Are tattoos addictive?

[Platypus]

I've just thought of a practical application for a tattoo though. On the head, very lightly to make it look as if you've shaved your head for fashionable reasons rather than because you is bald as a coot.

Like this (SFW)

[Platypus]

IMHO it's only a statement to people without a tat. People who have them don't care if someone else does or doesn't.

Surely you have a tattoo because, perhaps subconsciously, you want it to say something about you or about the sort of person you are.

Tattoos (on guys) used to say "I'm hard - beware" (e.g. HATE on the fingers)

On women, say 10-15 years ago, a tattoo said "I'm different" because there were so few women with tattoos. Such tattoos were often small and almost discreet.

Doesn't the Celtic stuff (usually on the upper arm or lower back) say "I'm mysterious and interesting"

Today, on a 35-55 year old woman, a tattoo says "I'm divorced, I'm free now, come on, you know you want to"

And in recent times it's become almost tribal. I see new people every week who've decided they want to join the tribe of the "cool".

But I think the basic message is "see my tattoo, it says something about me, something I want you to know". The "something" is about how deep, interesting, different, sexual, masculine, feminine you perceive yourself to be.

I'm sure you folks with tattoos will roll about with laughter at this post. My response would be that you're deluding yourselves if you think otherwise. My post will reassure you that you get it (because you're cool, that's why you have a tattoo) and I don't (because I'm uncool, that's why I don't have a tattoo).

It'll be interesting to see what replaces tattoos. When everyone has one, and it no longer signals the wearer as being interesting and different, but as an unfashionable late adopter, then the 'interesting' brigade will have to find something new to express how cool they are.

[cailin maith]

Surely you have a tattoo because, perhaps subconsciously, you want it to say something about you or about the sort of person you are.

Tattoos (on guys) used to say "I'm hard - beware" (e.g. HATE on the fingers)

On women, say 10-15 years ago, a tattoo said "I'm different" because there were so few women with tattoos. Such tattoos were often small and almost discreet.

Doesn't the Celtic stuff (usually on the upper arm or lower back) say "I'm mysterious and interesting"

Today, on a 35-55 year old woman, a tattoo says "I'm divorced, I'm free now, come on, you know you want to"

And in recent times it's become almost tribal. I see new people every week who've decided they want to join the tribe of the "cool".

But I think the basic message is "see my tattoo, it says something about me, something I want you to know". The "something" is about how deep, interesting, different, sexual, masculine, feminine you perceive yourself to be.

I'm sure you folks with tattoos will roll about with laughter at this post. My response would be that you're deluding yourselves if you think otherwise. My post will reassure you that you get it (because you're cool, that's why you have a tattoo) and I don't (because I'm uncool, that's why I don't have a tattoo).

It'll be interesting to see what replaces tattoos. When everyone has one, and it no longer signals the wearer as being interesting and different, but as an unfashionable late adopter, then the 'interesting' brigade will have to find something new to express how cool they are.

I think you have thought about this way too much

It's a personal choice and whilst I do agree a lot of chavvy types get them as a statement of chav-ness, a lot of people who have them don't do it to make a statement to anyone. My tattoos are for me - not for anyone else, although himself obviously gets to see them!

Honestly, I think it's you who is deluding yourself if you think I care what you think about my tattoo not that you'd ever see them as i go about my normal everyday life. i don't think you are uncool because you don't have a tattoo - I think you are uncool because you see fit to label someone who has a tattoo with your own misconceptions.

For you to say a 35 year old woman with a tattoo is saying "come on, you know you want to" is just downright wierd...

For the record I got my first tatto when I was 23 (I wasn't divorced at that point!!)

[EternalOptimist]

There was an ace programme on when I was a kid about an Amazonian tribe called the Krena Krori (sp??) and they were harder than the other tribes. The males in the other tribes cut a line under their bottom lip and inserted a bit of wood
but the Krena Krori males inserted a bit of wood the size of a saucer

they are probably all gone now, logged into extinction.

[Platypus]

For you to say a 35 year old woman with a tattoo is saying "come on, you know you want to" is just downright wierd...

I really didn't express that part very well at all

I was trying to comment on the fact that newly separated women seem to go straight to the tattoo parlour.

It was supposed to be an amusing piece of social commentary, not a statement that all women over a certain age with tattoos are desperate and looking for sex. That would be weird. But I'm not

[cailin maith]

I really didn't express that part very well at all

I was trying to comment on the fact that newly separated women seem to go straight to the tattoo parlour.

It was supposed to be an amusing piece of social commentary, not a statement that all women over a certain age with tattoos are desperate and looking for sex. That would be weird. But I'm not

Ok

[RichardCranium]

but the Krena Krori males inserted a bit of wood the size of a saucer

A lip plate. Some things recur around the world.

[MaryPoppins]

Surely you have a tattoo because, perhaps subconsciously, you want it to say something about you or about the sort of person you are.

.

True enough, but each to their own. It is a lot more popular now, and I do wonder what we will all look like when we're old!

[TheFaQQer]

Doesn't the Celtic stuff (usually on the upper arm or lower back) say "I'm mysterious and interesting"

I always thought that the celtic stuff on the lower back said "slapper"?

[EternalOptimist]

A lip plate. Some things recur around the world.

They are about the same size as the ones I saw.

Picture the scene - The young Amazonian hunter Cailin 'Kreana' Maith steps out of the forest, Poison blowpipe in her left hand, enemy skull in her right and a pouch full of dead Bonobos at her waist.
There is a screech from the nearest grass hut
'Cailin, get yo ass over her right now. Put the blowpipe down, put the poison darts down, put the skull and the bonobos down. Take the saucer out of your lip. Now whats this I heard about a butterfly tattoo on your shoulder young girl'