Walking into Target the other day we saw a young woman entering the store wearing short Ugg boots and sweatpants rolled up to about the knee revealing a tattoo on her calf.
Alex- "That's the ugliest outfit I have ever seen."
Me- "I'm sure she's just wearing it to show off her new tattoo... ugh I hate that."
Alex- "Oh my, you're right. Ugh."
Fast forward to today.
Alex and I are in Red Mango, some new frozen yogurt place that looks like it's trying to be ultra cool. A girl who looks about eighteen walks in with pink streaks in her hair and a shirt that's too short and pants that are super low. To no surprise she has some swirly lettered tattoo between the pants and shirt. Once again some girl trying to show off her tattoo.
Alex- "I should just start cutting holes in my shirts to show off my tattoo...."
I just wanted to hand her my sweatshirt and tell her it's not 90 degrees out yet, it's still 35 put some real clothes on.
I would bet money on that if either of these girls were asked about their tattoos they would have a very touching and sincere story about a loved one.
I have no problem with people being proud of their tattoos but I also think people end up looking like idiots most of the time when they go out of their way to show it off.
Personally I really like tattoos, so much so that I chose to get a Day of the Dead skeleton permanently etched into my back
, but when someone asks me why I got it I feel the response "I wanted to" is plenty. Why should I have to have some long meaningful story behind it, is it maybe because tattoos are permanent? Maybe because people feel foolish?I was reading an article in Shape magazine about two women, one who regretted getting her tattoo and one who loved hers. To no surprise the woman who regretted hers had a horrible looking design on her lower back while woman number two had two flowers on her leg, each representing one of her two daughters. Here's what I have to say about that article, who wouldn't hate having a poorly done tattoo in the most cliche place for young women to get tattoos? I think most people would regret that, unless of course they got it after their ex-boyfriends best friend died to show how close they were.... PLEASE GIVE ME A BREAK!
For lady number two, her tattoo was very well done with a lot of color and detail, it wasn't my favorite tattoo I've ever seen but it was pretty. And what woman doesn't like knowing she has something beautiful on. But does she need a reason to get a tattoo? Why should she? But I suppose this confusion just leads to annoyance for me.
Hopefully soon I will just stop noticing how much these things bug me or people will start realizing that tattoos don't have to be constantly shown off and that you don't HAVE to give some story as to why you got it.
3 comments:
I like the topic you choose to write your snapshot on. It's somthing I did't really notice before but now Im sure it will annoy me. I think the paragraph regarding the shape magazine article drifts a bit away from your points. Also you could go into more depth with your details about the subjects you saw or the places you were at. I think some background information on tatoos might be nice as well.
I am sooo anti tatoo I really related with your post. I thought it could have used more pics. Especially of bad tatoos. Nothing is more entertaining or sad. I also thought you needed a little better flow between your examples.
It's interesting the way you chose to tell your story. I thought you incorporated the conversation into the story nicely. One critique would be it could have been a little more organized. And you could have included more pix and links.
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