Show me a man with a tattoo and I’ll show you a man with an interesting past.” Jack London
I am a people watcher, and I have come to the conclusion that I am one of the few remaining adults around who does not have a tattoo. It seems like people of all shapes, sizes, and ages have some sort of body art. Here in northern Minnesota, you don’t notice the tattoos as much most of the year because everyone is dressed for the weather, but this week’s blazingly hot temperatures have brought out the good, the bad, and the ugly. I have never really had the desire to get a tattoo, but if I did, it would definitely be on the small side, and perhaps a heart or a flower or a little banty chicken. Some folks have both pictures and words tattooed on their skin. The words usually have personal meaning, but are the rest of us supposed to read them, or would I be committing a faux pas by staring at a stranger’s arm, back, or chest? I’m serious here, because I don’t think “Miss Manners” has written about the proper etiquette of tattoo viewing for her gentle readers. I’m talking about the visible tattoos here. I really don’t want to see ALL your tattoos, thank you very much. Although they are definitely on personal space, they are out there for all to see. Is it polite to look, or should one avert one’s eyes? Ask or not ask? Often, tattoos tell a story of children, lost loved ones, or military service, and the both the stories and the pictures can be fascinating. Grandparents, too, are getting into the act with names, birthdays and even faces of grandchildren, but it could be painful for those with lots and lots of grandchildren. Tattoos on wrinkly skin are not the most attractive things in the world, either. Before you send me hate mail, I am not insinuating that all grandparents are old and wrinkly, but remember that most of us will be some day. I recently saw a man with many tattoos of different ladies tattooed across his back, and I wondered if they were ex-wives, sisters, or famous female rock stars of the seventies. I didn’t stop him to ask, but I must admit I peeked at his back every time he passed just trying to figure it out. I hope he didn’t notice, but then again, perhaps he wanted all of us to look and wonder. Body art can be plain and simple or large and beautifully colored, and if it is your body, it is your choice to have as many tattoos as you want, or none at all. I do have a word of warning, however: Do not have your true love’s name and “always and forever” tattooed across your backside. Tattoos are way more “always and forever” than true love has ever been.
The Minnesota Farm Woman 
Haha. Great etiquette question! I would have thought most people who get tattooed know or even want them to draw attention, but who know now that the are as common as fake nails?
The commonplace nature of them worries me and bugs me. It’s getting to where a kid or a gang trying to set themselves apart as rebellious or otherwise counterculture has no path left and who knows what ever more dangerous stuff they’ll come up with to feed that spirit when it takes hold? I can’t shake the feeling of the old warnings that many will end in regret over related health consequences or their eventual older, wrinkled skin. And sadly, Jack London’s quote no longer seems to hold true. Now the tattooed are just the masses with all the human past that we all have. It’s interesting to me because I’m interested in people, but its not interestingly different from normal human growth, life and trials. And it’s sometimes just an interest in an art form or in how far they can go with that art form. Is the collector whose house is overrun with his collection any different than the tattoo enthusiast who has run out of unadorned skin?
But they have gotten a few of them to be really beautiful haven’t they?
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Some of them certainly are beautiful! I have been a nurse for 30+ years. I can tell you with 100% certainty that tow things that look terrible on a wrinkled elderly body are tattoos and breast implants. Thanks for reading! Chris
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Chris, You could’ve told the man with all the women’s faces on his back that you right a blog and were asking for literary purposes. LOL BTW, You are not alone as I am a tattoo free and will remain as such. I am just now considering getting an additional earring hole on each ear. This only so I can wear more of the beautiful earrings my beloved has given me. LOL
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I do have some extra ear piercings, but that’s it for me!
Chris
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In the Navy I had considered a small tattoo but then after seeing all the old sea salts with theirs all faded, running and wrinkled I quickly changed my mind.
Once when I was in my 20s, my boyfriend and I went to the fair with my family. There was a young woman in line in front of us with a butterfly tattooed into her cleavage… My father turned to my boyfriend and said:
“She we ask her if she can make it flap it’s wings.”
I wanted the asphalt to open and swallow me…
😯
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Hahaha!
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First word should have been SHOULD, but then you probably knew that…
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Yep…I did.
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