When it comes to my opinions, I am a very hard-headed guy. As an INTP type personality, I generally know what I know, apply my knowledge when needed and avoid opinions and situations that conflict with my understandings of things. Being an INTP, I am prone to being judgmental, which often manifests in a series of hasty generalizations. Although I am not here to critique this personality type, because it has certainly served me well, I am here to explain how my opinions of tattoos have changed in recent weeks. While you may think that tattoos are not really the appropriate subject for critical reflection, I think discussing them does elicit some topics that are core to one’s personal philosophy and, as such, might be fun to explore.
I am not going to mention the name of the person I am talking about so as not to offend his anonymity, but I will make clear my viewpoint on tattoos now and then offer my final advice about the tattoo he is contemplating.
For the longest time I have understood tattoos to mean a few things. For one, whenever I see a tattoo, I reference it against other tattoos that I have seen as well as the people who bear these tattoos (fair enough, right?). While it may be overly cliché to reference the numerous stories of people who ultimately grow to regret their tattoos, I find it more helpful to look at the mindset one is in when he or she decides to “get inked”. To me, it seems that there are two camps of individuals. One of these camps I support and the other I would advise to severely rethink their choice. The first camp consists in part of those who desire to get a tattoo after some monumental occurrence (I favor this camp). This occurrence must necessarily be out of the ordinary and beyond what most can fathom occurring within the scope of daily existence. For instance, if someone survived a small plane crash or if someone escaped a sinking ship or narrowly escaped a gunman’s bullet…he or she might rightfully wish to commemorate some aspect of the moment. There may be an added margin of acceptance to this category of people for those who choose to commemorate a very significant learning or spiritual experience. For instance, I visited the Middle East for the first time a few months ago. While I am not personally interested in getting a tattoo (due mostly to my skin care obsession--in all likelihood), I would not have judged my hypothetical self should I have chosen to get a tattoo representative of my trip (e.g. some Arabic script or some other clever thing). Andre visited Thailand recently and I think a small and tasteful (and well thought out) tattoo might have been the perfect thing to commemorate his set of unique memories. And, although I hesitate to admit it, I also like the tattoos that were permanently etched into the skins of their recipients all in the name of some infatuation or ‘love’…but that is likely due to my intense love of romance. This, however, has a very large grey area and I do not even want to touch upon this topic further. Basically, what I am trying to say here is that I believe in the beauty of tattoos that have a real meaning (i.e. something gloriously immutable)…and not some ill-conceived symbolic meaning. At the end of the day, I believe a tattoo should have some transcendent quality to it that could not be quickly stripped away by age or a general development of one’s perspective and maturity. Is that too much to ask?
Then there is the second camp of individuals. I know I am probably preaching to the choir when I mention this group, but hear me out. Think of a scrawny twenties-something guy you knew in high school. Remember the resentment that he undoubtedly harbored behind his eyes for all those who had what he desired and could not, at the time, achieve. This is one example of the kind of person I would advise against getting a tattoo. I cannot tell you how many people I have seen since high school that fit this general schema. In reference to the “scrawny guy” above, I would not be surprised if I were to see this guy and notice that he had gotten a tattoo of a wolf on his bicep (a clear manifestation of his inner torment and weakness?...um yeah!). Now you can see where I am going. I genuinely take most tattoos to represent a time of struggle (negative struggle, not some sublime gesture in which some obstacle is overcome in a sweepingly divine moment) or a point of past hardship that ultimately manifests as a physical and somewhat indirect symbol of this hardship (the tattoo itself). Even worse, I often see tattoos as a sign of one’s weakness (I’m a sexually liberated female, so I should show others who I am by getting a certain tattoo). Moreover, many often speak of tattoos as the ultimate sign of rebellion, and perhaps they were at one time. Indeed, I find them rather inoffensive and quote commonplace...but, hey, I live in L.A. I want to use my female Asian friends for this example. According to all of my female Asian friends, each claims that their parents would furious if they were to ever get a tattoo. Put differently, it seems that Asian parents tend to react to a much more intense degree when it comes to their children ‘defacing’ their bodies with this inky type of art. Well, I also do not know a single Asian girl who does not have a tattoo (of course, they are always in concealed locations—let’s be rebellious, but within reason haha!). Jessie’s is right under her waist line…Vicki’s is under her waist line as well…and the list goes on. Is this trend surprising to me…of course not. In both cases mentioned here, I feel that tattoos were decided on out of either psychological weakness or the pressure to fit within a very narrow image of an ideal child. Today, whenever I see a girl in her twenties or thirties with a barbed wire tattoo, I don’t immediately imagine that she is especially proud of her tattoo (or pondered over it for many months prior to taking the dive). Instead, I wonder what circumstances in her life led her to getting the tattoo. Surely she doesn’t manufacture barbed wire, surely she didn’t set up refugee camps with the Peace Corps…so is it possible that she got this tattoo simply to seem more badass? Maybe to make girls respect her more or for guys to like her more (or even to please a guy she was once interested in)? Even worse are the tattoos that people seem to get to keep people away from them (again, this may be a subconscious choice on their part and may not be the explicit reason for getting the tattoo, but the implicit reasons are the reasons I am interested in of course). As a fairly introverted personality type myself, I can certainly see similar individuals wanting to brand themselves for the sake of deflecting attention (of course, not going as far as to get a black tear drop inked on the face or a Nazi swastika on one’s chest). Sorry for the crude examples.
At this point, I am not really sure why I decided to write on this topic and I see that I have taken a rather large bite into the topic. Nevertheless, I am sure many feel the same way I do. At one point in my life, I even wanted to get a tattoo (between ages 19 and 21). Today, I genuinely have no desire at all to get a tattoo. What does that tell me: It’s probably best just to not get a tattoo...truly, the present moment could be full of corruptions that are not yet consciously clear to you. And if you do cave in and decide to get one, make sure it represents something that can stand against the observer’s test: Get the tattoo for yourself and make sure you are not merely getting the tattoo to portray yourself in a way that your presence and voice and mind should portray for you...Don’t let a tattoo speak for you--use your own intelligence, wit and ability! Ultimately, a tattoo should coexist with one’s personal image and not try to advance or evolve one’s image into a new and hazy conception of one’s future self.
I do believe that the guy I mentioned at the beginning of this post fits in with the first camp of people. When someone asks me if they should get a tattoo, my rule of thumb is to say no. The reason I say no is that I have never had someone present a strong case as to why they want to get one. In fact, their case is usually quite weak, poorly conceived or dastardly misdirected. However, in the case of the guy I know who is considering a tattoo, I would say go for it. However, do not get the tattoo if you are getting it for others to appreciate. Do not get the tattoo if you do not absolutely love everything about it (the size, the full extent of its meaning, the color, the changes your body will go through with age, etc.). Do not get the tattoo if you ever see it as negatively obscuring your image or you ever fear of a situation where you might actually want to cover it up. But at the end of the day we are all humans—all the same—and sometimes making a beautiful mistake is the best symbol for us to constantly be reminded of.
Michael
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