I've had my (again, guaranteed very unique) kanji for longer than I can remember (a decade?), and I've no regrets. I want more ink. I've been mulling over what to get for quite some time. It's (essentially) permanent, so I want to be sure I choose something that is meaningful to me an has long-term value to me. I saw a piece of art (which would undoubtedly be considered "girly") from a local artist today that I absolutely loved. Color, form, message, all of it. Beautiful. I've filed it away for later so I can go back and see if it has the same impact in a month, or 6 months, or whatever. If it does, I may decide to get it inked. Who said "portrait"? Personally, I'm not a fan of "portrait" tattoos. I like what Dante is considering; his son's name. I'm not a father yet, but I think I could see myself doing something similar, that's all. I can only imagine what it's like to be a father. Pretty spectacular, I'd guess. Well then - there's your problem. I think the question anyone should ask themselves about any tattoo they are considering is "am I getting this because it 'looks sweet'? Or am I getting this because it has some meaning, historical or otherwise, to me?" The reason I've been gravitating towards a nautical star and/or dragon is because they have firmly established meanings in western mythology, meanings which I think have philosophical application to my life. Frankly, there are lots of ideas I've been kicking around, but it's only recently that I've come to terms with the idea of putting tattoos in places where they might be seen if I'm wearing normal, everyday clothes. Political tattoos, ethnic (ie, "Irish") tattoos, things that identify ideas important to me. The problem is settling on something that I want on my body long term. That's what most of my "tattoo" thinking time goes towards. To be honest, nothing I've seen on LA Ink so far tickles my fancy. Tho it's pretty cool to see people get a tattoo that means such a great deal to them. I can see why that would be totally rewarding work for the artists.
Frankly, nobody needs to get any kind of body modification done. They do it, hopefully, because it's personally rewarding.
What isn't cliched?? One of the most annoying things is listening to other people criticize someones tattoo. Let them get what they want, why do people really give that much of a shit?? What's it to them? Yeah it might be dumb or look bad, but so what. They like it and that's all that matters. It's like music and movies, people like what they like. Why should anyone else tell them any different. Those that do come off as snobbish and rude, something that's all too familiar on these boards.
Can we go back to discussing how hot Kat is? I'm only kidding, this tattoo conversation is entertaining. I've always wanted one but havn't yet figured out what i should get.
She's smoking, tho I'm about a month behind on watching this. I haven't yet watched the 'boobs' episode, or anything after. I think I said it before, just make sure it's something you'll be happy with when you're 74. If it is, then you can't go wrong. The Japanese on my left deltoid is a Buddhist phrase meaning 'I know not' (my Dad thought that was very appropriate at the time!). That might seem an odd thing for an atheist, but I got it at a point when I was beginning to accept the fact that there is a lot of stuff I don't know, and won't ever know, and I'm OK with that fact - but always questing for more knowledge. That's what it means to me; it symbolizes my quest for knowledge in a world that contains far more knowledge than I could ever know. Interestingly, it kind of becomes 'invisible' to you after a while. I've had it for nearly 10 years, and my brain no longer registers it as something 'foreign' to my body. The only reason most people don't know about it is it's high enough up on my arm that you can't see it when I wear a t-shirt. If it were a little lower down, I'd probably forget to cover it up in places where exposed tattoos would be unacceptable (like if I were trying to conceal it from my late grandparents). As you may have noticed from earlier discussion, I'm generally of the mind that if you like how it looks, and you feel confident that you won't regret the decision later, then ******** what other people think. There are lots of tattoos out there that I dislike, but I'm not about to go up to someone and tell them I think their tattoo is ************. But, one of the most important things you can do is make sure you find a talented artist to do your tattoos. It'd suck to have a great idea ruined by bad execution, and then be stuck with that for the rest of your life (barring a coverup tattoo or tattoo removal).