Tattoos?

Nmysys wrote: I wrote this:

I know this will start controversy but I am going to put it out there anyway. It is IMO either part of the Anti-God movement or done totally unaware of God's word.

It says very clearly In My Opinion, it is not a condemnation of anyone. Everyone is entitled in a Free Society to any self expression they wish. I choose not to have tattoos or piercings, just as I have chosen to have faith in My God. I do not say that everyone has to believe in My God, nor that everyone has to believe in some God. That too is your choice.

I did say that I knew it would cause controversy, and that is what I have always tried to do on here. In this case I have stated my opinion, and that too is a choice that I am free to make, as are all of you.

I didn't say that everyone who has a tattoo is trash. I will admit that I am put off by excessive tattoos but I have many friends that have ink and piercings.

You didn't say that those who have tattoos are trash, VL did.

Science Chic wrote: saying they are mutilations, against God's wishes, gotten by trailer trash or criminals, or just recent generations rebelling

This was a compilation of what several people had said (yours is bolded for clarification), I was trying to make my post less cumbersome and lengthy by not quoting every individual separately. See what happens when I try to condense?!

:faint:

major bean wrote: Call a thief a thief; a bastard a bastard; a crook a crook; a tramp a tramp; a piece of trash a piece of trash.

Please consider, that with your tunnel vision you zeroed in on one expression; "piece of trash". This speaks volumes of your inward fears of the opinion of others. Why did you not attack with the argument that those with tattoos are not "thieves"? or "crooks"?

(Added for clarity:
My post was speaking of broad and general subject of being opinionated/or not. None of the expressions given by me was specific to tattoo, but rather to all things in general. Quite often people are so open-minded that their brains fall out.)

Which is it, tunnel vision or being too open-minded? rofllol Tunnel vision and fears of others opinions of me, that I'm trash?? rofllol That's funny. Let me explain in greater detail my thought process so you understand where I'm coming from, and that none of this is about me at all.

A thief/crook is a thief/crook because of their actions, a bastard is a bastard because of a circumstance of parentage beyond their control, a tramp is a tramp because of the number of people that they sleep with in a given period of time. Those are all clear-cut, quantifiable, provable descriptions. However, the last, a piece of trash is a piece of trash, is a subjective opinion. One person's trash is anothers treasure. You made no qualifications as to who in your list would or would not have tattoos, and as your opinion, stated twice prior, was that those who get tattoos only do so to shock and out-do previous generations, implying that only ignorant or rebellious youth participate in this process, which only sometimes, not always, has something to do with being a thief, crook, or tramp, then the logical conclusion is that you meant that those with tattoos are pieces of trash. My apologies if this is not the conclusion that you intended.

Yes, I'd guess that a higher percentage of criminals have tattoos than do not, but I have no idea what the percentage is of non-criminals who have tattoos versus do not. Having a tattoo does not automatically make one a criminal, a piece of trash, mean they have it because they were an ignorant rebellious youth, or any of the other snap judgments mentioned by others. My original post was meant to give some historical context to tattooing - if it's been occurring for over 5,000 years, your statement that this has only become vogue because recent generations are trying to out-do their elders, is not so valid. And if it's been occurring for that long, and across diverse cultures, chances are that it's not being practiced by only the fringes/outlaws of society. More likely, tattoos are an important piece to many cultures' and religions' expressions of beliefs, and obviously have been so for many generations.

Like I already said, feel free to pass judgment on those who break established laws because of what they did, but to pass judgment on someone just because they've gotten a tattoo, regardless of how well or badly they've lived their life, is not the most accurate judgment to make - not everyone who gets a tattoo does so in order to "shock" others. Nor do they do so only because they are trailer trash, meth-heads, biker whores, anti-God, or criminals.

That's merely the point that I was trying to make: that making snap judgments or holding unfounded stereotypes without all the facts about a person who has a tattoo is short-sighted.

Saw these and remembered our discussion, had to post them! Does it make a difference if they are really unique, awesome pieces of artwork, and/or hidden where you usually wouldn't see them unless it's on their personal time? A while back I finished reading Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed by Carl Zimmer and Mary Roach; it was incredible. My two favorites are this Creation Equations one and Number 14 in a slideshow of some others from the book . Here are a bunch more , but they aren't as cool without the stories behind them because the reasons they got them, and some of the unique twists they did, are what make the book.

The best story in the book: a freshman got a tattoo of the entropy equation after taking Chemistry and falling in love with thermodynamics. Her mom wrote 4 months later to say that her daughter had died in a car crash right after coming home for the summer and that she was going to go get the same tattoo from the same artist to memorialize her. Then one year later another entry from a completely unrelated woman telling the story that her mother had a double lunch transplant and when they searched for the donor's family they found out it was the young lady with the entropy tattoo. It still makes me cry, even reading that one entry for the 3rd time.

This past weekend, I went to one of my friend's daughter's birthday party (they go all out every year, bouncy castle, balloon lady, face painter, catered, etc). I got a cool Chinese dragon painted on my forearm and now I want a tattoo, which is funny because up until that moment for my entire life I was vehemently opposed to getting one since I've found very few that I like on people.


From https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... t=1&ref=nf


This one is creepy; awesome skills to create it, but creepy! (Would you have second thoughts about getting naked with her?)

From https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... t=1&ref=nf