Believe it or not...I was young once. Believe it or not I was a sucker for the fads of the 70's, long hair, bell bottom pants, even the infamous leisure suits of the disco era! I even remember wearing "orange" tinted lenses in my prescription glasses somewhere during this teenage rebellious nightmare!
The nice part of this was I grew out of these rebellious years with no permanent physical scars, just some clothes in my closet that I can bring out occasionally, usually around Halloween! My point here is, fads come and go just like fashions. It's ok to participate in them as long as participation does not harm to your body or soul! It's part of growing up.
This is what bothers me most about the young people I see getting tattoos today. I believe most are participating in the fad attempting to be part of the "hip" crowd. They so want to be a part of this pop culture that many are making bad decisions they will regret in years to come. It is something that cannot be easily reversed and likely they'll live with the decision forever. I won't even go into the possibility of blood borne disease you can acquire during the procedure, nor the pain you have to endure.
For me, my dislike of tattoos go much deeper than this. I was born with a large birth mark on my left arm.
Now my mom referred to the undeveloped skin pigments on my arm as a beauty mark and regularly told me how she knew I was special when she saw the beauty mark on my arm at birth. On the other hand, I grew up with the "flaw" and suffered the agony of other kids remarks about my arm. "How did you hurt your arm?" was the question I heard thousands of times in my lifetime.
Although I seldom think of the birthmark today, it's always there in the back of my mind because if I show it to the public, I will always get questions, usually from young kids. Having this skin marking, not by choice, has tainted my opinion of tattoos and is the reason I have no desire to have them nor like to see people with them.
So if you ask me what I think of your tattoo....be prepared for a negative response and understand why. By the way, when I'm asked "How did you hurt your arm?" these days, I respond, "It's a bad tattoo....of Europe!"
Think before you ink!
