Women, don't get a tattoo. That butterfly looks great on your breast when you're twenty or thirty, but when you get to seventy, it stretches into a condor.
You may lose your most valuable property through misfortune in various ways. You may lose your house, your wife and other treasures. But of your tattoo, you cannot be deprived except by death. It will be your ornament and companion until your last day.
I always look for a woman who has a tattoo. I see a woman with a tattoo, and I'm thinking, okay, here's a girl who's capable of making a decision she'll regret in the future.
Your body is a temple, but how long can you live in the same house before you redecorate?
The perfect tattoo, the one I believe we are all struggling toward, is the one that turned the jackass into a zebra.
All the above are from the quote garden. I thought I should post something but I'm feeling lazy - a semi permanent condition much of the time. Instead, I decided to post a picture I painted a couple of years ago when even office ladies were getting tattoos..
Now maybe I can go finish that overly long and tedious book I've been reading. A bubble bath in a candlelit room with some Belgian chocolate sounds about right.
i love the butterfly to condor morph. eldest son, who's helping get the house ready for sale, is big on tattoos... sigh. i do concede that he's into very artsy stuff, but the raw and oozing phase turns me off, and there are those condors lurking in the future. hope the bubble bath was long, luxurious and uninterrupted.
ReplyDeleteI so agree. When I was in my 20s, I managed a store at the beach, and I had lots of college and high school kids working with me. Several of the girls wanted to get the barbed wire around the ankle tattoo that was trendy then...I urged them to reconsider, pointing out that even if they were fortunate enough to look young 25 years later, the tattoo would always date them. One of the girls went ahead and had the tattoo, but she admitted that she had to think long and hard about it after hearing my advice. I haven't seen her in years; I wonder if she regrets it now!
ReplyDeleteI love to see tattoos--but on other people. I don't think I would be able to live with a tattoo and continue enjoying it forever. It's hard enough to love the skin you have--but I have to say, on most days, I really do, blemishes and all.
ReplyDeleteK.
It's a good thing I'm a guy, because I can get all kinds of tattoos and I'll always look tougher than a grizzled ole Hells Angel.
ReplyDeleteTattoos cost money. I could buy more music or books for that.
I feel the same way about tattoos. Can you go through your whole life and still love something you stuck on your body in your youth?
ReplyDeleteAnd all the beautiful women on the red carpet? If they had a tattoo showing - it ruined the dress, in my opinion.
I always knew the tat on a woman was going to come back to embarrass her sagging ass sometime in the future. A lot of young models had them and used to spend hours applying Derma-blend to make them vanish long enough to get through a photo shoot.
ReplyDeleteA bath, chocolate and a book - nice evening. What's tedious about it (the book that is)?
ReplyDeleteah, that bath is just what I need, with a little candle light to go with the rain falling outside and the chocolate? well, that's always good but not right before bed, sadly.....not that I'm remotely close to going to bed....
ReplyDeletelovely painting and post, fascinating..as always, my dear. so glad my skin is as pure as the driven snow after the condor imagery!
gfid - A very pretty young woman who worked at a little video store we used to go to had a boyfriend who was a good tattooist. Every week she showed us how her skin art was coming along and one day as we left the store I said (not to her) that they'd break up soon because she was running out of available space. I was right.
ReplyDeletecdp - I worked with an English girl who had one of those and when I asked her what it meant she told me it was 'tribal'. Hah! She covered it up with bandaids so the docs wouldn't see it. Instead, they probably thought she had a disease.
kirie - Scars have better stories and life provides enough of them, eh?
randal - I never priced them but I'm sure music and books are a better investment. 'grizzled ole Hell's Angel' - yow :-)
lol - There's nothing like a black anchor on your shoulder to ruin the look of your Vera Wang gown. You think they'd be happy with their face lifts and implants, wouldn't you?
utah - I've got to the point where I'm considering heavy applications of decorative masking tape to hold up the wrinkles. I think men get tattoos to remind them of particular events but women get enough reminders without resorting to mutilation because of a fad.
gary - Well, I opted for the latest Dan Simmons novel called 'Drood'. It's an 800 page novel about Dickens last years from the pov of Wilkie Collins. It was a third too long and a little too mean spirited for my taste even though I'll admit it was well written. Finishing it in a bubble bath was a good idea :-)
linda - The bath was lovely but I passed on the chocolate for the same reason as you would and had a glass of Merlot instead. That was very pleasant.
Now that I am older I'm happy to have no condors (or buzzards) either. I'm glad you like the painting since it's one of my favorites. Leopards are supposed to have spots :-)
I am not a fan of tattoos, theya re just not my thing. But, I do think that if you are going to get something put on your skin it should have some personal symbolism and not to get it just because its cute. Just one gal's opinion.
ReplyDeleteI have enough scars&stitches without paying for a tattoo! And iwould just as soon a quick shower& a German beer! :)
ReplyDeleteA tattoo is not my style. I know some people though who are into them. Most girls I know who have gotten them get very small ones on their ankle or somewhere where it can easily be hid by clothing.
ReplyDeletebelette - It was just a silly thing people don't seem to be doing that much anymore. I'm glad I never did.
ReplyDeleteokjimm - 'scars&stitches' do have better stories and better told after the shower while drinking the beer.
liberality - I never met a tattoo artist I'd trust using me as a canvas.
Well there is always laser surgery. Although then you're just spending more money to wind up at square one.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger I thought about getting a Dali melting clock, but nothing ever came of it. Now I'm like okjimm. Enough accidental scars, so I don't have to go out of the way to make my body more "interesting."
Zebras can't be domesticated. I guess that tattoo is for creatures that want to maintain their independence.
Yay! Another "Susan" for my growing collection. Here's to laziness!
ReplyDeleteAnd that tattoo thing... Last night's life drawing model had a big square one over her lower abdomen. I definitely found myself picturing it later in life, maybe with some folds in it. Or, given the incredible thinness of our model, maybe not.
ben - A Dali melting clock is cool anywhere but I'm just as glad you didn't succumb to the temptation :-)
ReplyDeletesteve - Glad you like her! I guess you model's tattoo will likely go from square to wrinkled rectangle (I do love a little alliteration now and then).
So agree - I don't like tattoos, especially on women (Angelina Jolie looks so tacky with all that ink).
ReplyDeleteCan't stand the 'sleeve' more than anything.
|I used to work with a girl who had a rose tattooed on her ankle and every time I was chatting to her I would think she had a spider on her leg and smack it to get it off before I remembered it was a tatt.
actually, i love tattoos.
ReplyDeletei think arm sleeves are beautiful.
and who cares what you look like at 70? as long as you're happy with yourself. really.
we worry about body image too much.
the whole thing about having ink is expressing yourself. being you.
wearing your heart on your sleeve.
art. beauty. life experience.
sometimes 'eff you' to the rest of the world.
i'm going to get one one day. when i get the courage.
maybe getting it at 70 is better anyway.
imogen - How nice to see you've been by for a visit. I must say as far as tattoos are concerned I've always thought the little ones are just wimp-outs. I'd be slapping her too for not just getting the whole bush on her leg.
ReplyDeletesera - I've still got a few years to go before I'm 70 so maybe I'll rethink it the :-)
With my commitment issues? I'd have to be crazy to have a tattoo.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so maybe I'm crazy, but not in a ooooh stick me with an inked needle kind of way.
I love the expression on the big cats' faces.
HA! WAY too late for me! one on each ankle, one on lower back, back of left shoulder that morphed down my arm into a half-sleeve, and one on my right wrist that's getting more ink in April. oh yeah, forgot about that pierced nose....
ReplyDeleteI'm 50+ but don't look it and ask me if I care what people think of my tattoos! HA!
by the way, my tattoo artist, a woman living off the grid on an island near Seattle and who travels all over the USA for her clients, is a Buddhist yogini and artist...not a biker or some guy with lots of piercings...
ReplyDeletelisa - 20 years ago when I was about 40 I got chicken pox just around the time when women first started getting tattoos. I was lucky in not winding up with too many scars but do have traces of a star map on my forehead. Along with the ridges in my skull left over from the surgery to remove the aneurysm I too feel I have enough graphic reminders. A tattoo would be irrelevant.
ReplyDeletelinda sama - I do think if you're going to get a tattoo yours is the only way to go. Be proud, be blatant, be beautiful. Don't stop with a little semi-hidden rose - get the whole bush or whatever it is that's served to inspire you.
As I told Lisa, I made it to my 40's with no marks but those left by childbirth, but the 20 years since provided enough to smile through.
Have you been talking to my mom? I got a tattoo six years ago and she's the only one that hated it. But I agree, you have to consider your ink choices carefully, especially if you're prone to making bad choices.
ReplyDelete