The Tig

The other day I went to my favorite Chinese restaurant (I'm kind of a regular, the workers usually make small talk with me). I was wearing a dress, and the lady at the front counter approached me and touched on her arm where my butterfly tattoo is and said "Beautifur! Butterfry?" We had a broken English conversation where she asked where it was done and implied a lot of the tattoos she's seen come into the restaurant are pretty bad. Tattoos transcend all languages. :)

Teenager conversation at the grocery store...
Teenage Girl Cashier: "Like OMG this lady I know, like, she got a tattoo of a cobra snake ON HER CLEAVAGE. Like, OMG, you could see EVERYTHING. I mean, like, she was wearing clothes but OMG, like you could see her tattoo. Why would you get a tattoo so everyone could see it?"
Teenage Bag Boy/Bro: "Yeah, well I heard you can get a tattoo for $100."
Me: "Try double per hour"
TGC: "Well, like, how long did your tattoo take to finish?"
Me: "12 years so far"
TGC: "Like, OMG that is sooo expensive."
Me: "Would you rather be covered in cheap tattoos or nice tattoos?"
TBBB: "Yeah bro, when I'm gonna get my tattoo, like, it's going to be the most expensive tattoo possible."

This is why I have tattoos I can cover. Once I got over my need to please everyone at the ripe age of 30, I realize I dislike probably 2/3rds of people I meet.

"So you just up and made a major life decision without any second thought about it?!"
- my dad after seeing my chest plate
LOL
he was pissed... poor guy. too conservative to think rationally or openly at times..
i'd love to respond to that with "...pray hard"
i'm torn between being a pacifist by nature and my desire to wear art of which holds a negative connotation to those who believe in such things..

hahahaha that reminds me of my cousin, his first tattoo when he was 14 (also done in some guy's kitchen) and his mom took him b/c he wanted one sooo badly. My brother looked at it and said "jeez, how many Doritos did you have to give the guy for *that*?"

Disgusting, I hate religious zealots!
I Had an older man approach me the other day and asked WHY I did that to my beautiful skin. I told him I had waited my whole life for a beautiful piece and I love it. He then asked about when I get older like 40 and changed my mind.......I answered that I'm 43 and I'm quite able to make permanent life changing decisions. BUT Thanks anyways. It's funny though, that he would feel so uppity about my work since he had been panhandling before I walked up. I also had another man ask me what my tramp stamp said. I said excuse me...1 I'm not a tramp and 2 I don't have any tramp stamps. He answered It might help you get pregnant. :( WTF?
Oh then last night, Hubby and I were getting a beer at a local pub when some skezie guy started talking to me about my work then started stripping to show me all his....He then asked about hourly wages. It didn't bother me since he didn't ask how much it cost. I told him....He said HOLY SHIT! I NEVER pay more than 40 an hour and my guy even does it in my kitchen....I smiled and walked away quickly.

This!
I've also had more than a handful of weirdos say "I'll pray for you" or something similar. This always makes me glad I have several devil tattoos and the wanting for several more.

I agree with @DavidR this guy sounds like he was more interested in being demeaning towards woman in whatever way possible than he was in your tattoo. What a sad scary person.

...I can't believe this thread has been dormant for 6 months.
Last night we went to a wedding. I wore a little black dress with thin straps so the top third of my backpiece showed. I had my hair up. Overall, I got positive reviews or no comments - it was very cool.
However, "Jackass" (as he was come to be called), came up to me at the bar. Picture 60 y/o paunch, light pink button-down, partially untucked - all the guys were all still wearing suit jackets. Partially in the bottle. So he is chatting me up and then sees my tattoo.
Him: Wow, I just saw your art. It seems like the entire back is a "new thing." The first time I saw one was when we took our son to a dude ranch in Texas and a girl had one. It was quite alluring.
Me: ::eesh::
Him: So this was probably more than one session?
Me: Yes, it was two. (Actually, it was 20).
Him: So, how is your Hepatitis C? Is it under control?
Me: Excuse me?
Him: You know, your Hep C. And your Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B?
Me (deadpanned): Everything is under control.
Him: You know, I ask, because you had more than one session, so there was more than one needle. So you have to keep it under control.
Me, (skeeved out and walking away): It's fine.
So I tell my friends, and we all get weirded out. Shudders. So anyway, later in the night, I want to go back to the bar and get a drink for me and the Hubs. But Jackass is there talking with another guy I don't know. But I go up anyway and talk straight to the bartender and order.
Him to buddy: There are a lot of women in those same little black dresses. They must all shop at the same store.
Me: ::Stars straight ahead::
Him (announcing into the air): Well, I guess no one heard that.
Me (walking away with my drinks): I'm sorry, it must be my Hepatitis C showing.
Him: Excuse me?
Me: IT MUST BE MY HEP C SHOWING.
Him (huffed up and offended): I was just being concerned.
?!? Super shudders. Eeeeesh. One of my girlfriends said I should have rubbed my arm over his and "gotten my Hep C all over him." But I was too skeeved out to even consider touching him.
I hate people who play these little word power games. I have to come up with a few more standard answers to assholes. Happily, I did get the chance to smack him back down.

That's exactly what I told him then. Grandma didn't have a problem with it, so he left it. He isn't taking the wedding photos and Sister is immensely proud of her tattoos, so she's planning to leave them in the photos. She figures that our body art is part of us - why hide or erase it, when everyone knows it's there?

Sometimes I think it's the opposite - that they frown on people with tattoos, but YOUR tattoo is okay in their book so you are somehow the exception to their negative opinion.

So I have been away for over a week on vacation, no internet. Logged on today, saw that there was a bunch of posts in this thread, and started to catch up. Got halfway through @mmikaoj 's post and decided to leave it until tonight after my son's soccer practice.
While there I was talking to my buddy's wife, who apparently hasn't seen me in shorts since December. So I proceeded to answer just about every single question on here - pain, cost, meaning, where, why, etc., etc.
Started out like this:
Her- "Whoa, when did you get that?!?
Me - "December"
Her- "What's the meaning??"
Me - "It means I have an awesome panther on my leg. With a sword. And some roses."
Her - "Oh, three roses! For your wife and two kids.
Me - "Uh....OK"
I felt like the conversation was happening because of this thread.

Re: cost.
Almost everyone has asked me this question and very few people know I am working on a full back. It makes me uncomfortable, even from friends, and I don't have a pat answer yet. But the other day, without even thinking, I replied, "Yeah, it's more expensive than going to the movies." For some reason, that shut down the question with a little laugh from both of us, but in a way that it was clear I wasn't going to share, conversation was over, without being rude or making them feel like a jerk for asking (my friends, after all). Not sure I can explain that, but it was a positive thing and I think I'll try that one again.

Getting a big tattoo has really changed my view of my skin health. I've got several bottles of good quality SPF 50 everywhere and several UV 50 shirts, 2 UV hoodies and coverup. And now that I am thinking thigh, I've found myself slathering lotion over other parts of my body in preparation for possible new tattoos! (You know, because it's an addiction and all...) No, I'm excited to wear my tattoos!
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I get the standard "does it hurt" and "how much is it costing" and I have no idea why people think it wouldn't hurt. Are they assessing your degree of masochism? Secretly thinking you deserve it? (Rhetorical...)
I was on a diving vacation a couple weeks ago and there were three distinct responses. We were diving with the same group of 13 on the same small boat. I wore a rash guard all the time and no one saw the tattoo until the 2nd or 3rd day, so people got to know me as a person. A nice couple our age who'd traveled the world teaching English were so interested and curious (we were diving, my back is an in-progress montage of underwater photographs I've taken) and we talked about the different critters and how a tattoo like this progress. Very nice and completely accepting. They have no tattoos. There was another group, three of whom had small tattoos, and they either didn't say anything and treated me the same - one told me a guy she knew was getting a full suit and was to be featured in a book. She was cool and open.
The other group was a family who initially was friendly to me. The dad and I are in the same profession and somewhat muckity-mucks. I could possibly have been a useful contact to him. Then when I showed up at the (inside) tiki bar wearing only a bikini and showing my tattoo off the first (and only) time, the father came around the back of me to look at the chalkboard menu above the bar where I was sitting. My husband told me he stood there for a good 5 minutes staring at my back while pretending to read the menu. After that, they didn't talk to me for a couple days, but a couple of them (including the dad) warmed up to me somewhat after being stuck on a small boat together and having to realize I was a real person.
Interesting to see the reactions.

"Tattoos are not an addiction; they are a collection. A tattoo collector is just like a conventional art collector who buys a painting, hangs it on the wall, and then moves on to acquire the next, unique piece. Tattoo collecting is a spiritual pursuit, while addiction is a physiological need. Addicts repeatedly take the same drug over and over without limit. A tattoo collection has variety, and it has an end. Once you collect the whole set, you're done."
-Horiyoshi III
Side note: I also have a Hello Kitty. It was done by my fiancée, is about an inch and a half wide, and took her about an hour. It's just lines, aside from color in the bow and nose. She was really trying.

I really don't like the term "plain skin".....seems derogatory in a way.....
Like we are really that much different.....just because we chose to alter our appearance or something! Anyway.....
I don't even realize I am tattooed anymore.....I always think maybe there is a stain on my shirt or food in my teeth.....LOL! Stares or comments don't bother me much anymore......and yeah you do hear some really strange things come out of peoples mouths BUT I have also heard some of the same things come out of people who are less tattooed than others are too!
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Okay....funny story....maybe a little off topic though....
I had a girl I was dating come to visit me several years ago.....she was moderately tattooed! She told me at the airport she was sitting there and everyone seemed to be staring in her direction.....in fact so much so that she was seriously thinking about asking why everyone was staring at her so much....."Haven't you seen a tattooed woman before???"....is what she was thinking!
Then she realized........she was sitting under the Television......LMFAO!

Too many to list! Most recently ..
'But you were such a pretty girl Holly' :rolleyes:
and from one of my older ladies who's nails i do
'You're never going to meet an oil baron and skip off happily into the distance now are you dear?'
On the whole i have to say most of the comments i get are pretty positive. In the early days of becoming visibly tattooed I was really conscious of being stared at especially by older women... now though i don't even notice!

I tell the straights nothing. Even genuine interest, it's not for them to understand in my book.
I keep my answers aloof, don't tell them where I go, don't even try to educate a clean skin as to why.
I consider it prying into my business. I don't pry into theirs.
Keeps a bit of the mystery alive too.

Welcome!
Here's a little tip on dealing with pain. If you or someone you know ever took a lamaze class, you may already know that relaxation is the best tool for dealing with pain.* When we give in, bending like a reed in the wind, pain is much easier to manage. Focus on breathing slow and easy. As soon as you tighten up, force yourself to relax again. At times when it gets especially painful at a tender spot, I mentally move my brain and all pain outside of the body. I'll focus on something in the room and put my mind right there as if in an out of body experience.
* Example: Take an ice cube in your hand and lightly hold it in a relaxed grip. You can do this for a fairly long time.
Try holding a cube in a tight grip in the other hand. You can't hold it for a very long time compared to the relaxed hand.
This is the same principle for dealing with pain of any kind.

First off, you want I should go and bust his knee caps for ya?
As for a cover up, the thin lines and small overall size should make it fairly easy in the hands of an expert. You'll need to put something a good bit larger to cover it. I'm thinking a rose.

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What would inspire you or reflect something important that happened in your life?

"I don't understand why someone would get _______ tattooed on them"
Yes... that's right... you don't.

In an unrelated matter, she was fired last week. :cool:

I have an ankh and people always ask me if it is:
a) a satanic symbol
b) a feminist symbol
c) a lesbian symbol
d) a cross
I tell these people it's a stick figure with their legs shut.

a guy at work dosnt like my tattoos because they have no meaning then i got a rose of nomansland and because my gran was a nurse in ww2 told him thats why i got it (even though i would have got it anyway) and all of a sudden he thinks its great,
another time the same guy was slagging off my tattoos for having no meaning so i apologised for not pretending my life was a episode of miami ink

I just respond "It's an overworked/underpaid thing, you wouldn't understand."
And, as Eddie Murphy would say, "No baby, that's just jokes."