JBluewind

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!

Thighs are the next hit after I finish my back. I want a samurai helmet skull on one and namakubi on the other.
We will be girly together lol

Do you have your feet done? If not, but you plan on it...prepare thyself.

After spending the weekend with lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins I have a new "plainskin" comment to share: "What is it?"
Are my tattoos really that shitty and unreadable that you can't see a snake/rose, demo head, or a skull??? Does a person need some basic knowledge of tattoo imagery to easily recognize the image?
Also I was told the thigh is a very girly place to get a tattoo.
And tattoo inks are filled with carcinogenic poisons.

Today A women in the gym said my tattoos were the most colourful she'd seen then asked how I kept them so colourful, I said I keep them out the sun and she said oh must be why my foot looks like this. And showed me a very light blue flower that I'm presuming was once a bold blue

Being Younger I Love the "how would your children feel about you doing that to your body" followed by my response, she says she loves me every night.

Yesterday I was in my car sitting at a red light and the guy to my right motions to roll down my window, I do. He points to one of my tattoos and goes "'EY WHAT'S THAT MEAN??" The light turned green so I yelled out "I just liked how it looked!" as I drove away. Weird place for that conversation.

A coworker showed off his tattoo today. Some shitty crab and moon tattoo. I guess he saw my tattoo on my shin and thought it was cool to show his. I really don't ever relate to people with tattoos in the areas that I frequent, because everyone is so small town. It's okay, though. I relate in other ways, and that's fine with me. That doesn't mean that I don't think about escaping this suburb every day.

For future reference Sean Sinha, no worries, most "40 year olds" can handle being told off; we don't have dementia yet and do not need to be treated with kid gloves because of our feeble minds (although I think in this case, you actually did get a 40 yo with seriously compromised brain function).

At my bar last night, a 40-something woman asks me "How come your tattoos can stay so colorful and the lines stay so sharp? My husbands faded after just a few months!" I asked where he got it and found my answer right away "Oh, his friend does tattoos out of his van. If you ever want more work..." I interrupted her and told her I had to change a keg. Mid shift. Just to avoid her stupidity.

Creativity only goes as far as what you can make work in the skin, which is all craft. AKA- creativity means nothing without a foundation, which is what is protected in tattooing. I usually try to think of all of the art side ending on paper, while trying to think of actually tattoo as craft. There are parallels and connections between both mindsets, of course, but it helps my mindset in both to think that way.
Another silly statement, when explaining how to improve a design recently... upon explaining why something being too small would cause issues down the line as it aged in the skin, I was told by the client "Well, it doesn't have to be good or anything..." I was flabbergasted.

1, other forms of self-harm including incarceration? I mean yeah, incarceration isn't fun but it's not something most people do to themselves on purpose to hurt themselves or others. 2, I'm a christian and I have tattoos, including a grim reaper. I'm not one of the ones who shove it down people's throats and I don't judge anyone for how they believe or don't believe. But just...wow. I'm as offended as anyone else with tattoos would be, maybe more. I can't believe the person said they are little better than comic book drawings. I'm astounded in this day and age that someone could still have such a primitive ideology about tattoos. It's sad that people can still be so prejudiced and close minded about something as mainstream as tattooing.

That would make me want to wear a tank top!

Pahahahahahahaha, just found this on t'internet. Troll? Or do you think there are people who really feel like this?
Has anyone been to frith street tattoo in soho?
what was your experience like? what artist did you have and when did you go? all answers will be really helpful. thanks
Best AnswerVoter's Choice
Truth answered
no, I have never been there, and I would never go. All tattoos are ugly and repulsive--they are desecrating the living bodies of human beings. Your body is not a canvas for so-called art--it is the living shell that your spirit resides in. It is to be protected and cared for, not abused by the filthy hands of the tattoo predator injecting ink into your skin. Here is why you should avoid tattoos like the plague they are:
1) Tattoos are an urban blight. They offend most people who see them. They are ugly, like graffiti. Like graffiti, they lower the quality of the environment. Tattoos lower the quality of life, for everyone who has to see their ugliness.
2) The whole concept of tattooing is wrong--the way these hideous cartoons are inked into the flesh of people through bloodletting and pain, possibly resulting in infection and disease--if they are "art", they are a dark and evil “art”.
3) Tattoos are closely linked to other forms of self harm, like cutting, piercing, drug use, incarceration, etc.; they are hand-in-glove with these destructive behaviors.
4) Evil people encourage our vulnerable children to get tattooed so they can make money off of them. They do not care that they are causing harm. And yet, these evil ones, these tattoo predators, with their cruel eyes and dark hearts, are even admired by their deceived victims. What a sick world we are in!
5) Young people are fooled into wanting tattoos by degenerate Hollywood and their degraded “movie stars” and musicians, and promoted by the prostitute mass media. Our deceived children think tattoos are cool and cutting edge, but over time, they wind up hating their tattoos. Far worse, they wind up hating themselves.
6) Weak parents and older people abandon their duties to lead their young even though they know better. They are so afraid of being disliked, so desperate to be “liked” that they say nothing against tattoo. Worse, some completely abandon their responsibility to provide sound guidance and even encourage the young ones to get tattooed.
7) How it hurts so see the deceived young one so angrily defensive about what will ruin and hurt them--their right to get tattooed.
8) The Lord of Hosts, creator of mankind, clearly commands against them. "Do not cut your bodies… or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD” Leviticus 19:28
9) As far as tattoos being “art”, that is garbage. A tattoo is NOT "a work of art". The human body is not a canvas and the abusers and mutilators who desecrate it are not artists. Most of their so called "art" is little better than comic book drawings.
Young people, express yourself with your words and actions, not by inking graffiti onto your living flesh. Avoid this disastrous mistake that will damage your spirit and ruin your life. Like drinking, and taking drugs, and practicing self harm, getting tattooed will ruin you, not right away, but over time. There are many predators and enablers here, who encourage young people to abandon decency and live self indulgent and destructive lives. Know there is no such thing as a tattoo "artist"--there are only tattoo predators who seek to hurt you and take your money. The tattoo industry is full of abuse and negligence. Tattoo removal is a growth industry. Tattoo lawsuits are soaring due to the harm caused by the tattoo predators who abuse the young people who mistakenly trust them. If you were tattooed as a minor or while intoxicated, take the tattoo parlor and the tattoo predator who ruined your body to court. Make them pay for what they have done to you. God bless you. Young people-- stay in school, do your best there, avoid drinking, drugs, tattoos and piercings, and avoid those who have them. Go to college, study science, mathematics, or business, and avoid liberal arts, unless you are wealthy and do not have to support yourself and your family.

@Zillah
LOL nice
I have a snake/ankh combo and people so far have always associated with evil, which is far from what it means, at least to me
but it's art so to each his own, it's up to their interpretation. I like to hear what they think it means before telling them

A lot of trades have secrecy surrounding them. I broke into learning machining and the old timers (mostly from Europe) refused to show you anything, they would even cover up things that were working on if I walked up to them. Once they knew I was okay it changed.
Tattoo artists have to protect what they have worked hard to learn. And it keeps the gene pool strong.
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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.

I told a co worker of mine that I'm getting a rattlesnake and a skull tattooed on my torso. He said "are you getting a Harley with that tattoo? hurr hurr hurr." From now on when someone at work asks me what I'm getting tattooed, I'm just telling them I'm getting a dead relative tattooed on me.

The prevailing opinion, which is correct in my view, is that said knowledge must be earned the hard way. I know I appreciate what little I do know and thirst to know more because that info wasn't just given to me.

Good one while tattooing a girl's arm today, from one of her friends. "I mean, I know you have to have a steady hand, but tattooing doesn't look that hard."
Told him it was the hardest thing I've ever done, with each day being both easier and harder than the day before, a really quick list of about twenty things you have to think about the whole time, and ended it after 10 seconds of awkward silence with "If tattooing were easy, there wouldn't be so many bad tattoos out there," followed by a laugh to make it obvious I wasn't mad at him or anything. He just didn't know.
Still... wow.

This is going to sound snobbish but does anyone else have a really difficult time having an enjoyable conversation about tattoos with a non-tattooed person? It seems like they always push the conversation towards: laser removal, their super meaningful/personal tattoo design idea and the long story behind it, reality tv, infection/disease, or other similar non-sense.

Was recently at a party uptown in NY and had trust fund / rich / spoilt girls genuinely ask me how i support myself / live whilst having tattoos. No joke..
When i asked why they hadn't got tattoos themselves they simply said, because ' father would cut me off and not pay my rent' i looked blankly for a second then walked off....
They lived a 20 minute train ride to Brooklyn and had never been, even though they had lived in NY their entire life.
Blew my mind for a couple of minutes then just thought how lucky I was to not be them.

good thread :-)
one of my favs is 'must be nice to have money to burn'

At this point, I don't have too many exposed tattoos so I haven't had to deal with gawkers. I have had a girl once tell me that I looked "too normal" to work at a tattoo shop, to which I took offense.
Most of the people in my circle are very open to tattoos as most of them have tattoos. I do have an uncle who is in law enforcement who love to trash talk tattoos and people with them. He doesn't support my career or the art form. I can attribute the hostility towards tattoos to ignorance in most cases.

I can understand that. I am so glad I didn't get any of the stuff I wanted when I was 14, I'd be covered in nautical stars and metalcore song lyrics. I "sit on" ideas for a few months to make sure I still like it and to help me formulate my opinions about what I want from the piece (I currently have several ideas in that stage :D), but it's not specific designs. And when someone who knows way more than you about something (anything, not just tattoos) tells you they think what you're doing is stupid, you listen. People like the guy I'm mentioning think they know everything there is to know about something, with no experience and no research. On this board, I'm still very much a "newb" and that's humbling and makes me want to learn and experience more; however, compared to this guy, I'm an expert on the subject. So when I tell him what will most likely happen with his design, and he goes out of his way to defy me and get his way even after I explain why it's a bad idea...that's not just a nervous first timer, that's someone that's choosing to remain ignorant and gets what they deserve.