Will Someone Please Explain

[howeird]

What's the deal with tattoos? Jimmy Buffet calls them "a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling" but I know people who have planned their little tats for a long time. I understand the sailor getting drunk thing, alcohol does an amazing job of negative IQ enhancement. But what about the rest of you?

---

And while I'm at it, face piercings. Almost every culture has ear piercings, so I guess that's the way humans are wired, but for me there is a ginormous "eeeeeewwww" factor when I see a pierced eyebrow, nose, chin or any other part of the face. Pierced body parts are more of a WTF than a eeeeww for me, I have no idea why.

Comments

[lironess.livejournal.com]

I have a scar on my back from a botched freckle removal. I hate it. I wanted to get a tattoo over it for the longest time but my ex said that he would divorce me if I did (he is Jewish). I wanted a dragon because for many years I was really into them, reading about them and collecting figurines.

I fianlly went to get it, I was going to have it done with no ink so that it would be a private thing. Only I would know that it was there and my marriage, such as it was, would be safe. LOL.

When I went in my friend drew the picture for me to approve. It was really cool but a bit too big. Then in the next booth someone started getting hers and she yelped. That along with the explanation that they use something like a sewing machine needle that pokes hundred of times per minute.....well I cheesed out and paid her half and left. I use a sewing machine and have felt what kind of pain they can inflict.

Later I had her draw it on my back with ink pens and take picture. Because it was temporary she drew it REALLY BIG. Like a quarter of my back.

My ex freeked out and keep screaming that it may not wash off and what if it stayed. What a dick he was. So I let him wipe it off with alcohol.

For me it was cosmetic, and something that I had always thought was cool and that I had wanted for a long time. It was supposed to be quite small and more for me than anything else. I should have gotten it and gotten rid of my ex a lot sooner before he had a chance to max out the credit cards...sigh.

I know a lot of people who have facial piercings. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don't. I once say this strikingly beautiful young woman who had a bunch and they all enhanced her beauty except for the one hanging out of her nose. It reminded me of the kind they put in pigs and it was like seeing a beautiful painting with a big slash through it.

There are a lot of reasons that people do this. For some it is to try to stand out as an individual. Some it is a symbol of something that only they know about. Some it is a pain and endorphin thing. Just depends on the person. I think everyone has their own reason....

I am mostly over wanting to get a tattoo. I may someday get one if I can find the right artist, I may not....

[howeird]

Interesting - freckle removal? And how odd to want to put one blemish on top of another, I'm guessing where most people won't even see it?

The Jewish thing might be one reason I don't understand tats or piercings. My mother did not get her ears pierced until she was about 40, because her parents told her it was against Jewish law. My father didn't think this was true because his mother had pierced ears, but his mother was part Gypsy, and they pierce both boys' and girls' ears at a young age. I studied up on it when Mom had her ears done (she wanted her menfolk to fill them with jewels, which we did) and the prohibition is against mutilating your body in any way as a form of worship. It is not prohibited for decorative purposes. But then there are a ton of Jewish "laws" which don't appear anywhere in the Bible but are clung to by the Orthodox as if they are. Keeping your head covered, not mixing milk and meat, not driving on the Sabbath are all prime examples.