Tattoos

There was an article in the New York Times over the weekend about how tattoo-removal is now a hopping business. It seems many people experience tattoo-remorse, and go through painful and expensive treatments to remove them. Tattoos were once a thing for sailors and people who lived on the margins, like bikers and convicts, but today they are quite commonplace. The Times quoted a 2003 estimate that 16 percent of all adults and a whopping 36 percent of people aged 25 to 39 have at least one tattoo. They also estimate that 100,000 Americans have gone through tattoo-removal treatments.

I do not have a tattoo, but I have long flirted with the idea. There are many reasons for my reticence--my mother, for one, may have to die before I get one, because she would not approve (though my brother did get one and life has gone on). With my finances, it's not the first, second, or third thing I would do with discretionary funds. But perhaps most of all, what would be the main purpose in getting one? That's not an easy question to answer.

If a growing number of people have them, tattoos can be seen as trendy, and I certainly have never been, nor wanted to be, trendy. Of course, I am not in the 25-to-39 age bracket anymore, so for a 46 year old guy to get a tattoo might be pleasingly perverse. But what does it say about me to get one? Do I want to just be cool? Do I want to make a statement? If I get the tattoo where no one would see it when I am normally clothed, that's not making much of a statement.

What kind of tattoo would I get? Certainly something timeless. Tattoo artists must be rolling their eyes when some kid walks in and gets a tattoo of a cartoon character, or some boyfriend/girlfriend name. If you don't want to go through the torturous removal process, it's wise to get an image that will mean something to you when you're 70, as well as 17.

As a connoisseur of adult films and magazines, tattoos pop up a lot in my daily life. It seems that hardly any adult film performers don't have them. There's a woman named Belladonna who has a huge sacred heart tattooed on her chest, and another with the words "Slippery When Wet" etched across her pubic area. They are also turning up with more frequency on Playboy models, which bedevils some old fans. I'm on a Playboy mailing list, and every year or so a debate on tattoos breaks out. I think a small tattoo on the ankle or above the tailbone can be kind of sexy. The extensive tattooing on the women in the picture at right is just downright bizarre.

Tattoos are just another extension of individuality, albeit far more permanent than fashion or hair choices are. Who knows, I may get one some day, but if I don't it's no big deal.