brandonA [email] said at 2:36 PM 08-14-2006: i wonder if there's anyone out there with a tattoo of some really obnoxious expression of yore like 'cool beans', and how much do they hate it today???
kara [email] said at 2:44 PM 08-14-2006: I don't know... but judging by my dad, I will always be obnoxious, and the word triflin dates back to the 20s unlike "Cool Beans.."
My manager at my previous job said Cool Beans. It made me cringe
ed [email] said at 4:51 PM 08-14-2006: I'm saying that I'm old and uptight, and getting a tattoo on one's "lower back" is opening oneself up for ridicule.
The popular nomenclature for a lower-back tattoo on a female is "tramp stamp" and it's basically... a well , not a complimentary term*.
And as for my one tattoo, well, I actually won a free tattoo certificate at a halloween party back in the late 90s. I wish I hadn't taken advantage of it now, even though it's a relatively-innocuous yin-yang symbol on my left bicep.
Why?
Because it's permanent.
Unless I spend X dollars I have this dumbass tatoo for the rest of my life.
That's not cool.
* I have no personal problem with lower-back tattoos, but it's a commonly-held belief that such adornments indicate that the person bearing such adornment is, indeed, a "tramp".
myriam [email] said at 5:17 PM 08-14-2006: It just makes me think of sorority girls with love handles and turned-down waist-bands on their PINK-assed sweatpants. But none of them have "Triflin'".
kara [email] said at 5:47 PM 08-14-2006: also, I'm sorry to hear that you regret your tattoo.
If I had one tattoo I would probably regret it as well.. but I'd also be a different person.
Permanence is the point... for my more "serious" tattoos they remind me of times, places and people that were transient. Even if this corny armband isn't something I'd get now, it reminds me of the mindset at the time, and a friend I grew apart from.
As for the dumbassed tattoos I get... "permanent" yes... but life isn't really very long anyway.
ed [email] said at 6:47 PM 08-14-2006: I don't "frown upon" tats in general, or my own in particular on the basis that they are, in fact, tattoos.
Mine, I got back when I thought Robert Jordan was the Master Of All Storytellers, and that the "flame/tooth" tat would be rocktacular. Plus, it was free.
15 years down the line, the book series is stuck in "sucktacle" mode, and my tat is now nothing more than it was since the Dawn of Time.
As for who I am now, it's difficult (at best) to explain the eastern-philosophy symbol permanently emblazoned upon my left bicep, when most of the people I associate with expect a cross, rather than a yin-yang.
myriam [email] said at 6:53 PM 08-14-2006: Tell them it's the beauty in the balance of God's creation. "The Earth hangs at just the right distance from the sun--one step closer and we'd fry, one step further away and we'd freeze--ahh, such is the cosmic balance that only God could put in motion and I find it breathtaking."
