Now that I've finally gotten a tattoo, (click HERE to see a picture of it), I've been noticing them so much more on other people. And I'll tell ya, there's a lot of weird tattoos out there. Weird and just plain stupid. At least once a day, I notice one and just wonder what the heck they were thinking. I think the tattoo craze has gotten so out of hand that people are getting them right and left just to get them and not putting a lot of thought into them.

I spent a LOT of time planning mine - like years. I knew exactly what I wanted and where I wanted it and how big I wanted it to be. This is going to be on your skin for the rest of your life, most likely and you need to put some thought into it. And don't get me wrong, some of them are gorgeous. My tattoo artist has full sleeves and chest done, but it's beautiful coordinated classic Japanese art. Another friend at church has gorgeous celtic knot work all over his arms and neck. That's the kind of art that really makes an impression.

Here's an example of a bad tattoo. There's a girl at work who has pictures of food on her arm. Big, bold pictures right on her bicep. About the size of a softball, I'd say. One is a piece of pizza, I think one is a sucker, and I can't remember what the other one is. What the heck?? There's another gal who has about 15 random tattoos on every visible bit of skin. There's no overall pattern, they aren't all the same type, there are chinese characters, circles, stars, words. It's like she's in the tattoo of the week club.

The ones that get me are the chest tattoos on girls. I was in an Olive Garden and I saw this girl. She was a really pretty blonde girl of about 25 with a very pretty figure, but she had a full on chest piece with some kind of a Japanese wave pattern across her entire chest. I think my chest is quite decorative enough without having to go through all the pain and expense of decorating it like that. I think guys are going to look at it no matter what, they don't really need an incentive.

The ones that really get me are the spacers in the ears. At least with most tattoos you can cover them up, unless they're on your hands or face. But your ears are right out there for everyone to see 24 X 7. And with these huge spacers, there's no way to fix them that I know of. I guess you could do some kind of plastic surgery, but it would be expensive and painful and I still don't think they would ever look normal.

I wonder if these kids realize how much they are limiting their job prospects in the future. I would say that most managers would think twice about hiring someone with highly visible tattoos or piercings. Maybe a small nose stud or an eyebrow ring might not be too bad, but these guys that have big nose rings and things - yikes! The job market is hard enough without limiting yourself to the kinds of jobs that will accept someone with modifications like that.

I'm all for personal expression, but geez people, in this like most o ther things, a little common sense and moderation goes a long way. I know you have to be 18 to get one without a parent's permission, but maybe we should increase that age a bit. Like to 25 or 30! Maybe by then, they will have gotten enough sense to think it through. Oh well, at least it gives good fodder for a blog post.



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