Tattoos are, I suppose, decorative but I'm not similarly inclined to discover the rationale behind, say, necklaces. The difference being that tattoos are more or less permanent, True, they can be removed, but the process is said to be far more painful than the original needlework.
Are they meant to be seen? Given that some tattoos are imprinted on faces, I'd say yes. Only the need for a broader canvas had led to their appearance on arms and chests, thereby spending most of their existence covered up by clothing. Yesterday, my regular hair-dresser, S - source of many interesting revelations - obligingly pulled down the back of her blouse collar to reveal a religious symbol between her shoulder blades, to which an unexplained mandela had been recently added. In blue. Obviously for private viewing.
But I return to the permanence of tattoos. Might one justification be that the wearer was dissatisfied with mere bare skin?
And there's the the risk about tattoos being invalidated by the passage of time. During one's impulsive youth one might wish to celebrate falling in love with X, then later marrying Y. And being forced to wear pyjamas even on very hot nights.
Tastes change. In my teens I admired the pop singer Guy Mitchell; remember him? But I'm glad my admiration didn't run to submitting my flesh to the needle.
Once, under the influence of my High Tory Dad, I thought Conservatism was the way to go. Had I recorded this on my right arm amputation wouldn't have been too high a price to pay in 2025.
And yet I am no nearer to finding a plausible answer: Why tattoo? Please help.
Following the herd. At granddaughter Katie's school there is a current fashion for wearing a themed T shirt (not sure what is its nomenclature) and parents are cajoled into paying out a disproportionate sum for something that will only have a short life expectancy. Katie resolutely refuses to be involved and dresses herself with a fair amount of individuality and style.
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember David Dimbleby having a small, butterfly I think, tattoo somewhere out of sight, but as you conjecture the motive is unknown.
Sir Hugh: So one may join the herd without having the faintest idea where it is travelling and why. A reinterpretation of "joining the herd" night be: so that that one isn't shown up as "being different". Or "keen to merge in with the background".
ReplyDeleteAt school and in adolescence I think this business of feeling the need to be "one-in" has always been a astrong influence, BUT the rise of Social Media in its many forms has aggravated it to an alarming degree. Nasty messages csn be sent without the face to face confrontation thus enabling the more cowardly to participate when they probably wouldn't have done in earlier times, and also, perhaps in even more unpleassnt terms.
ReplyDeleteWith Dimbleby my guess is that he wanted to appeal to a wider following by trying to indicate that he wasn't as stuffy as many might have thought. After al,l even though the tatoo was in a discreet location, he opted to make it known to the world at large.
ReplyDeleteI’ll not depend upon the AI search results for “why do people get tattoos?” My wife had a tattoo when we met - shoulder blade, about 2”x2”. A combination of a triquetra and a horse in stride. Fine lines with no infilling. A tribute to or reminder of her passion for horses and for The Trinity. Very lovely. Just AFTER we met, she announced that she had another appointment to be tattood again. This time to honor her devotion to Siamese cats. I was a little squeamish about this, as she couldn’t really describe what it was going to look like. She had seen a picture provided by the artist, and planned a placement on her hip. We had a date early in the day to view a Parrish exhibit at a local museum. A predictably stunning experience. Probably deserving of better fare than the slice of pizza we were grinding through afterward. In that picnic table setting I tried one last time to get a better idea of what was to come, and failing that, to encourage a cooling off period.
ReplyDeleteCaution is not her strong suit (she would say bravery is), so off she went. It turned out to be mask like, about 4”x4” and entirely infilled with colors. To me a blob. To finish the cat (make it look less like the peeled off face of a cat) would require the obliteration of her entire upper leg. She claims to like it, though initially she said “it’s bigger than I thought it was going to be”.
I was put off by it for a few months, now I don’t even notice it.
MikeM So L wanted permanent reminders of three great enthusiasms. Wall hangings of some sort would have offered more immediate visual access than a shoulder blade but at the expense (to some extent) of being less permanent. Unless the wall hanging was perhaps cemented into a niche. One assumes that L considered other options and for some reason - which, if articulated might have provided an answer to my question - preferred a tattoo.The wall hanging could have been more decorative and capable of also accommodating art at a higher level. But the tattoo won out.
DeleteOne reason why? could have sado-masochistic overtones but I'll draw a veil over that. In any case, it seems you suffered rather more than L. A tattoo might also be evidence of bravery but this seems vestigial. Other speculation leads into even more unlikely territory.
I have come to an interim conclusion. I doubt that any worthwhile explanation is likely to be found in any quickly arrived-at verbal answer. The signpost points to psycho-therapy and a longish session at that. Also that some PT conclusions may well surprise the tattooee.
When the moment seems right I’ll ask her. She was a psychotherapist for 20 odd years. Regularly attended sessions with her supervisor - a two hour drive away - to decompress and try to feel assured that she was handling things correctly. She then had a falling out with the supervisor, who she felt was NOT handling things very well himself.
ReplyDeleteI once threatened to get a Toyota symbol tattoo. Jesting with myself and a dealership fellow. He had just replaced the frame on my truck (rusted through, past original warrantee, Tojo extended it with either buy-backs, or in my case frame replacement). An $8000 job on a truck with 165,000 miles on it. Made it to 235K on the new frame. I was exuberant but never seriously considered the tat. So…celebratory?
MikeM: I hadn't thought of celebratory. A sort of trophy, you might say. Needless to add the prospect of having myself tattooed gives me the shudders. I am able to devise other ways of attracting attention.
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