Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Beatrice]

 

... would i regret it?

[slink]

If it was Phillippe. And prospective lays thought it was a tattoo of a c*ck maybe. Maybe not...

[littlefallsmets]

I am of the firm opinion that all tattoos, of anything, anywhere on your body, are regretable.

To my eyes, they look off-puttingly masculine on ladies and look like ludicrious posturing on fellows.

"Oh wow, you had someone scar your flesh with ink, you are SO COOL. Are you going to get a faux-hawk next week? I would think you were even tougher then. I am so impressed. Can I have your autograph, tough guy? You are. So. Tough."

I realize that some people have, like, spiritual reasons or whatever for some of these things so I do my best to keep quiet and be non-judgemental about the entire affair but... you asked, I answered.

At a minimum, 83% of all tattoos gotten are people just kind of trying to... rebel or shock people or prove something or in some other way prove what radical individuals they are by doing something that everyone else is doing.

I can think of no idea so important to me that I would cut it into my flesh. Many things are very important to me and if I want to express them to someone else? I will talk to people about these things. I will totally say: "Oh, you know what? I think The Venture Brothers is totally rad."

I do not need to have Brock Sampson burned into my arm.

I can just say "Brock Sampson is awesome."

I have a mouth and I totally don't need to scream.

[robot_god]

Yes, but probably less than some other tattoo.

[linnea]

I am of the opinion that people who get other people's imaginary characters tattooed upon themselves...well, to me it smack of un-originality. It just seems weird and contrived to me. I remember seeing this meth-addicted punk at an IHOP restaurant in suburban Denver with literally dozens of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac tattoos all over his body. He thought he was so badass. He just looked ridiculous. Jhonen Vasquez is never going to be that kid's friend, so why is he turning his skin into a knockoff imagined Jhonen sketchpad?

[jough]

I guess it depends on:

1) Where on your body the tattoo is placed, and

2) Which character you get tattooed

Tell us these things and we'll tell you if you'll regret it (maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, etc.).

I'll go on record now saying Lyle, on your neck, probably a Bad Idea.

[theinevitable]

nothing you can do will beat a tattoo of this that my ex has. Yes, she is 17. yes, she got it in a creepy place in NY.

It isn't actually the whole thing-- it's just the girl's head and the text. I basically told her it was the ugliest and least intelligent thing she could have done.

[Alternate]

"Oh wow, you had someone scar your flesh with ink, you are SO COOL. Are you going to get a faux-hawk next week?"

Aw, I think faux-hawks are kind of cute.  They are hair cut to multiple different lengths, therefore they are fun to play with, tough-looking or not. 

But anyway. 

I can think of no idea so important to me that I would cut it into my flesh.

I can think of plenty of ideas that are important enough to me that I would cut them into my flesh... if it seemed that doing so would somehow benefit the ideas, which it doesn't.  I just don't think a tattoo would feel like a particularly meaningful symbol to me, regardless of what it was.  I can definitely appreciate that others find them meaningful.  It's a lifelong commitment, sometimes beginning with a very long and painful ritual, and I can respect people who go into it thoughtfully, choosing that method not just to express their deepest values, but to dedicate themselves to those values by signing over a piece of their body.  I can respect those people even when the value they are consecrating is simply the aesthetic of the tattoo itself, because aesthetics are important.  I agree that doing it to appear badass or to get a reaction out of people seems silly, but I can believe that many people who get tattoos do it largely for their own eyes, so they'll see the tattoo every day when they wake up and when they go to sleep, reminding them of whatever they wish to be reminded of. 

The reasons I don't expect to get one, though, are firstly that I haven't been very successful at distilling my favorite ideas into individual symbols.  I've occasionally thought of getting a math tattoo, but my idea for what to include in the image changes every year as I learn more and my focus changes, and I don't expect that to stop.  And secondly, as I said, I don't think I would find the medium meaningful.  At times in my life I've thought to consecrate ideas by wearing pieces of jewelry to represent them, but this eventually results in the jewelry feeling like a burden, and to me being increasingly struck by the fact that the jewelry is an object and the idea is not.  I think that even if I had a single idea that drove my life above all else, and a perfect symbol to represent it, if I ever had it scarred into my arm I would look at it and think, "This was already written more eloquently in all of my cells, in all of my thoughts, in all of my actions.  Why did I need to write it on my skin?" 

[theinevitable]

that reminds me of a sci-fi short story I read where they had invented a way to code the Qu'ran into people's "junk" DNA. That was a pretty cool concept, although personally I'd be afraid that it'd screw something essential up.

[V-Adore]

On the subject of concept-related jewelry, I have always been tempted to get myself something from this collection of neurotransmitter jewelry. On one hand, the artist's interpretations of the "meaning" of neurotransmitters are pretty simplistic, but on the other, it's still cool stuff and would be a way of representing my appreciation for neurotransmitters in a way that isn't a permanent part of my body.

[Sub_Topical]

Man, what Jough said.

Also, Slink has a very valid concern.

ALSO: I never felt the urge to tatoo myself as the scars give me suffient conversation topics/adornment.

[Alternate]

Jhonen Vasquez is never going to be that kid's friend, so why is he turning his skin into a knockoff imagined Jhonen sketchpad?

I kind of think Jhonen Vasquez is never going to be friends with anyone who actually reads his comics.  I mean, he wrote a very goth comic that relentlessly hates on goths.  I'd rather read his comics than be his friend, though, so it's fine by me. 

But yeah, he would probably extra hard not-be-friends with that kid, in particular.  If he knew of his existence he might call him up every day just to go, "Hey kid, it's Jhonen!  Listen, a bunch of us were going to get together tonight and read some sociopathic poetry, I was wondering if you'd like to- PSYCHE!"

[linnea]

I kind of think Jhonen Vasquez is never going to be friends with anyone who actually reads his comics.  I mean, he wrote a very goth comic that relentlessly hates on goths.  I'd rather read his comics than be his friend, though, so it's fine by me. 

But yeah, he would probably extra hard not-be-friends with that kid, in particular.  If he knew of his existence he might call him up every day just to go, "Hey kid, it's Jhonen!  Listen, a bunch of us were going to get together tonight and read some sociopathic poetry, I was wondering if you'd like to- PSYCHE!"

Heh heh heh...tiny can. That kid was such an asshole.

[Doc]

I've always kind of wanted a tattoo but as above haven't thought of anything worth tattooing onto myself.
Most tattoos are fairly terrible but in general I like them better than piercings. At least, on myself. Some ladies can carry off piercings pretty well.
Sometimes I think I'd like to go all memento and tattoo something on me that I really need to remember but that probably means I'd end up with a giant map of metabolic pathways on my back and that would be hard to read.

[Nabubrush]

I got some ink, and I don't regret it, but if you are asking a bunch of folks on a message board:

... would i regret it?

You probably would. It's pretty trite, but you should do it because you want to. Don't ask us if you ought to, any more than you would come here and ask how you ought to cut your hair.

If you do, though, get Lyle on your face . . . like I did.