos. You’d never have guessed. I always loved juxapositions. You CAN be ultra-conventionally successful and very cool and edgy at the same time.</p>
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<p>I’ve yet to see a great looking 80 year old body, regardless of whether or not it has a tattoo! :)</p>
<p>^funny and good point!!</p>
<p>Valid point, alwaysamom :D, though I gotta admit my mum looks incredible- never ever spent any time in the son, she is mid 80s and looks very young, and moves and acts young</p>
<p>I let my daughter get two tattoos when she was 16. I got two myself at the same time. She is now a Postulant for the Episcopal priesthood and has no regrets about the tattoos. She also didn’t have an issue with them at her wedding, and one was visible on her shoulder. It’s just not that big of a deal anymore.</p>
<p>I’d say that just as many of my friends, many in graduate school and the corporate world, have tattoos as haven’t. I’d probably have one if I had something particularly meaningful. I’d probably put it on my ribs. </p>
<p>Standards are changing. The younger generation isn’t as hung up over stuff like this.</p>
<p>"Tats look horrible with any sort of party dress or even casual wear. Yeah, that $3k wedding dress just isn’t complete without a tat, right? In fact any clothing where it’s showing will cause people to give her looks and not the looks she wants. "</p>
<p>Tats are so commonplace now that I think that only ultra conservative people and very narrow minded people give negative second glances to or think poorly of people with tattoos.</p>
<p>While I don’t want a tat myself, I think tats look fine with any outfit. As for the argument that tats will look bad when people get old and wrinkled, their skin will look old and wrinkled with or without a tattoo.</p>
<p>I think that tats and piercings are the younger generations’ version of rebelling just like our generation rebelled by having various hairstyles like long hair on guys, and blacks wearing their hair natural. Tats and piercings have become mainstream just like natural hair on African Americans, and long hair on guys is not something out of the ordinary any more.</p>