That got me thinking...

I'm going to offend some people with today's post, some of them close friends and people I really do love, but fuck it, this is how I feel.

So, yesterday's post about the asshole with all the bad Disney tattoos got me to thinking about tattooing in general.

Here's the thing: I think there is entirely too much tattooing going on right now.

I have no objection to a little body art, here or there, to commemorate some huge life event, to remind one of some great adversity you've survived, if you MUST have some kind of permanent, visible reminder, other than your arse still pointing south. (Surviving cancer or a terrorist attack would be about the only things I can think of that would be that HUGE. Getting out of prison or finally being able to afford a new trailer doesn't fucking cut it, Cleetus.) I've toyed with the idea of getting something on my upper arm, something small that I could cover up or show at will, depending upon the occasion. But tattoos are permanent, and I have yet to find anything that means as much to me one day as the next, or represents something big enough in my life. So until something worthy presents itself, or until I NEED to have the symbol of some great pain, adversity, etc., upon my body FOREVER, I'm ink-free.

The point is, it's supposed to MEAN something. You don't want to walk into a tattoo parlor, just pick a design off the wall and get ink PERMANENTLY INJECTED into your skin, just because that day you thought that design was pretty. "Uhhhhh...*giggle*...I'll get the butterfly." Fuck off, Misty. You're clearly too stupid to be let out on your own. And all these idiot females with these tribal designs on their lower back, that they have NO IDEA about what they represent or what it'll look like when they have a few more years and pounds worth of mileage on them. Jesus.

As Milk & Cheese once said, "Yeah, let's adopt the tribal customs of foreign people, without any of the scary, foreign religious or cultural significance. YEAH!!!"

Now that everyone has a tattoo of something, it seems we're not supposed to make judgments about a person's character, capabilities, intelligence, class, etc. Well, let's face it. We do. It used to be just hardended criminals, bikers, women of easy virtue, and tough military types who had tattoos. I'm not talking about a little something here or there that you can cover up, I'm talking about a tattoo that is VISIBLE to everyone around you, that you cannot cover up unless you're sporting a burkha, in which case, you'd have been killed for even thinking about getting a tattoo... Like it or not, when you see a tattoo that is visible on a person's face or neck, unless they're a fucking Maori warrior, you think "what a stupid dick."

Here's what goes with facial or neck tattoos: Criminal records

Here's what DOESN'T go with facial or neck tattoos: Jobs

In my hometown, though I didn't realize it when I was living there because I was probably too young, there was evidently a big class division between the locals and the people who went to the liberal arts college situated there. In recent years, a fight broke out between some local kids after a party, and one of the students from this college got caught up in it and was stabbed to death. The kid who was arrested, charged and convicted of the crime juuuuuust happened to have a shaved head, and devil's horn tattoos on his fucking head.

...the fuck?

Whether the kid is guilty or not (hey, it could have been accidental, and he was supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty) the tattoos HAD to have influenced the jury. I'm sure the kid's defense asked the jury to look beyond the head tattoos, at this "gentle, sweet kid, who has had a tough life." Seems to me, though, if you go out of your way to get devil's horns tattooed upon your fucking head, you are creating a persona for yourself. You have created a persona to which murder and mayhem are intrinsic, and a perfectly logical eventuality. Asking people to look beyond that is a little naive, doncha think?