Piercing and Tattoos

[deb25]

Here's another item I'm curious about. Do you have piercings and/or tattoos?

If so, what, where, and why?

If not, why not?

In my neck of the woods, more and more people, especially women are getting tattoos. The piercing phenomana has reached an all-time peak. As few as 5 years ago, I've worked in places that required men to remove an earring as part of the dress code. Nowadays, it's not uncommon to be waited on by somebody with earrings in the nose, eyebrow, lip, and the ever popular tongue-stud. Do you think this is appropriate?

What about tattoos? Seems everybody's doing it. It's not just teens around here anymore. I see prominent business people, school administrators, you name it. I considered one for a long time. I couldn't ever make a decision on what I would want to get. By the time I actually said "Aha! That's the perfect thing for me", I had reconsidered the whole issue. The idea of its permanent nature makes me hesitate. What if I change my mind later? An earring can be removed, but a tattoo is a committment.

I'm interested in everybody's thoughts on this issue.

 

[cassandra_starr]

I have a Tattoo. It's on my lower abdomen. It's a cross. I chose a cross because I knew if I got something I better get something I wouldn't regret having on me. My best friend also got one and she got her boyfriend's initials. She regrets hers. Stoopid girl... I told her not to do it.


As for piercings. I can't wear any type of piercing. I'm allergic to jewelry.. and while I can wear necklaces and rings without much irritation, my ears just can't handle it... and there is NO way anything besides my ears are getting pierced. Thanks... but that other stuff just isn't me

-Cassie

 

[kezzer]

I have 2 tatoos. One a small frog on my shoulder and the other a dragon that my hubby drew for me on my calf. I don't regret either. I want another eventually, but still can't decide on what I want, but I know I want to put my children's names on it or at least their initials, so it has to be something worthy of my children.

I also need to decide on where to put it.

As for piercings, I don't mind them as long as there aren't too many and not gross looking. Those big huge poles people stick through their ears and noses are just not for me. At one time I had wanted to pierce my tongue, but after a friend of mine did it, and I didn't like the end result I completely changed my mind. If I ever get a decent shape back I would like to get my belly button pierced.

 

[sfell]

I have my bellybutton pierced and I have two tatoos. One is on my lower abdomen - it's a daisy about the size of a quarter. I also have some tribal art in the small of my lower back. I don't regret anything I have done!!! I love them all and I really thought about the tatoos I was going to get. I think you really have to know if you want to do it if your are going to do it. Some people really don't put much thought into them and I think that really matters. I picked mine because I love daisies and tribal art. I know a girl who got tweetie bird on her ankle just to do something and now she doesn't like it.

 

[debra myers]

just have pierced ears - too old for the tattoos, I think!

 

[gayef]

I have two tattoos - one on each ankle. On the left ankle is a very small shooting star. It is so tiny that unless you knew it was there and were looking for it, you would miss it. My mother (upon the first viewing of it) said, "Oh, you have a smudge of dirt on your ankle". *grin* On my right ankle is a small snare drum, which was chosen as a "tribute" if you will to my 1st husband who was a musician. (We couldn't afford rings)

For a while after I divorced Hubby #1, I worked at a place where I was able to wear jeans everyday and not have to dress up. So no one was aware of my tattoos until the owner decided that we needed to spruce up and dress more professionally. I'll never forget the first time I wore a skirt to work and heard...."GAYE! YOU have a tattoo????" *grin*

My ears are pierced in 3 places, but that's about as brave as I got with that.

While the tattoos are not somthing I generally regret, I did speak to my dermatologist about removing the drum. Since it is on my ankle (not a lot of skin resource there over a bone), he said that the scar would be a LOT more disfiguring than the actual ink, and suggested that it was a "nice" tattoo and not to remove it.

Gaye

 

[dawnt91]

I'm pretty boring! I only have pierced ears, and they're only pierced once. However, I think tasteful tattoos and piercings are fine. Sometimes though someone has so many piercings that it hurts me to even look at them. I really like the idea of cross tattoo. If I were to ever get a tattoo (which I won't due to the pain involved) that would be a great idea.

Now, the other night my husband and I were watching something on the Discovery channel about piercings. It was all these people who had carried body piercings to the extreme. There were a lot of people with holes in their private places, those huge hanging ear lobe things, etc. But the worst part was the people who paid others to pierce them with these huge fish hooks and hang them from the rafters through their skin. It was positively horrifying. I had to cover my eyes. When they were asked why they did this, they said they had this big empty hole inside them that they were trying to fill. They actually thought being strung up by fish hooks would fill that void. As a Christian, all I could do was pray for these people.

Anyway, so I think tasteful is the key word here!

 

[deb25]

Now, Miss Gaye, you surprise the stuffing out of me by having 2 tattoos. I would have bet my parasol that you wouldn't. But this is what I mean about how much the whole tattooing and piercing thing has changed.

Now that I did finally decide on a design (and I would get the astrological symbol for Sagittarius, my sign) I can't decide where I would put it. Everybody says that ankle thing is painful. My lower abdomen is out. After "birthing 2 babies" that is certainly an area I would not be putting a billboard up on. So I think about the upper back. Not that I'm dressing up every single day (more like once or twice per millennium), but I've been to a couple of weddings and such, and there are women in gowns with these tattoos poking out. It doesn't look "dressy" to me. One of my friends (a member here who hasn't been around for awhile, has little kitten paws at the base of her neck). Ah, indecision, it keeps my ulcer bubbling.

As to piercings, I have 2 earrings in the right ear and 3 in the left. In the left I also have the cartilage pierced. For that I have wanted to have a special earring custom made for awhile. I want something simple that has a small chain that attaches to one of the lower earrings. If you keep up with Star Trek at all, it was a common earring for the Bajoran people on Deep Space Nine.

Keep this rolling. I love reading about your tattoos and the stories behind them.

 

[airprincess]

I have thrown around the idea about getting a tattoo many times but I always decide not to. They are so common now and that is part of what makes me not want to get one. If I could have been on the front end of that craze it would have been cool, but I missed the window!

there isn't anything that I feel so strongly about that I want it permanently tattooed on my body. Tattoos themselves don't bother me at all. my boyfriend has a ying yang on the back of his right shoulder. I find it sexy.

It's just not for me personally.

my ears are doubled pierced & that is it. I've always felt that people who are addicted to multiple piercing (to the extreme) and tattoos have self esteem issues. like what Dawn91 said, they are trying to find a void. and they get something out of the mutilation of their body.

now somebody on this site who had 56 tattoos & 79 piercings is going to get pissed.

 

[gayef]

Originally posted by Deb25
Now, Miss Gaye, you surprise the stuffing out of me by having 2 tattoos. I would have bet my parasol that you wouldn't. But this is what I mean about how much the whole tattooing and piercing thing has changed.

*giggle* See??? I TOLD you I wasn't antiquated or Victorian in my beliefs!! Would you beleive that I smoke ciggies and cuss too? I LOVE the "F" word and use it, according to my husband (who works in the Construction trade and has NO business saying this at all!!!) I say it far too often. LOL

Thanks for the chuckle this morning. The comment about betting your parasol cracked me up!

~g.

 

[deb25]

Well, I especially wonder about your 18-19 year olds who have gone to the extreme at such a young age, especially with tattoos. I see them on the streets in Ybor City (Tampa's mini version of Bourbon St. in New Orleans) and wonder: how are you going to fit back into the more conservative side when you're done being a rebellious teen? In my day (don't we have a "rocking chair granny" smilie?) we grew our hair long. But one trip to the barber and poof!, instant yuppie. I can't imagine later going to some white collar job interview with a big firm with a $300 suit and a huge tattoo on your face. Do you really think you are going to get hired? But that's just me sitting over here on the right-wing fence. Who knows where the society will turn anymore? Lucy and Ricky used to sleep in twin beds.

 

[deb25]

Gaye: Guilty as charged in the bad language department. How I manage to turn that off in school every day is nothing short of a miracle. I forget a lot too that people find it offensive. I predict we will meet at the Mason Dixon line and corrupt one another yet.

 

[billie]

Deb I was just thinking about that paw tatoo and could not remember who had it. It sounds wonderful though I wish I had the guts to make one.
I don't have any tatoos but my ears are pierced and I have my cartilage pieced too. I'd love to get a tatoo but the idea that it's permanent really freaks me out. The paws though...oh I can easily be hooked but still I think I'd get a temporary one.
I like tatoos and piercing but I dislike them when they are carried to the extreme. Something small and nice - that's my thing.
Oh I'm still thinking about them paws.....

 

[deb25]

Billie:

They are small, like the paws in your signature, and there are several that "walk" up the back of her neck. She has long hair, so they aren't readily visible. It's really kind of cute.

The whole permanent issue freaks me out, as well. I think of the shoulder as a fairly inconspicuous place, but then I think what the heck is the point if even I can't see it? Then, after thinking my own idea was so original, the sister of a friend had the Libra symbol done. What a disappointment that was. Then there is the whole Sagittarius symbol. Since it's the arrow, people might misinterpret as the symbol for a man, as in the male and female symbols, and take it in some type of sexual context. As we are all aware, I don't even want to go there!

 

[alexnell]

I had pierced ears when I was 12, but was allergic to the metal and let them close up. I think tattoos and piercings look great on some people, I'm just not one of those people right now.

For those of you with body piercings, I'm curious: Do they set off the metal detectors at the airport? Do they get really hot when you sunbathe? Do they ever get caught on your clothing?

I could never get body jewelry because of Alexander, the furry thief of metal objects. He likes to tug on my rings, necklaces, and clip-on earrings now. Imagine if I had a nose ring...

 

[deb25]

My friend has a metal rod in his ankle after having broken it a couple of years ago. Sometimes that sets off the metal detectors at the airport. That reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry sets off the detector and they can't find the cause. He says "I guess I must have iron rich blood". Too funny.

 

[donna]

Debra,

You're never too old for tattoos!!! I got my first tattoo when I was 45. I have a total of 4. One on each shoulder and one on each hip. You can only see 2 and only when I wear a bathing suit.

I've got a heart with "Dad" on my right shoulder (done in memory of my father just after he died - he'd be rolling in his grave if he knew, even though he had 3 himself), the left shoulder has a butterfly of purple and pink, my right hip has a daisy with a ladybug on it and my left hip has a kitty (of course). I plan on another one but don't know what it will be. I convinced my best friend to get one when she turned 47. She wants another too. We plan on going together for moral support.

As far as piercings are concerned, I have 2 holes in each ear. That's it. I don't want anymore than that.

Donna

 

[threeleggedkat]

Tatoos and Piercings ? Well, old TLK has done a lo of things and been a lot of places, but NO TATOOS or PIECINGS!

:jarswim:

First of all: I can't get pierced. Not even for earrings.

I have a condition called "cystitus" that means that if I got my ears pierced I would probably form little (or maybe hugh)

cystic tumors at the site of the piercing. So my earlobes could develope what boxers used to call "califlower ear" which is when their earlobes and surrounding tissue resembled a head of cauliflower,(ugh!) due to repeated abuse from opponents punches. . . .

I have always hated the fact that I can't wear all the pretty pierced earrings. If I could; I would have my ears multiple pierced.

I am in agreement with a lot of you about tatoos. I would get one if I could think of something I wanted bad enough to have it permanently. (i like the

print idea) I have always wondered how much it really hurts. . . . . . .

Also, to the people who have tatoos or piercings in "private places"; wasn't it hard to have a relative "stranger" do the work? Or, was it sort of like disrobing for a Doctor; you just accept it?

I have done lot of "face painting" for my nieces and others at fairs and bazaars and that is fun because you can wear it for awhile and then wash it off.

:splitter:

 

[deb25]

Hmm, 3LK, good point. In the places I have seen, the personnel don't exactly look "medical". Some even have you on display like a mannequin in a store window. Guess that attracts business. I watched a guy get his tongue pierced once. That was enough info for me. My eyes were watering just watching it. Plus they all seem to have their speech impaired afterward. No offense intended, but you can hear a tongue-pierced person in the first sentence. The thing that yucks me out the most is that many of them constantly "play" with the tongue stud. It's like a compulsive knuckle-cracker. Bugs the life out of me.

 

[swalker]

I have four tatoos... three on my back and one on my ankle.

My belly button is pierced. I did it 9 years ago, before it got really popular. I was at a party and some girl brought an earing gun to the party. Needless to say I was feeling pretty good and wanted her to pierce my belly button. It was awful. After that it got infected for about 6 months, my mother freaked out and I refused to take it out. What a nut I was!!

Alexnell: The piercings don't set off metal detectors, thank goodness for some people :LOL: They don't get hot in the sun, atleast mine does not and YES it gets caught in clothing. Not as much as when I first got it but everyonce in awhile it gives me a little surprise.

I also have a pacemaker... a completely different story and it doesn't start off any metal detectors either. People always ask me if I got stabbed by a knife because of the scar... what fools.