EB—they truly are. I wanted a black tattoo, so I wanted a beautiful black spider. I really like the zigzags some spiders put into their webs…and webs in general

I’m so happy that I stumbled across this parlor—I had been sort of idly looking, but don’t really know what to look for in terms of finding a tattoo parlor that’s right for me (as opposed to just a good or acceptable parlor). Good luck!

wonderful tattoo parlor btw… dangit, need to find something like this locally. good luck. I can’t wait to see pics.

EBrown @10: lol! to the guy with his forehead tattooed (was it backwards, so he could read it in a mirror in case he forgot who he was?) I agree that many tattoos are corporate (I was just this evening checking out this flickr set), which may go to defining oneself as belonging to a tribe (even if it is the Nike tribe…).

I also agree that it’s not necessary to consider a tattoo “ugly” in order to dislike them. They are painful, permanent, and sometimes unhealthy. And there are many times when I see a tattoo and think “what was she thinking?” I don’t usually “get” face tattoos, unless they’re obviously tribal (I really do like the Maori chin ones). And we do live in a world where visible tattoos are often looked down on (by people who are not you, who would deny service or benefit). I don’t always feel that I’m in a space where I can openly talk about my desire for a new tattoo, and I thank you for your candor about it. Like I say, there are many body modifications I don’t “get”—genital mutilation of either gender (including circumcision and piercing) & surgical implantation (of steel or silicon) being at the top.

And Karl Rove does look like a toad. Proof, I suppose, that there’s someone for everyone.

Your two comments seem to be contradicting each other. You say that you “just don’t get tattoos”, which is fine, but say both, “if it floats your boat mazeltov”, and “Lovely, then she passed me: on her back a tattoo. My thought, ‘what was she thinking?’”

Your first comment did seem very judgemental of people who choose to get tattoos – you were saying, it seemed, that people oughtn’t get tattoos, because *you* think they’re ugly and “generic” – I honestly don’t know what you really mean by that last one by the way. Why judge someone at all who has any sort of tattoo? Why did you have to judge that girl as less pretty simply because she has got a tattoo on her back.

I think that it is fine to say that you don’t like something for yourself, and don’t want to do it, but it seemed to me that you were foisting that opinion onto others by saying that they shouldn’t do something you don’t want to do. I find that a rather troubling and dangerous mindset.

I understand that some people are very judgmental of piercings or tattoos, and have the attitude that EBrown does, that it’s unfortunate, ugly, embarrassing or in some way corporate (huh?). But I don’t wish to get a tattoo for anyone else. I don’t even care if nobody ever sees it. It’s for me. If everyone else is doing it, I don’t care about that either. It’s for me. It’s a statement to me, about me. It’s not for anyone else. And if some people do get tattoos to show to the world, that’s cool too. Everyone has methods whereby they make statements about themselves to themselves or to the world. Some people have fancy cars or a certain hairstyle or a color that they wear or a particular job or a school that they send their kids to or a place where they work out – all of which may be designed to say something about themselves to themselves or other people. Some people choose tattoos or piercings, and I don’t believe it’s less valid than anything else I listed.

I think that both tattoos and piercings can be a really great way to display something artistic, and unique, more than just clothing. I really see the artistic component of both as at least as important as any desire to make a statement or to do something untraditional.

Chandelle: Angelina Jolie has some awesome word-tattoos (and some awesome “regular” tattoos). I know a girl who got bracelet tattoos of her favorite quote from Shakespeare, in her own handwriting, around each wrist—they’re beautiful. To paraphrase EBrown, I’ve never loved any words enough to want to wear them. Although I remember a quote from a song I loved as a kid, “to thine own self be true” (obviously not original to that song, but that’s how I think of it)—in the song it was on “a heart-shaped locket”. I don’t wear necklaces most of the time, so maybe that’s a good set of words for me…

Mossie—I find that a lot of people have a “story” behind their tattoos. I’m still working up the courage to ask a classmate of mine about his. It seems to be a very personal/spiritual tattoo and I’m interested in the story.
     I didn’t get my first tattoo for any widely-recognized milestone, but for me it marked a conscious adulthood rite. I had been making my own decisions for some time, but this was the first that felt, to me, like something of import. I was my own person, I was going to do want I wanted, and I was going to accept what consequences came from my decisions. I was no longer going to live my life according to other the rules of other people. It may have partly been an inward kind of a dare—am I really going to get a tattoo that I know full well my parents and family are going to hate? But it also gave me the courage to make other (and, to me, more important) choices that were my own but that would upset my parents (like moving in with DH before we got married).
     My spider tattoo was going to be for my acceptance to law school, but I didn’t have an artist I wanted to entrust with it at that point. I then decided to put it off until graduation. But now, I feel like I want the power, courage, and protection of the Spider while I’m still here…

EBrown: there’s a saying that the difference between people with tattoos and people without tattoos is that people with tattoos don’t care whether or not you have a tattoo… I hope you never feel sorry for me I think tattoos are beautiful (unlike some body modification, which is not to my taste) and, because of the pain involved, are necessarily spiritual; or at least emotional. I just watched Her Majesty, about a Maori woman & her European-New Zealander friend, a 12 year old girl. She describes her tattoo as a rite of passage, that she had to affirmatively go to the tattooer and answer questions (much like, when she said them, the kinds of questions asked in confirmation ceremonies of many religions) along the lines of: do you accept the markings of your people, the pain that they will cause, and the responsibility that wearing them gives you? I think that, to a large extent, they still are a rite of passage or the acknowledgement of a momentous event. Many women get them after a particular milestone of breast cancer (to the point that it’s totally mainstream to see 50-something women with chest tattoos); men get them in the military; teenagers get them when they’re trying to break out of their parents’ expectations.
     I finally discussed it with my husband last night. He, also, doesn’t “get” tattoos, but his response to my getting them is “it’s your body” and a bit of a weirded-out shrug. We discussed my reasons for it, the length of time I’ve wanted it (I think he would prefer that I go five years between tattoos, lest I become the Illustrated Woman), and what it means to me.
     What does that quotation mean?

I view tattoos as logos or commercials. I know that the people who get them love them and that’s fine. But they seem generic to me.

I’ve never loved any piece of art enough to want to wear it 24/7.

Best wishes for your foot tattoo. I bet it’ll be beautiful.

I hope you’ll post some photographs when your spider is done.

I do think that next time, I will let the tattoo artist have some input into the design. It is, after all, what they do best.