Tattoos

[juliet]

I have been thinking of late about tattoos; & thus my mind turned inexorably to the research medium of the poll.

Poll #11 Tattoos

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16

View Respondents

Do you have a tattoo, and if so how do you feel about it?

View Answers

Yes, and I love it madly
2 (12.5%)

Yes, and I am not particularly bothered about it either way
0 (0.0%)

Yes, and I regret it
0 (0.0%)

No, but I'd like one
5 (31.2%)

No, and I wouldn't like one
7 (43.8%)

I am a special snowflake and will elaborate in the comments
5 (31.2%)

Comments

[zorkian]

Part of my upbringing was that tattoos are bad (among other things). Even though I'm much, much better about the whole "accepting people for who they are" thing, I still have this residual distaste for tattoos.

Maybe I'll get over it one day. Maybe I won't. Some of them can be quite beautiful, I do think. (I also decided that if I were to ever get one, I'd get a Triforce. Courage, Wisdom, Power. The three things I want!)

[rho]

No, but I'd get one if I ever had something that was right for me. To date, I've never had anything that I felt was sufficiently me to want to commit indelibly to my body, so I've had no particular desire tog et one. When I do, though, I'm totally there.

[niqaeli]

I've got about seven different tattoos planned; they all have particular meanings, they symbolise something in my past or present that's part of me and that I want to have under my skin -- in a way I kind of view it as remaking my body to make sure it reflects me.

I do worry about concealability -- it's a factor in my choices of where to put tattoos. It can matter in the career(s) I'm interested in pursuing. But I've known I'd be wearing a lot of ink since I was 16 or so, I think.

I just can't afford ink right now. Or anytime soon, I imagine. Tattoos are spendy!

[denise]

Have two, crave more. One is a tribal backpiece at the small of my back (yes, I have a tramp stamp, lol), while the other is a lambda at the nape of my neck, both in black ink, no color. (My next ones will probably be armlets around my biceps, once I bulk up some from using the wheelchair.)

[damned_colonial]

I don't have any tattoos, but I do have numerous significant piercings (large gauge genital piercings, that sort of thing.)

When it comes to tattoos, I can never decide on what design I'd like, nor can I sustain a mental image of myself with the tattoo for long enough for me to feel like it would "fit". Most of my friends have them, but I don't. I suspect I never will.

[ysobel]

I grew up with "tattoos are bad zomg", and also "ps PERMANENT zomg"; I have changed, since, and my personal opinion is that tattoos can be awesome. As with anything, they can also be tacky / obnoxious / overdone, but. Yeah. Tattoos++, at least as long as there's enough thought and meaning put into the decision.

I would love to get a tattoo if I could. (I mean, my mom would have a heart attack, but other than that...) Something concealable.

...problem is, my physical condition reacts to any physical trauma. (Well, it *can* react, but the point is to avoid trauma wherever possible.) And 'trauma' can even be just an intramuscular injection. Tattoos *might* be safe because they're skin-level rather than muscle-level, but I still ... don't really want to risk it.

So, no tattoos for me, alas.

[forthwritten]

I've thought about getting one and sketched something out (parole in IPA) but I grew up thinking that tattoos are bad, I'm scared of the permanence and I can't hold a mental image of me with a tattoo. I am not very spontaneous when it comes to body mods; I thought about getting my tragus pierced for over a year before I did it and waited until it got to the point where it felt wrong to not have it pierced, and I'm very happy with it.