Women, tattoos & piercings

General Discussion
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I would like to say it’s my age but it would not be true - I don’t like tattoos & never have! I would not have one mainly because they are permanent - you are stuck with it.
I tend to associate tattoos with hard drinking dockers, sailors & bikers, with self inflicted coloured globs being the realm of “prison tats”. It is this association which would make me reluctant to do business with, say, a financial consultant who, on rolling up his sleeve, reveals a skull & crossbones with the motto “Kill 'em all! Let God sort them out.” I know that there is no rational reason why a tattoo would affect the honesty factor of a person but I would wonder why someone cannot think what effect having such a thing on permanent display might have in the future. Would you vote for a MP with LOVE & HATE tattooed on his knuckles?

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More recently women have started having tattoos. Originally discreet little flowers or animals but now becoming less femail - rings of barbed wire round ankles & arms (very butch) or whole body coverings! It may say “I’m young & do what I want” but what does it say when you are 40?
And piercings? Where did that come from? I find it strange that a pretty girl would feel that the mutilation of her face would somehow enhance her looks. Quite the reverse! Then there are the middle aged women with a stud through the nose. It looks like an old zit but for some reason it is quite popular with certain women.
Tattoos are often referred to as tramp stamps & I have been enlightened as to why this is. It appears that actresses in certain genres of films not available on normal TV channels often sport tattoos in the small of their backs, stomachs &/or necks. Usually a stud through the tongue completes the ensemble.

I think that a tattoo should be discreet if you have to have one at all & much thought should be given as to the message it might send. A friend of mine in the early eighties, then a young, single man, went to a night club on the traditional “grab a granny” night (Thursdays, as I recall) where he met & took home a lady he met there. He woke up to a tattoo on the woman’s back. It said, in big letters under a picture of an eagle, “Property of the United States Air Force”. I wonder if she ever went to the beach…?
Tattoos on women are equal to graffiti on a stately home.

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Frankly, I don’t understand the motivation for being tattooed if not a kind of counter body-cult. Those in love with their look, judging others from that sole standard are just the other side of the same medal.
I like to think that Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;(Corinthians 6:19) and that I am just the custodian of my body. I try to keep it tidy, inside and outside.

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I would really like a red Gibson ES-335 (a guitar) tattoo somewhere on my body. Where would I find a really good tattooist? Would I regret it? A few years down the line it would probably look like a horrible red smudge. It’s a ridiculous idea…I’ll just forget it.

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I had a small rose tattoo on my upper shoulder when I was 18 - it represented the rebellious person I was then. I always remember the tattooist saying that he would never tattoo women on the lower arms and always did it so that it could be covered by a short sleeve, as mine was. Nobody at work ever knew I had it. However, as I got older the colour changed and as I entered my thirties and forties I found people would look at me, then quickly down at my tattoo, then back up and their expression had changed, like they’d formed an opinion and had judged me. Around this time the design of tattoos was changing and beautiful fresh designs were coming out and lovely colours whereas mine was dark green and red and started to look more black and the fine lines had faded into smudges. Eventually in my late forties I decided to have it removed … aaagh! It flipping hurts My £1.50 tattoo cost over £600 to partially remove (later tries weren’t successful so we agreed to leave it). But I don’t regret having the tattoo . It represented the person I was in my teens and twenties but not the person I am in my cough, lowers voice late fifties shudders. Each to their own. I only object to tattoos when they make people unemployable who then have to rely on the state to support them but if they are a discreet work of art, as many are, and don’t affect job prospects and it doesn’t cost the taxpayer money to support the people or have the tattoos removed, then chacun a son gout, as they say.

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Tattoos are horrible, I do not know why anyone in their right mind would have one done, same with body piercings. My granddaughter has several biggish tattoos and says it shows her personality, we have to agree to disagree but she looks awful. She is a naturally very pretty girl but when she poses for selfies complete with duck lips, she looks as if she belongs in a not very nice part of Amsterdam

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The types of tats and piercings that people find the most offensive are tribal. That is, they serve the same function as dreadlocks or camo clothing or a little black Armani dress and diamonds. Identity. I recently reconnected with a forty-something woman whose birth I attended but who I hadn’t seen since she was seven years old. She had a huge line of tattooed skulls winding from under her left ear down her throat, across her breasts, and over her left shoulder. Her face was clear of piercings but her lobes were stretched and had multiple piercings. Her male partner was similarly tattooed and pierced. I haven’t met their second wife. They followed the trail of Renaissance fairs, living in a school bus. She worked the refreshment stands. He made period weaponry. It’s a small but tight subculture and they were announcing their membership. And they were great kids, helped us tremendously during our cleaning and packing in preparation for our move to France. It is what it is.

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For those other people who subscribe to this view, does this mean that you also subscribe to the theory that:
Divorced people can’t remarry - Mark 10:8-11
Rapists can marry their victims - Deut 22:28-29
Siblings can get married - Gen 20:12
Polygamy is acceptable - 1 Kings 11:3
Slavery is OK - Ephesians 6:5
Women are to be subservient to men - 1 Corinthians 14:34

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Not a fan of tattoos myself, but those who have them these days use the argument that they express their individuality. I would argue the opposite, as they are done from off the shelf designs and they just show a sheep mentality. In fact, not having a tat shows individuality and free thinking.

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I think that this is true of professional footballers. There does not seem to be any variation in their (visible) tattoos. It is almost as though they are a requirement for the job.
I grew up in a seaside community where there were a large number of fishermen and merchant seamen and most of those bore a tattoo or two proudly. However I remember the ‘old’ lifeboat mechanic telling my friends and I, a small group of teenage boys, that there were many times in his life that he’d wished that there had been a viable way to remove his. I can’t believe that he was just being protective towards us as he was often willing to share his untipped cigarettes.

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The Bible is like a tin of Roses - you can select the bits you like & leave the rest! Some writers did tend to stretch the truth a little, though.
Numbers 11:31

And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.

Somebody did the maths!

Human walking speed is 2.5 miles/hour.

12 hours of walking gives this a 30 mile radius.

Two cubits is three feet.

A cylinder with radius 30 miles and height 3 feet has a volume of π * (30 miles)2 * (3 feet) = 1.606 miles3.

The density of quails is 0.031 pounds/inches3.

0.031 pounds/inches3 * 1.606 miles3 = 12,700,000,000,000 pounds of quail = 1/14th the total biomass of the Earth.

That’s if they’re pressed completely flat though, like a slab of spam 60 miles across. If we assume a spherical rigid quail, the packing efficiency is 74%, for 9,370,000,000,000 pounds of quail = 1/19th the total biomass of the Earth.

But I think this answers the point - can’t remember quite where I heard it but it was in a religious setting…
“There shall in that time be rumours of things going astray, erm, and there shall be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth those little things with the sort of raffia-work base, that has an attachment, …at this time, a friend shall lose his friends’s hammer and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by their fathers that their fathers put there only just the night before around eight o’clock.”

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Personally I find tattoos repulsive. They are not to my mind artistic they are stereotypes. The “Maori” “Polynesian” ones I regard as cultural expropriation unless the person wearing them is Maori or Polynesian.I suppose if you want to look like a Yakuza that’s up to you but don’t try to get into a Japanese bath-house tats are banned so you’ll just end up being another smelly gaijin.

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As a youngster wishing to visibly express some individuality I found the wearing of a suitably logo’d T shirt would do the job.
You can have whatever you like printed on it & as soon as it felt silly you stopped wearing it & got another! My current favourite (yes, I still like to make a statement at times) proclaimes my liking of the film “Kelly’s Heroes” & bears the words “A Sherman can give you a very nice edge”. Next year I might have one which says “Survivalists do it in an R.V.” Meaningless to many unless you have a camping car!

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If you like t-shirts with things written on them have a look at redmolotov.com

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An “Old and in the Way” t-shirt…cheap to buy right now, and future proof. Danger is, it might become more of a definition that a statement…

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I rather like “I am the person the Daily Mail warned you about”.

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VI always wanted to have a tatoo but i knew i would regret so on my 38 birthday i finally got one done but being a business person i was not willing for it to be shown so i had my tatoo done in a way that no one can see even when I wear bikini, it is well hiden and very small. Only someone especial can see it and i think it is cool. So maybe we should not judge those wearing Tatoos cause they can turn out to be really nice people. There are really good people with tatoos, and non tatooed people who are evil. But some people seem to get addicted to having them. tatoos are more accepted nowdays even in a business enviorement but It is a phase, and will pass, i think just like guys wearing beards, i dont like beards I find beards in man umpleasant.

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How long is a ‘phase’? I’ve had my beard for over 30 years :grinning:

but that said, a tatt is hardly a passing phase… at least I can shave my beard off if I have a change of mind.

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You are quite right, Eliane, some very nice people do have tattoos but you have to get to know them first. We are all influenced by first impressions & if that impression is not good then the chances of getting to know that person would be considerably reduced. A person with highly visible tattoos would have to work hard at some types of job interviews. Discreet ones such as yours are not going to be seen so would not be an issue for employers.

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Hmmm, it seems that many want to judge people on their appearance. If you do that you will be in for some very very nasty surprises. Tattoo’s are an ancient art form. Piercing is similarly an ancient art form, mainly to facilitate jewellery display. The practice of both is at least 5000 years old. Whether we agree or like the practices is irrelevant. Surely you are not going to judge somebody because they display body art. I thought that sort of thinking disappeared a couple of decades ago at least. Much the same as the judgement of men with beards, and women with shaven heads. As for Bible quotations, are you really serious. I have far more problems trusting religious people of any persuasion, than i do those with beards, shaven heads, tattoo’s and piercings. The fact that anyone trusts in an imaginary friend in the sky, to guide them through their life. A friend that according to all the religious story books, is all powerful and merciful, yet sanctions the most painful and needless deaths of millions, especially children, and innocent animals, and then blames it on human beings themselves, puts me on my guard immediately. Religion is purely a human invented vehicle, to gain power and riches through fear. Nothing more and nothing less.

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Sorry Graham dont mean to offend, ok beard is like hair style some people prefer short others long, but you got to keep it clen and tidy. So some guys have always prefered to wear a beard, it was about individuality, thats how they are and they may look good with it. Saturday i went to see my usual mecanic, 3 brother all of them wearing beard, than came the workers each one of them had beard, was like being in beardland. I did not recognised any of them, some of them shouldnt be wearnig a beard at all, it is not an statement it is just a fashion thingie, i think it started with the movie pirates of the caribbean. :sm