I expect I'll regret you, but the skin graft won't get you.

[constance]

One of the women at my bookstore has a son, and that son is opening a tattoo parlor, and so of course she's trying to talk everyone into getting a tattoo, and is getting one herself. I think this shows an admirable maternal instinct, especially because to look at L, you would hardly think her the type to even consider getting a tattoo. She's in late middle age, sedate and quiet and bespectacled, with a thick Finnish accent and a half-finished comp lit masters degree under her belt. She looks the sort who might not actually disapprove of tattoos, but in whose worldview tattoos would not normally greatly figure.

Isn't motherhood wonderful?

Anyway, if I didn't already love her very dearly -- she really is one of my all-time favorite people; her quietness and occasional astringency and her scratch-the-surface bohemian spirit are exactly my style -- I would love her for this. The idea of L. sitting in a chair letting her son mark her up with an Art Nouveau peacock on her upper arm just thrills me, I can't help it. And in a fit of enchanted, ravished solidarity, I am actually considering getting my own.

It's not as though I haven't had a tattoo in mind for ages, after all, thought out carefully, all planned out years ago, and it's not as though it would be a big or expensive one. It's not as though I have anything at all against tattoos, for me or for anyone else. It's just that I have this horror of skin, anyone's skin, being punctured by anything, knives, needles, you name it. I don't think I'd call it an actual phobia -- after all, I don't freak out when I give blood -- I'd stick with horror. But not even daily shots for my cat or weekly shots for me ever cured it, and I'm not sure I can overcome it. I'm going to try, though, for my friend L. Wish me luck!

:::

This has got me curious, I should add. How many of you have tattoos, and what and where are they? How many would or will get one, and what and where would it be? How many don't want one? How many disapprove altogether?

Comments

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I have this feeling that the human body is kind of fabulous and miraculous in its workings, and so I don't so much feel the difference between "young and firm" and "old and flabby" is anything but interesting, and not really less appealing. Nor do I have any objections to heavily-tattooed folks. (Truth be told, I have kind of a personal kink for body-writing, although I prefer it temporary, and done by me -- I like people who allow me to treat them as my own personal drawing tablet! :))

But I do see what you mean -- and I absolutely agree that badly-done tattoos can be awful. The one I want, have wanted for many years, is both simple and subtle, and so I don't think there's all that much room to screw it up. Although truly, the possibility of a screw-up is one of the reasons I'm hesitating now.

[amelia-eve.livejournal.com]

I don't have particularly negative feelings about being old and flabby, especially since I have acquired an SO who is quite vocal in his appreciation of my fleshly nature. But I think it's kind of a specific to the art of tattooing that the work looks better when it holds its form and doesn't get all stretched and droopy. I have memories of my uncles' old WWII tatts, all blued and blotchy on their sagging forearms, and it's just not a look I'd go for. The other technical aspect is that the image I would want, a California poppy, is orange and pale green, not colors that are very stable as tattoos.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

ahahaha great icon!

Now see, I'm pretty fascinated by those faded, stretched out tattoos. I mean, no, I suppose ideally one would would want one's tattoo to hold its original shape and color forever, but speaking as an observer, I always look at those tattoos and am reminded that that tattoo (and really everything about that aging person) is a story in progress, and it just makes me curious to know the story in a way that new tattoos don't as much.

Not much comfort to the person whose pinup girl looks as though she's melted a bit, I know! :D

Orange and green are unstable tattoo colors? I did not know this! What are stable ones? Black, I suppose. Red?

[amelia-eve.livejournal.com]

I am no tattoo expert by any means, but I work a lot with ink on paper and occasionally with dyeing fabric. It's sometimes easy to forget that color in practice is not a pure and abstract thing that we mix at will, but a combination of specific pigments that come from different chemical sources and react with one another as well as with the base upon which they are set.

The rise of full-color tattoos is fairly recent, after years of a more traditional black/red/dark blue/dark green spectrum. Apparently the lighter and more exotic colors fade more quickly and require periodic touch-ups.

Also, remember that tattoo ink can contain metals which stay in your body. Besides the potential for skin irritation, they can respond to the magnetic force of medical procedures such as MRIs. Obviously the dangers are fairly low or they would not be so popular, but it's something to think about.

As for the sagging, I guess the pin-up girl ages along with the wearer!