Tattoos.

[complicatedwishes]

I spotted one of my University lecturers looking at the sugar skull I have on my arm.

A few minutes later, he said to me "what is that?"

So I explained the whole sugar skull/day of the dead tradition and the fact I actually got my sugar skull tattooed one day of the dead.

 

His response was "Aren't you going to regret that?"

 

:|

I just... urgh. I thought long and hard about the two tattoos I have so far, both do mean something to me. It's not even like tattoos HAVE to mean something to you to get one, if that makes sense? I also believe, if you chose to, the body can be a canvas. I don't see why people get hand/neck/face tattoos as those places are always on show, especially if the individual has like only a few tattoos.

I've had my sugar skull a year now actually, and I still stare at it and adore it. I love my rose too.

 

Unfortunately, people are very judgmental :(

[emkatrine]

I was raised by my nan and when she past away I had her beautiful name tattooed down my spine.

 

It's a tribute to her, and a reminder to me, that she will always have my back ;)

 

I love that when I one day get married, you will be able to see her name on my back as I walk down the aisle, like she is there with us, and when I have my first child and he/she asks about it I can tell them about their amazing great grandmother.

 

Tattoos that holds meaning to people I respect - tattoos that are just a fashion statement I don't .

[Mariposa]

I think tattoos have the potential to be amazing works of art. I don't have or plan to get any tattoos (or piercings for that matter) because I don't handle pain well. But they can be really interesting, as well as the stories and meanings that are often behind them. And tattoos have been used in cultures all over the world as marks of beauty for ages. So even though tattoos are not for everyone, I understand their special significance for many people, and I believe others should also keep this in mind before judging someone for having tattoos.

That being said, I do have strong negative feelings towards one particular type of tattoo.

Probably because I deal with languages for a living, mistranslated foreign-language tattoos just irk me. Granted, some of these foreign language tattoos are done well, and when they are translated correctly they're pretty cool.

But more often than not, people go to get something tattooed in, say, Chinese or Japanese when neither they nor the tattoo artist has any knowledge of the language whatsoever. This results in some pretty terrible mistakes. It makes me mad at the tattoo artists who tell someone "Yes, this is your father's name in Chinese" and so the person gets the tattoo, thinking that they will have their father's name with them forever. But instead, they're really walking around with poorly drawn gibberish characters on their skin.

I've seen tons of supposedly Chinese or Japanese tattoos where the characters are tattooed upside-down or sideways, missing key parts, incorrectly split into two, or horribly mistranslated. (Imagine what it would look like to have the word "LOVE" tattooed in English, but the L is upside-down, the E is split in half, and instead of "o", the letter "a" is used instead!)

So, I think that if someone wants to get a Chinese character tattoo (or any tattoo in a language that they don't speak), they should really do some intense research and not rely on the templates that the tattoo shops have. Instead, they should check with native speakers of the language to make sure that the word or phrase they want is actually what will be tattooed on them.

• First of all, Chinese uses characters called 'hanzi' in writing. Each character represents a certain word or concept, and the language cannot be broken down into English-style "letters". English names are often translated into Chinese by finding a set of Chinese characters that have a similar pronunciation: for example, the four letters in my name "M-a-r-y" cannot each be translated into a Chinese character. Instead, I would have to find two Chinese characters that together are pronounced as "MA LI". So, for those who ever have the yearning to have a name or initials tattooed on them in "Chinese", keep in mind that there is no direct way to do this. Unfortunately, tattoo shops often use an "Asian gibberish" font with random Chinese-looking characters or parts of characters and claim that each one represents a certain letter, but don't be fooled! Chinese does not work this way!

 

• Secondly, foreign languages cannot be translated "like English, but with different words." This misconception has led many people to get tattoos of word-for-word translations of English sentences, using English word order and grammar. Unfortunately for these people, other languages often do not express things in the same way as English, and many languages do not even put their words in the same order. All too often, the foreign language tattoo ends up being a complete hodgepodge of random words.

• Finally, English has a large number of homophones (words that sound the same but mean different things). Take the word "can". It means:

"able to do something" (I can swim)

"container" (a soda can)

"to fire someone" (he got canned the other day)

"informal word for toilet" (he's on the can)

Some people do not do enough research about the different meanings of the words that they want to get tattooed on themselves, and the gal who wants to get a Chinese tattoo of the sentence "I can do anything" may in fact end up with "Self-get fired-act-thing" tattooed on her arm. Or, the biker who wishes to have the character for "free" as in "liberty, freedom, independence" on his leg, mistakenly gets a tattoo of the character for "free" as in "no charge, no cost".

One of my favorites is a guy who tried to get a Chinese tattoo meaning "trust in God", but instead the Chinese characters tattooed on him actually meant "deity with good bank credit" (I found it on this blog, with a ton of examples of these kinds of tattoos).

Moral of the story: I think tattoos are great. But people should think twice and do their research before getting a tattoo in a language that they do not speak.

[iheartsaku]

I have 3 tattoos, but they aren't very big and are in somewhat hidden places or not extremely visible.

Tattoos are a personal thing and I don't get why it bothers people so much (the ones that are so against them that they make fun of you and are just plain out rude).

 

I find tattoos to be intriguing and attractive. They tell their own story....but some people do get silly tattoos (like tinkerbell for example) which I don't get but and am personally against it...but it's their body they can do whatever they want haha.

 

People should just learn to respect each other, tattoos or no tattoos.

[coltom]

Speaking as an old one whom potentially might be responsible for making the hiring decision for y'all. Visible tats are not a good idea. There are some that will use a tat to decide you are capable of bad judgement, or immature, or just not mainstream. Truth be told, everyone that hires except me is a bit of an narwhal hole. Not me personally, but everyone else. My friend, Rick, I would always laugh when he was doing my lawyering, as Rick's "tribal" band around his forearm would often "bleed" through his white $150 lawyer shirt. If you knew what you were looking for. Giving expert testimony in an hearing is really boring, you have to go for the small laughs where you can find them.

 

Speaking as a member of a "tribe" or First Nation, we don't get tats. Scars, cuts, burns, wounds of honour, but not tats as a rule.

[Thomas_T]

I like Dragon tattoos and made a big one on my back feels confident.

[1_little_sweet_girl]

I won't get a tattoo myself because I don't want to mark on the body that God gave me. Same with piercings, I have 1 in each ear and that's it.

 

I find it rude and judging when people tell me how to think or live, so I don't do that to others.

I do think some tattoos are cool. Show me your tattoo, tell me the story behind it, I think it's cool.. For you, not me :)

[coltom]

I won't get a tattoo myself because I don't want to mark on the body that God gave me. Same with piercings, I have 1 in each ear and that's it.

 

I find it rude and judging when people tell me how to think or live, so I don't do that to others.

I do think some tattoos are cool. Show me your tattoo, tell me the story behind it, I think it's cool.. For you, not me :)

Leviticus 19:28: “You shall not etch a tattoo on yourselves.” However, battle, live, love and regret do have a tenancy to place marks upon the flesh, and sometimes deeper. A knife fight , taking a shotgun away from a fool, an air force mission that should have never been authorized, an angry beloved wife and a surgeon's knife have added to that as the Creator give me.

 

It was strange, in the horrors upon horrors, that in the camps tattoos were place upon the children of Israel. Granted, a small evil and one I would technically argue isn't in violation of jewish/christian law as the prohibition would appear to be againt tattooing oneself, not against the involuntary action.

 

Still, at the water park today I can report my observation that many people take many strange marks upon their skin, some bizarre in this cross culture mashmish of conflicting gibberish (Some lovely Aztec symbols mixed with Japanese characters???)

 

P.S. Sweet little girl, the christ said that is not that which goes into a man's mouth (and I would assume that which goes under his skin) that makes him corrupt, but rather that which comes from his heart (soul) that makes him corrupt. So the christ apparently gave you permission.

[iunicornbarf]

The one thing is, I probably couldn't deal with the pain of getting a tatoo. My parents also wouldn't aprove of it. But, I beleive that people should do it if they want to. It's their skin, and usually it has a meaning. <3

[Calfie]

I think tattoos are awesome! I do not have one myself yet, because I do not know what to get. But I do love them, especially the Japenese kawaii ones.

[Master of Puppets]

I hope that people who tattoo phrases in another language, know that's really what it says.

[Emily]

The one thing is, I probably couldn't deal with the pain of getting a tattoo.

 

It's actually not that bad and depends on the placement. When it's on fleshy areas, there's a lot less sensation than on a thin layer of skin over bone or on top of a bundle of nerves. I dozed off while getting one on the back of my calf done because after the first 30 minutes or so, you nearly stop feeling it. Same with the one on my forearm and those on my inner ankles. Top of the foot, on the other hand, contains a boatload of nerves. That was the most pain I've ever experienced in my life so far xD And the one on my foot is tiny. I can't imagine getting an intricate design *shudders*

[morgennaraene]

Yeah, I remember we had a sub in my Chemistry class once. He was an older man. I turned in my work or whatever and as I went to sit down he was like "why?" and I replied "why what?" confused and then he proceeded, in front of the whole class, to basically insult me. "Why would you do that to your skin? You're so young. Your skin is fully ruined now." and so forth.

I had so many emotions going through me at that moment, I didn't know how to respond. ;-;

 

Wow... That was completely out of line and frankly not his place to even comment about it, much less embarrass you like that! My bosses don't particularly feel that tattoo's belong in a business setting, but they have never asked me to keep them covered or discouraged me from getting more and it's never affected their opinion of me as a person or kept them from promoting me; as a matter of fact they are currently grooming me to take over running the business for them eventually! So far I have 9; three across the back of my shoulders and the rest are on my arms and mostly visible depending on the weather :P I plan on eventually having full sleeves, an upper chest piece and at least my whole back covered.. Where I go from there is anyone's guess :D All of them represent my personality in some way and a few are very personal and were done to memorialize people who meant a lot to me, like my brother and Grandmother and Grandfather.. If they don't have anything nice to say, people should just mind their own business..

[chewbie]

I don't have anything against tattoos.. in fact, here's mine! I think this is an Insta photo that saved to my photo stream, so it's enhanced.

[helloearthling]

I hope one day to get a tattoo. But not just any old one.

 

I know people hire against them. Personally, I hope to get to a position where I am in control of my own fate enough that I no longer have to care. I hope to find a place in life where no-one else's judgement can affect my career, and the tattoo will be a sign of that.

 

So it'll be big, obnoxious, artistic, and as amazing as I can afford. I can imagine going for something like this.

[coltom]

I hope one day to get a tattoo. But not just any old one.

 

I know people hire against them. Personally, I hope to get to a position where I am in control of my own fate enough that I no longer have to care. I hope to find a place in life where no-one else's judgement can affect my career, and the tattoo will be a sign of that.

 

So it'll be big, obnoxious, artistic, and as amazing as I can afford. I can imagine going for something like this.

Oh, kabatzichi, dreams are important. Yet I will speak to you as one that never reached that point, although I gained both military rank and professional success I never made it to the point where my skill and honour would overwhelm the petty little snakes that only care about presentation and conformity. Now, I always had the disadvantage of not being an euro-american, so it might have meant more than me, although I swear if I hear one more Tonto Joke I was going to lose it.

 

We have a saying, that sometimes our feet find the Path, and sometimes the Path finds our feed. It means, that life, love, war and honour often take us to places that we don't mean to go, but we pray that they are the places that we need to be.

 

P.S. Ok, there is one Tonto joke that NDNs enjoy.

 

Lone Ranger: Tonto, we're surrounded by 10,000 blood thirsty screaming savages, what are we going to do, what are we going to do?

 

Tonto: Ugh, what you mean "we".

[Welcome Back Apathy]

I hope one day to get a tattoo. But not just any old one.

 

I know people hire against them. Personally, I hope to get to a position where I am in control of my own fate enough that I no longer have to care. I hope to find a place in life where no-one else's judgement can affect my career, and the tattoo will be a sign of that.

 

So it'll be big, obnoxious, artistic, and as amazing as I can afford. I can imagine going for something like this.

 

The link didn't work, so I didn't get to see the big, obnoxious, artistic, amazing tattoo :( Do you have another link somewhere?

 

People do hire against them, but depending on the job you're looking for, a lot of people won't care. Actually, the school where I just finished teaching (*sniffle* I'm moving) has tons of teachers with very visible tattoos. It's kind of awesome.

 

Also depending on what job you have, your visible tattoo may not be so visible. If you have to wear a suit (woman's or man's suit) pretty much all of you will be covered up. Your face, neck, and hands will be all that's visible. I don't know where you're thinking of getting a tattoo, but you've got a lot of options that can easily be covered up in the workplace.

 

Not that you should have to cover up. I'm just saying, maybe they won't be visible anyway?

[Duma]

Where I work, they don't "allow" tattoos for the people that come in contact with the customers. But almost everyone of those people has at least one tattoo. A lot of them climbed up in the company and are working with customers now, while they weren't when they started. The only time they covered up their tattoo is when they were applying for the job or the first few months when the "big boss" was visiting. The "big boss" is actually the only one that says its not allowed. Everyone else doesn't mind, neither do the customers.

The Survey part of the company isn't allowed either since they also come in contact with customers, but most of them have tattoos and it's a branch were its actually strange if you don't have tattoos since they have to control cargo ships. The people working there are all tough men and they actually prefer a "normal" tattooed guy then a decent "office" guy.

 

I can tell you, their tattoos are anything but small in our company and they won't wear long sleeves to cover them up. Some of them don't even do so when the big boss is around. They just don't care. (and can't be fired for something like that as long as they do their jobs)

[jupitereternalpower]

I'm Jewish religious, so I'm forbidden from getting a tat. But I see no reason others shouldn't. My close friend has an ankle tat, a tiny wrist tat and is halfway through getting a half sleeve. My other friend has a few small ones, one of them absolutely adorable- she turned a round birthmark into a musical note. I was uncomfortable with tattoos at first, especially with tattoos on Jewish people (my friends are secular, obviously), just like I was with gay people, because It Is Wrong. But as far as I'm concerned, people should be free to do whatever, whenever, however, as long as no one else is harmed.

[morgennaraene]

I just got my 10th one; it's a SuAP... /~Muashi..

[HomuraAkemiTheHero]

I think tattoos are okay and I see no reason why people judge them since I seen so many people use them to dedicate it to a person that has passed or who went through a surgery and I don't see why Mr.Parson is offended by tattoos if you don't like it just don't get one. I probably would never get a tattoo because I can't wait for long periods of time without moving a little bit but still it's nice to see people get good tattoos and that they did it of their own free will because one time I know a girl in one of my cousin's class one year had a real tattoo because her mom was a tattoo artist and she gave it to her although the girl was underage to get one. I just hope she wasn't forced to get it and that people won't judge her or anyone else who has gotten a tattoo at any points of their life.

[beruichi]

I completely disagree with that article linked by OP. I think tattoos are great! It's always fascinating hearing the stories behind them.

 

Getting a tattoo is a personal choice, and it's nobody's business but their own. It's their body after all. People do have different aesthetics; it's completely valid to dislike a tattoo because of its design, placement, execution, or otherwise. For instance, I'm more partial to plain black tattoos versus colored ones, and that's okay. What is not okay is putting people down and judging their value as a person based on whether they're inked up or not. There is absolutely no logical reason to make a conclusion that a person with a tattoo is worth less than a person without one. None.

 

As for me, though, I wouldn't want to get one, mainly because it's practically a permanent thing, even if they can be removed nowadays. I don't think I could ever decide on what to get, and if I choose on a whim, I might regret it later. It's hard being so indecisive, that's why I admire those who actually do get permanent tattoos because it means they know exactly what they want and they aren't afraid to go after it.

[agrinwithoutacat]

I am totally fine with tattoos. I think today they're much more accepted than they used to be, and that's a good thing. I don't plan to get very many, I don't want to be covered with them, but I generally like how they look on other people. One thing I don't usually like is face/neck tattoos. You can't hardly cover them up, which can really get in the way of getting the job you want, and can cause others to prejudge you. Even if people shouldn't judge you based on your appearance, they will, and you have to consider that when doing any sort of body modification. All of my tattoos will be easily hidden under clothing. They're more for me than for other people to look at, anyway.

Right now I just have the one. It's a charm bracelet kind of thing on my ankle with (at the moment) two charms. A knotwork heart for everlasting love and a butterfly for my sister who passed away. I plan to get more charms for the other important people in my life (my parents, my husband when I get married, etc.) but so far I don't know what to get for each of them. It has to be something small, which makes it kind of hard.

I'm considering a phoenix on my shoulder/back area in the future. It's not very unique, but I've been through a lot in my life and come out the other side. Rising from the ashes, so to speak. It won't be for a while, though. I need to be 100% certain of what I want, and I need the funds to pay for it.

[Duskitty]

My mom just recently got a new tattoo - Athena's clockwork owl, from Clash of the Titans:

It is very pretty, and she says it was fairly painless.

I plan to get just a small tattoo in the future. I'm not sure what it will be or where I want it yet.

[masonn]

I think tattoos are great for the right reasons, like not for the sake of just getting one, but ones with meaning and depth you know?
I personally have one myself, parents were accepting of it (me being asian and all that's pretty rare) they weren't too happy though.. I plan to get another one done, on a bigger scale this time, and its gonna be an artwork of my own, so pretty excited for that!