Why tatoo???

An interesting thing I have noticed : people love to be marked or tattooed. Now before I continue further let me confess: I have adult children with several!!! Now that is out of the way I will continue. I am not against tattoos, as my son declared one day telling me that my age was showing and my dislike meant that I was becoming a conservative!!! Anyone that knows me understands that I am as conservative as Jerry Brown or Ted Kennedy (may he rest in peace) hardly conservative. No, my angst is this: tattoos are a mark of passage for some professions, note ably the military and the navy in particular and not so much form the general population.

There have always been tattoos. Those who got them were different and we did not hang around those who got them. For one thing our parents were not found of people like this. And if you are a certain age you know where of I speak. It was a respect thing: you did not bring certain folks around your parents and you absolutely did not want them to know you knew persons like this less they felt you were not raised well or breaking out into a spot they could not control!! So is this the reason I am against tattoos? No my position stems from the fact that body art is not for everyone and in these times with the rise of hepatitis those who do this might be unwise.

Secondly it is unattractive!!! To see some of the decorations on people is well if you have seen them use your own adjectives for me it is just gross. Thirdly some of the persons I have seen just get carried away!!!!! My goodness I can get with a small or a moderate one but some take up an entire appendage (arm or a leg, chest or back, and other places I will not lower my fingers to type. Last and not at all least: when we get old (I use first person plural to include everyone, we are going to age) what will these tattoos look like on sagging skin, and are those who have done this exposing themselves to cancers??? Tye body is too precious a gift to be used this way. To use it as a canvas for colorization I do not think was the intended purpose.

All generation have their signatures on the culture. In our time (1970) the hair styles alerted people to the spectrum we resided in. The Hippies, Yippees, the Panthers all had distinguishing identifications; some were just expressions others a frightening visage. Yet even in the strife of that decade and before, people did not go over board with appearances. We still had to function in the society: we had to work, vote, dissent, and even change the world.

I worry about this generation to me they seem to be disengaged, not into real world situations, content to remain at home not launch into the water or strive to make a difference. Generations like these are unprepared to deal with issues. This is not to say that there are not those that are doing a great job, there are some. But I do not see the larger participation that is needed. Later

Then there is the addictive (I have heard people say this) property of the needle on skin. How this is pleasurable is a mystery to me. So why tattoo?? The short answer is I have no idea!! Are those who do it looking for attention maybe but some of the most attractive people i have seen who do not need one do it. Are they attention seekers: wanting to see who looks the best those folk might be narcissistic and that is a disorder.