I’m all for women’s equal “right” to get tattooed. This question has nothing to do with whether or not one thinks it is “proper” or “classy/trashy” to be tattooed. In fact, I find tattooing on women to be attractive, though that’s only one aspect of tattooing. And I highly respect women like “Somebody” on here, who are very smart about and dedicated to tattooing.
My question is serious – not sexist.
Tattooing in Western society has had a “culture” of it’s own, and we all know that culture is about MEANING. What does it mean to be tattooed? Why do people get tattooed? My OPINION on the right reasons to get tattooed includes:
--the images being tattooed inspire you
--the images fuel your imagination
--a more recent thing (in the West): love of art and taking that art beyond banal “canvases” of museums (along with this there is something “deep” about the permanence of it and the fact that it is on skin, w/ blood, etc)
--to mark affiliation with a group. Affiliation with a group makes people feel like they are a part of something larger than themselves.
--a memorial
Along with these comes a sense of permanence. Permanence reinforces commitment. Finally, I think tattooing has also been resorted to by marginalized/disenfranchised people as a type of property. If nothing else in this world, at least they have their tattoos, which will go with them to their death.
Think for example of sailors who were among the first to popularize getting tattooed. During long shipping voyages in crap conditions, they could use all the inspiration they got. And these people really had no property—even the clothes on their backs were often in pawn! If they went “overboard,” the one thing they would have is their tattoos—also what they look at and dream about during long days away from home.
Now why are trendy people getting tattooed nowadays?
--“dangerous” factor. People thinks it makes them “wild” or “dangerous” in some way. But guess what? It used to be much harder to get tattooed. You had to travel or interact with certain “dangerous” people to do so. These people were not “polite,” not there to be nice to you or stand for any of your bullcrap. It sickens me how encouraging people are on this site towards people asking “Should I get this tattoo?” No! Tattooing is not meant to be as easy to get (even if cheaper than) Starbucks.
In the current atmosphere of “Have a nice day,” “convenience” tattooing, any associations of “danger” are actually removed.
--to “symbolize” something. This is such a load of b.s. Yes, tattoos do “symbolize”...they indeed “mean” something. But there are many different ways of representing or symbolizing. The type of signing that trendy people usually do is not the type of signing common to tattoo culture. It would take a long and complicated discussion to explain this... you either get it or you don’t.
--to memorialize. This was the one past (traditional tattoo culture) motivation for tattooing that the trendy people have harped in on and blown all out of proportion. I don’t know if it’s because they see stuff like Miami Ink where everyone (as instructed to them by the show’s producers) walks in with some story about how blah blah happened and they need this tattoo of blah blah to represent that.
Trendy people seem to feel the need just to make ANY mark on their bodies to mark that something happened. “This shooting star is because my grandma died.” Huh?
--anxiousness to be “experienced.” As teens, most of us felt anxious about losing our virginity. Once you had sex, you joined the ranks of the non-virgin population—the EXPERIENCED population! A similar process seems to be at work with tattooing—people are anxious to get MARKED in any way to join this “club”.
But here is the thing: joining the “club” isn’t meant to be easy. There is inconvenience....pain....stigma....permanence. Inconvenience, Pain, Stigma, Permanence—these are the things that the trendy tattoo people are bent on getting around. Everything (questions on Yahoo Answers, for instance) are driven towards avoiding these obstacles--- BUT THEY ARE THE VERY OBSTACLES that give MEANING to being tattooed, to being in the “club”!!
In the absense of this meaning (tattoos have become meaningless fashion), the trendy people try to add “meaning”—“symbolism”. In real tattoo culture, someone is inspired by something so much that they want it permanently put on their body. In trendy tattooing, people decide first that they “need” to get tattooed (to become part of the cool, experiened club, to attract people sexually, to work out their psychological issues of things like isolation and poor self image)...and THEN they try to “think up” a tattoo (usually some banal shape or image inspired by commercial logo-ing/branding) and add to it some stated “meaning.” Do I need to go any further in explaining how utterly bankrupt this trendy tattoo culture is?
Trendy men and women are equally guilty of lowering the standards of tattoo culture and turning it into cheap branding. But women especially seem significant in this process. Because of the nature of popular “women’s culture” ALONG WITH women’s historical relationship to the art of tattooing, they especially have sought to remove the
INCONVENIENCE (“Can I pay with my credit card?” “What brand of lotion should I buy?” “How many times a day should I rub it in?” “Let me just get a little star here on the spot today” “Let me go online and ask...”)
PAIN (“Where does it hurt least?” “What creams can I use to reduce to numb it?”...)
STIGMA (“Stop calling it a tramp stamp” “I got my tattoos for me, they are mine” “Why get it in a place where you can’t show it off?”)
PERMANENCE (“How much does tattoo removal cost and does it really work?”).
Notice that the vast majority of people asking tattoo questions on this site are women.
What do you think this means? Thanks
2007-08-10
09:11:56
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14 answers
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asked by
Anonymous