Why do you, or don't you, have tattoos?

I never found something I identified with enough to carry it around on my body for the rest of my life.

Also, when I’m naked, I want to be naked. For some reason, having a tattoo I can never take off would make me feel “not naked,” even when I am, I think. Perhaps this is a little weird.

And – not a big fan of pain. :)

Last: My mom is covered with them. I do not want to be my mom.

(there’s that tramp stamp again!)

I’ve wanted a tatoo until I saw some close up and actually didn’t like the way they looked. Always wanted one of those tribal “arm bracelets” you get around the bicep. I’m sure it has a name but I haven’t the slightest idea what it is.

I don’t have any simply because I never wanted any. I do, however, like to look at other’s tatoos and like the look of them, on someone else.

My first is a small tattoo of Earth in the shape of a heart. It’s on my back left hip like right above my butt (think underwear line). I got it to represent a world full of love, but it also represents my love of the planet. Yes, very Davis. I really like it, it’s very cute, and eventually I’d like to have it redone larger.
My second is a Dia de los Muertos skull on my right ribs. Very intricate and colorful. I got it in memory of my great-grandparent who passed away about seven years ago. It’s not finished, but will be done very soon.

I’ve wanted to for a while, but also haven’t found anything that identify with enough.

Also, I just imagine the tattoo on my old, wrinkly skin…

@aviona I think tattoos on old people are beautiful!

thooooose are fakeeee

@aviona Maybe so, but still rad!

I have no tattoos. I get too bored with imagery too fast and don’t want to be identified with a label. I change avatars, backgrounds, clothes and everything with frequency. I don’t identify with a fixed and permanent self, so I think it was just annoy me after a while…like a week.
@essiness
Thanks for scarring me with those images.

Mine mean a lot to me. I got my first one (a nautical star) when I graduated high school and to me it represents “direction” much as the nautical star was used by sailors. It represented the changing time in my life. My next ones were my wrists which say “carpe noctum” (seize the night). I got these when I transferred colleges. It represented both my life at that moment as a chronic insomniac as well as someone that loved to go out and party/rave/etc and it also represents the world we live in, meaning “seize the night” as take back the night, make it a place of wonder and excitement not fear. My third one I got after I broke up with my ex, it represented to me the effect that she had on my life as well as everyone else in my life right at that time. I was going in the very wrong direction. It says “You Saved Me”. I also have my 2 memorial tattoos. 1 is on my ankle wrapping around and coming down onto the top of my foot and it says “magic is the love that stays when good friends have to leave” which comes from an old girl scout camp song. I got it when I was 18 and my best friend died in a car accident. The 2nd is also a memorial to another best friend that died in a car accident. She had the kanji symbol for “harmony” tattooed on her wrists and I got it tattooed on my forearm along set against a setting sun with the phrase “no day but today” over it.
I have many more i’d love to get. When I graduate in May I am likely to get a half-sleeve to commemorate it. All of my tattoos are full of meaning for me.

“I never found something I identified with enough to carry it around on my body for the rest of my life.
Also, when I’m naked, I want to be naked. For some reason, having a tattoo I can never take off would make me feel “not naked,” even when I am, I think. Perhaps this is a little weird.”

I agree with the above, from Laureth. There are only two things I would ever consider having tattooed on my body, and I don’t believe I’d ever do it.

I have the norse tree of life with my intials beside it in runes on my shoulder.
It symbolizes the love of life, strenght of person, and strenght.

I also have a celtic Triskele on the other shoulder, that for me sybolizes the love for my family, the love for the land, and the love of life..

I am planing to get a rather vicked looking phoenix, meaning that even thou someone can get me down and feeling bad I will always rise up again,

@Staalesen
God Dag. Norse of course.

Reminds me of the joke about the really fat woman that had the Chicago fire tattooed on one knee, and the devil tattooed on the other, and when she crossed her legs, it looked like hell.

I think people should think twice before getting a tattoo and really take the time to understand what it is and how its pretty permanent; unless you pay a shit load of money to have it removed, I suggest buying a sticker, or having a shirt made if its that important. I’m in the process of having 2 tattoos removed, One that I got done 5 years ago, and the other was done like 7 months ago.. stupidity really.

@Mr M
Badumbump

SeventhSense Takker så mye :)

And yes tattoos are worth thinking a lot more over if you think after 7months it should be gone…....

@Staalesen
Sorry, but that’s my extent of Norwegian.
American with Norse ancestry. :)

I have three. One is the infamous eyeball on the back of my head. It struck me as a very humorous idea at the time, and a way to break up the monotony of my shaved skull. I always figured I could grow my hair back to cover it if need be. Wouldn’t you know it, my male pattern baldness advanced to such a state as to make it impossible for hair to cover the tattoo. At my job, visible tattoos are verboten, so I have to put a piece of coach’s tape over it while at work. I use two mirrors to do so. When people ask about the bandage on my skull, I just tell them that it keeps the aliens from reading my mind, since my employer won’t let me wear my tinfoil hat on duty.

I have a memorial tattoo of my favorite dog on the back of my right hand, and I am working on having it removed because (a.) the work thing, and (b.) I am not happy with how it looks. Lasering it off isn’t expensive, but it is painful. I paid for three treatments, but after the first one, it has been easy to avoid going back for the other two. I’ll go back, but I’m waiting for warm weather, so keeping it covered won’t involve gloves. Once it is gone, I will have new artwork done farther up my arm.

The third tattoo is a zebra/human satyr holding a palette and a paint brush. It represents my artistic side, my love for zebras, and my interest in history and mythological animals. It is on my upper left arm, so keeping it covered isn’t that big of a deal.

All of my tattoos are my own artwork, making them special because I drew them, and didn’t get them out of some ‘flash’ book at a tattoo shop.

@Lothloriengaladriel I cannot ever imagine getting mine removed. They are a part of who I am. People always ask if i’ll ever regret them…I believe that if it meant enough to me to do it it should mean enough to me someday to remember why I did it. Even if the feelings change, it will always remind me that I cared so deeply about where I was in my life to want to remember it forever.

I can’t go six months without changing my website design because I get bored with it. Tattoos are not for me.

@evelyns_pet_zebra most of mine currently are words, but none of mine are “flash” either, except the nautical star and that’s not really “flash” just a symbol that I didn’t magically create on my own haha. I don’t believe in flash tattooes because I don’t believe they are as special/meaningful to me if 10,000 other people have them.

People should definitely think about it for a long time. Take six months or however much time you need to contemplate it. If you still want it six months later, then go for it.

I have a Rose of Sharon tattooed around my left ankle. It marked a transition in my life – when I was brave enough to get a divorce, I was brave enough to get a tattoo.

@syz Lurve for divorce tattoos.

@SeventhSense It means thanks a lot :)

@staalesen
Oh, your welcome

The main reason I don’t have any tattoos is that I hate needles and am so jumpy, ticklish and squeamish all at once that it would be impossible for me to even sit still for someone to draw on me with a marker, let alone a needle. I give dentists, ophthalmologists and even hairdressers a hard time.

A secondary reason has to do with all the other usual disadvantages: they can fade over time, your skin gets floppy and they change shape, they could be unhealthy, you may change your mind about the design or just want to get rid of them, they can make people stereotype you etc. But to be honest there was a time when, as a kid, I found them cool. And I would have probably had one by now if it wasn’t for the needle thing.

Luckily I did not, because I have since seen far too many people with them, and in most cases they are less cool than I imagined them (especially as you grow old). I have seen very few that I really admire, not to mention people who’ve turned their whole body into a canvas. I can understand their logic, but no, not for me thank you.

I have two tattoo’s on my upper left arm. One is an American Bald Eagle with a red, white, and blue breastplate and he is holding a banner in his talons that reads U.S.A. My second tattoo is a set of wings connected to a red, white and blue shield. On top are the letters S.P. (for Security Police) and underneath are the letters U.S.A.F. (for United States Air Force).

I had my first one done when I was in the Army and I had my second one done during my current Air Force career. My right arm is totally neglected right now and I need to balance things out with a new tattoo on my upper right arm. I will be going with (hopefully) a very detailed tattoo of a tiger’s head in that location. (Tigers are one of my favorite animals)

I’ve never regretted getting my tattoo’s and after one more on my right arm, that will be the last one. They are body art, in my opinion, and they hold their own specific, special meaning to me and that is what counts most.

I have none & have never wanted one. For one thing, I don’t do needles, LOL. I just never thought of my skin as a canvas. My granddaughter got one on her lower leg in honor of her boyfriend who was killed. It’s a yellow rose with a green ribbon through it, since he donated his organs. It’s beautiful, but it’s there for a sad reason. Some are pretty cool, but they’re just not for me.

I have one tattoo. It says “namaste” in Sanskrit. I’ll always remember when I got it, as well: 8 September 2001. It took about an hour and a half.

Namaste means “I bow to (or honour) the divine in you”. It’s something I need to remember, that everyone has divinity in them.

I have a reason for getting all the tattoos I have. I’ve always loved tattoos, and as soon as I could, I started getting them. I consider them art. I do not take tattoos as seriously as some people..I have no issue with stupid tattoos, even though they are forever, people just take them way too seriously. For example, while dating, my husband got my name tattooed on his arm..it’s in cursive and we call it his ghetto tattoo..because it’s just silly. It wasn’t meant for him to profess his love to me or anything.

My first tattoo is a tramp stamp, it’s a tribal..I picked it off the wall but changed it up. It had a butterfly in the middle, but I changed it to a circle. A circle represented what had just happened in my life, I had just turned 17 and before that I was with a guy and he got a circle tattoo and I said I’d get one similar to his. We weren’t in love but very close. Our “relationship” ended abruptly when I got pregnant. It was a rough time in my life and I think my tramp stamp has more meaning than most.
My second tattoo was an infinity symbol on the back of my neck, in blue. To represent “infinitly changing”.
My third was a pi symbol on my foot, I got it when my relationship ending with a guy that I had loved. We had many pi inside jokes.
My fourth are my wrist tattoos…I was a Russian major for a brief period. I got the words “Pure” and “Fate” in cyrillic on both inner wrists, in red. I love red tattoos. My name means Pure and I believe in Fate. Oh and for the record, after actually taking Russian, I learned my grammar was incorrect lol. I hate showing it to people who speak Russian haha. It gives us all a good laugh.
My fifth I got with my now husband, it says “the devil is a liar” on my back. It’s something someone said to me in therapy. It really affected me and helped me get over my depression.
I have a semi matching tattoo with my husband, on our biceps, I have a square with a heart cut out of it. He has a triangle with a circle cut out of it. He’s my heart and I’m his circle. I didn’t want it to match too much, and I came up with mine and he came up with his.
I also have a constellation on my inner right ankle, to represent my friendship with a good friend of mine..it’s the sister constellation, the Pleiades. I love that one.

Sorry for such a long post!

I plan on getting many more tattoos. I’m just waiting for the funds and to be done having children because I don’t want them to get stretched out.

Whenever I see Asian symbols inked on someone, I wonder if they went to someone like this guy…

@laureth that’s awful! My husband has asian symbols on his chest. I make fun of him for it all the time. I don’t even know what they’re suppose to mean lol

@laureth some people have it coming. I always swore I would never get a tattoo in a language I don’t personally know, however I do have one now. I have been questioned about the validity of it, what it means, whether I even know, etc etc etc. but my answer is always the same “frankly I don’t care what it means. I didn’t get it to represent it’s meaning I got it to represent my dead best friend who had this one”. People shut up quickly. If it wasn’t a memorial tattoo though, I would have never done it for the EXACT reason in your link!

Each one is a promise to myself, and well worth their permanence.

For the most part I’m the only one that sees them and whenever the design has an ‘up’ or ‘down’ it is placed upside down so its right side up from where I’m seeing it. My way of saying “its for me, not you.”

In my youth, I was a member of the Pagans. I’m sure you know what that means. In addition to all that, I’ve got a brand on the back of my neck. It was not put there voluntarily. Later on, I was in this terrible accident—car flipping, catching fire—that sort of thing, and I suffered third degree burns on my back, neck and shoulder. They put some skin grafts on, mostly replacing the skin where my brand was, and part of my gang tattoo. Now it says “Pagan” intstead of Pagan MC. People think I’m some kind of wiccan. It doesn’t help that I’m into midnight dance and drumming around bonfires, these days.

@daloon
You are not helping my gender guessing game

@SeventhSense: Now if it were easy, it wouldn’t be any fun! ;-) Of course, you never know, that might actually be my ass in the avatar.

Rebellion. But I’m over it now.

Because I am a chicken. Cluck, cluck.

i’m only 16 and am not into getting tattoos done in shady basements, but i do want one. even if i could though, i wouldn’t get one now. i feel like i’d wish i’d gotten something else. if/when i do get one, i want it to be something i’ve always wanted, and that i think i always will be able to identify with. i love body mods. i’d never get anything big, though i love them, though. but i certainly have a few small ones in mind that i’m thinking about for the future.

@tiffyandthewall If you do end up getting small ones you should put a lot of thought into where they go. Small tattoos tend to not look so great on large expanses of skin, they can end up just floating rather than incorporating into your body.

But cheers on waiting, its a good thing to be sure of what you want.

I do. I only have one, for now.
I love tattoos, I think it’s sort of an ability to be able to further express yourself besides through clothing, hairstyles etc.
I’m gonna get another soon, and I’m hella excited.

I don’t have any tattoos because I haven’t had the money for anything I want since I was old enough to get them without parental permission.

I have a friend whose name is Kate and wanted to get a chinese “K” on her leg. Turns out the artist was not that good at Chinese, because the next time we went to a Chinese restaurant the waitress asked:

-Excuse me, but why does it say “Empty” on your leg?

I have tattoos because I think a good tattoo is absolutely beautiful. I think a lot of tattoos are shitty either because the quality of work or the fact that people don’t even care what the put on their bodies. I am a tattoo snob. I consider it an art form. Oh well to each his own.
I can’t tell you how many i have because they aren’t small enough to count. I go by hours of work. For example, I have stars that go from my armpit (the smallest star) to my hip (the largest star) I could count each one seperately but I have an issue with that. It just bugs me. Approx 2.5 hours. These are the only tattoos that are not color. Everything else is crazy bright and colorful, and mine don’t fade because I take great care of them.
I have a lotus flower on my, um, down there. It’s not small, for reference a bit larger than my iPhone.
My back is the largest so far, approx 18 hours. Size- shoulder to shoulder, middle of my neck to bra strap. I have birds on my shoulders, a version of a sacred heart in the middle, and clouds with negative space stars.
My left arm- snowflakes from wrist to elbow. 5 hours. From elbow to shoulder I have a Marie Antoinette zombie eating cake. Except she is a pretty zombie, not scary. So far approx 5 hours. Inner arm a rabbit skeleton, approx 8 hours.
I love all of them, except I want to have my snowflakes reworked.

I have a tattoo in the middle of my back, in fact so does my father and brothers. It’s a tradition for the all the men in my family to get a tattoo of our Clan’s Crest. This tattoo is not only a symbol of our ancestry, it is also a reminder of how important family is to me.

i just got mine about a month ago, it is on my backk top leftt. it says live laugh love with stars aroud it, becauseee that is my favorite quotee, and its something i sorta live by, and i am in lovee with stars. and i put color in it, and live is pink, laugh is green cause that is my favorite color and i’m always laughingg, and love is purple, because that is my boyfriends favorite color. although he never noticed that love is purplee ha.
and i don’t think i will ever regret getting my tattoo. and i also plan on getting more.

@dollfacee Sounds cute! What does it mean when you add extra letters to the end of your words? For example, you wrote “becauseee” and “quotee” and “laughingg”.

@essieness maybe her keys stick
;-)

hah no its just the way i type, idk.
except for on the because one, i was actually drawing that one out, cause i was fixin to explain why. idk i guess its just the way i talk too.

I don’t think I’ll ever get a tattoo. I just generally don’t like anything enough to want it on me for the rest of my life. BUT, if I were forced at gun point to get one, I would get Abraham Lincolns head as a tramp stamp because I figure that’s funny for the rest of my life.

@saranwrapper I know someone with an Abe tattoo. It’s on his leg with a bunch of other silly things, and it’s hilarious.

@fundevogel, i have 2 small ones in mind, and i’m thinking (right now, anyway) that i’d put one on each wrist, or at least one of them on one of my wrists.
and thank you. (: as much as i want them, i definitely wouldn’t want to get something now and then in a few years second guess myself.

and @elijahsuicide, your tattoos sound so awesome!

@tiffyandthewall—wrists are a great spot for little tattoos. I have one on the inside of my left wrist, I love how subtle it can be.

I know a woman who has a 2 inch yellow bio-hazard symbol in the center of her lower back. Yeah. That’s real attractive! I’d love to know what she was thinking but can’t ask.

poop

I have a Ankh tattoo in the centre of my lower back, The ankh symbol means ‘eternal life’ this symbol means a lot to me, since i was younger, i was always really intrested in the ancient egyptians, and had this dream of becoming an archaeologist, and finding all the ancient artifacts. Obviously i didnt get there, but i’m still extremely intrested in it all, and can get lost in books and websites about it all. I have also worn an Ankh around my neck since before i can remember, and i bought one for my boyfriend too, so it would kind of create a link between us, i kinda of built up the meaning in the Ankh for myself. I means alot to me now, and thats why i had it as a tattoo.