Anti-Tattoos: 聽 聽Once again, I am playing devil's advocate. This week, I am appointed to be the voice of the anti-tattoo brigade. I have no problem whatsoever with tattoos, but since my esteemed editor has three elegant and meaningful tattoos-with one more in the works-and I am tattoo-free; it fell to each of us to defend our personal choices in print. (Although-and I repeat-I have no objection to tattoos).
My exhaustive research on the trouble with tattoos led me to WedMD and the Mayo Clinic webpages (reassuring, I know..). Anyhow, I learned that the American Association of Blood Banks requires a one-year wait between getting a tattoo and donating blood. This is (apparently) because even though needles are easily sterilized, other equipment involved in tattooing is tougher to sterilize due to its design.
Some anesthesiologists have also expressed misgivings about performing epidurals on women with lower back tattoos during labour and childbirth, because of the possibility that the needle might carry tattoo pigment into the mother's spinal column.
Other potential medical problems that can occur due to tattoos are admittedly rare, but I found them far more frightening to look at picture-wise than images of harmless tatts. These include: weird variations of scarring, unsightly and uncomfortable allergic reactions to tattoo pigments (which can also occur years later), and the one I found most surprising-that is, swelling and/or burning of tattoed areas while a person is undergoing an MRI.
Non-medical concerns include: fading if the tattoo artist doesn't inject the pigment deep enough into the epidermis and blurring if pigments are injected too deeply into the skin.
Other, more common tattoo pitfalls take us straight down the road to regret-the 鈥淐hinese鈥� symbol that spells out something meaningful and not obscene and actually spells out...well, you get the idea. Or the tattoo which features a loved one's name who is no longer a loved one (or if they still are, their name is mispelled).
Which brings me to a personal explanation as to why the great ship tattoo has probably sailed for this middle-aged woman. I have a dear friend who got her first and only tattoo as a twenty-something, and she..um..is now my age. One afternoon at the swimming pool, she looked ruefully at her decades-old tattoo, shook her head, and said, 鈥淕ravity is not our friend, Lynne.鈥�
I rest my case.
Pro-Tattoos: As Lynne and I flipped the coin for this week鈥檚 Pro/Con discussion, I thought it would be quite funny if I happened to get con as I have three tattoos and have made an appointment for a fourth in April. But, fate was kind and gave me pro-tattoos.
Personally I think tattoos are the ultimate art purchase because you鈥檙e not hanging it on your wall, you鈥檙e literally carrying it around with you every day. All of mine have meanings which are important to me and close to my heart.
For example the flower and butterfly on my calf in memory of my aunt and a woman that was like a second mother to me, they both loved bright, colourful flowers and the prairie lily seemed appropriate because of my Saskatchewan roots. The butterfly is for my grandfather who passed away when I was quite young.
In my opinion tattoos are an expression of the person getting them. Artists can do amazing works and through working with the individual wanting a tattoo can develop the perfect creation.
It鈥檚 a unique expression of self; an odd, yet beautiful form of art that expresses sentiment.
Granted not everyone puts this kind of thought into their tattoos, those are usually the people who regret them later.
Tattoos are no longer reserved for those in the army and in prison; though I would still have to say a face tattoo would be rather shocking for the mainstream.
The art behind tattoos is ever evolving as well and one of the neat ideas I鈥檓 seeing photos of on Pinterest lately is of tattoos covering up scars. It could be to counteract a painful experience, to make something beautiful out of something traumatic, to celebrate life, or to reclaim their body after illness or injury. One woman in fact had a double mastectomy and chose to tattoo her chest, which symbolized her transformation like a butterfly she explained 鈥淚 changed on the outside but remained the same on the inside.鈥�
Additionally, tattoos can be used for medical reasons as well. Instead of a medical alert bracelet that could potentially fall off, they can have this tattooed on them instead.
A growing trend is also tattooing wedding bands on fingers as opposed to getting rings, which for mechanics and farmers, or anyone working with their hands is a great idea, because you always hear horror stories of rings getting caught in machinery and people losing their fingers.
Ultimately this quote sums up what I think tattooing is: 鈥淢y body is my journal and my tattoos are my story,鈥� Johnny Depp.
And as for when I get old鈥� well, these people still look good and probably have some amazing stories to accompany each piece: http://distractify.com/abby-s-marino/senior-tattoos/
