Saturday, October 1, 2011

On Tattoos, Real and Fake

Moving to Salt Lake County from "Happy Valley" down South was a culture shock. Long gone were the soberly enthusiastic co-eds and clean cut return missionaries. Enter...the regular world. Sex, drugs, rock & roll. Granted, it's still Utah, so there continues to be a certain amount of homogenous culture; overall, though, I have enjoyed living in reality again.

One of the more stunning visual differences of our new surroundings is that many people we encounter have tattoos. Jack hasn't mentioned anyone's tattoos, but I have really had to think how I am going to approach talking to him about them when it inevitably comes up. I have weighed what I was raised with, the generally accepted views about tattoos, and my own encounters with tattoo culture. I personally don't have tattoos, but it is the one "vice" that I feel myself drawn to. I appreciate the effortlessly cool look of my friends with tattoos. If you are a stout, bearded man with tattoos, know that I have wanted to love you on more than one occasion. And my number one pastime is putting temporary tattoos on my son.

And that is what it has come down to--Jack's love of fake tattoos. Of course, the tattoos tend to be monster trucks and his favorite TV show characters, but they're still tattoos. If he decided to make his Phineas and Ferb tattoo permanent, I couldn't say that I would be furious. Maybe a little weirded out by the permanent subject matter, but ultimately, I couldn't shun him. Tattoos are less taboo generally, but still sketchy in the LDS culture. This may be bad parenting to say, but getting a tattoo as a legal adult is something I'd rather him do than many other vices he could get into.

Tattoos are really trendy to blog about right now, and I wanted to point out some of my favorite regulars:

How funny to have a blog post about tattoos with no pictures, but there it is.

I'm in love with inner wrist tattoos. 
Where & what would you have for your dream tattoo?
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4 comments:

  1. deanna@delirious-rhapsodyOctober 1, 2011 at 1:30 PM

    i probably won't get anymore tattoos, but here's my favorite tattoo. so i guess it's my 'dream tat.' :)

    http://tinypic.com/r/2mcenu8/7

    ReplyDelete
  2. deanna@delirious-rhapsodyOctober 1, 2011 at 1:32 PM

    uhh....after looking at that picture, i just wanted to let you know that is NOT my butt crack in the bottom. i promise.

    ReplyDelete
  3. kdstentzelOctober 1, 2011 at 10:05 PM

    Holly, I would fully support you getting a tattoo. Do it. Doooo iiiiit. I'm more of a back/shoulder blades tattoo kind of a girl myself, though. Wrist tattoos would be too hard to hide from employers and/or bossy parents.

    ReplyDelete
  4. novaOctober 8, 2011 at 8:03 AM

    As far as addressing the issue with Jack, I would just be honest. Just say that some people choose to get pictures put on their skin that stay there for the rest of their lives, and some people don't. Easy! :)

    ReplyDelete

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