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Tattoos

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Tattoos as a sign of undying love have always fascinated me. Don't people realise the elusive and mercurial world of love????

A uncle of mine whilst serving in Canada during the war forgot he was married and had his loves name 'Gladys' tattooed on his arm.......he spent the next 40 or so years trying to persuade his suspicious wife that it was the name of a place in canada.........
 
Yes, my Aunt used to go through the atlas every night, hoping to
find a small Pacific Island called Bertie & Walter. :eek:
 
Blueswidow said:
Tattoos as a sign of undying love have always fascinated me. Don't people realise the elusive and mercurial world of love????

i know a guy who was in the navy for years. In the summer he rolls up his slieves to reveal severil (bad) tats or naked women done in the far east. (he was floating about off Vietnam in a British Sub for a long time)..and a list of at least six girls names each with a big X tho it til the last one who is still his wife.
 
People are believed by psychologists to have tattoos to mark times of personal change, eg a significant relationship.

Some African tribes believe that there is a tattoo god who calls the faithful to decorate their bodies with prayers to him.

Early criminologists believed tattoos to be a clear mark of criminality.

My mum thinks they are for dirty people who like showing off.
 
Can't find a thread on these boards about this on these boards , so mods feel free to move.

Last night I was DJing in a club and came across a guy that had a tattoo of a nose on his arm . I thought this was a kind of weird tattoo to have , but unfortunately never had the guts to ask him why he had that particular tattoo.

Any board members know of any other strange tattoos , or even have one yourself ?
 
Mine aren't strange per se, just a seahorse on my arm and what's meant to be the planet Saturn on my back (tattooist: "Can I do it quite Jetsons-y?").
But imagine how weird it felt to see this in a recent FT:
thayer9.jpg

I can tell you, it's quite tempting to get the question mark to complete the set.
Oh, I do have a FOAF who had an aubergine tattooed on her wrist, she did a lot of travelling, and claimed it was an easy way to explain she was vegetarian when she didn't speak the language...
 
I used to want one.

Would be a pain in the arse though since people always would want something different or if you got bored with the design. Then you have to get your arm burned.
 
I saw a picture in a magazine of a man with a Laz-e Boy (spelling?) Chair tattoo on his arm.
 
Are you sure it was a nose?

This looks a bit like a nose if you'd only caught a glimpse:

www.qwantz.com/tattoos/fa-paul.jpg

From a set of webcomic-based tattoos:

www.qwantz.com/tattoos/

Which seems an awfully fleeting medium to permanently ink on your body.

Then again it could be worse - check out these bad tattoos. Its the second to last one on that page that really takes the biscuit!!!

www.capohedz.com/typebrighter/2005/10/r ... ttoos.html

Its worth noting page 2 isn't work safe but well worth checking out from your home computer if only to marvel at the sheer madness (and pain) invovled. Bet its quite a party piece though ;)

And Mr Cool Ice on page 3!!!!!!!!
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
Then again it could be worse - check out these bad tattoos. Its the second to last one on that page that really takes the biscuit!!!

www.capohedz.com/typebrighter/2005/10/r ... ttoos.html

Its worth noting page 2 isn't work safe but well worth checking out from your home computer if only to marvel at the sheer madness (and pain) invovled. Bet its quite a party piece though ;)

And Mr Cool Ice on page 3!!!!!!!!

I wonder if Mr Cool-Ice realises just how camp that skeleton on his stomach looks. It's actually doing jazz-hands.

I just don't "get" tattoos. Even the good and tasteful ones - how can you possibly know you'll want it stuck to your body until you die? I think in about 50 years there's going to be a whole generation of very embarrassed 70 year olds having to wear long sleeves and explain to their nurses why they've got pictures of cartoon characters on their bottoms.

I have seen some tattoos that I don't hate - usually only very meaningful ones though.
 
Haven't been able to check out links as just started new job so don't know if this one's been linked to but there's one dodgy german tattoo website with a pic of a bloke who'd had a vagina tattooed in his armpit. I mean, really.

I have lots of tats and love them to pieces although to me they've ended up being like any other feature like moles or scars or whatever and I rarely actually notice them!

one of the most tacky ones has to be blokes (I'm assuming would only ever be blokes 8) ) who get a lawnmower tattooed on their chests and then can have the 'amusing' strip of chest hair shaved away. And was boggled in canada at how many people had really crappy maple leaf flag tattoos - but funnily it's the red ink that most people have an allergic reaction to: quite often the body just keeps rejecting the red ink until it all comes out so I imagine there are a lot of b/w maple leafs kicking round.
 
AsamiYamazaki said:
I have lots of tats and love them to pieces although to me they've ended up being like any other feature like moles or scars or whatever and I rarely actually notice them!

I know what you mean, I have three (planning more) but you rarely do actually remember that you have any.

It usually only when the conversation turns to them or you see somebody else's that you think about your own.
 
I work in bridalwear so I see a lot of women in their underwear. And while I see some nice tattoos I see a lot more that I wouldn't want myself. And I think it's fair to say that of the ones that are in a visible place on the body, i've not yet met a bride who wants hers showing in her wedding photos, and some brides go to quite long lengths to cover them up.

Obviously less conventional brides probably would be happy to have theirs showing, but their not the types to come to my shop.
 
Wost tattoo I've seen was a college friend with the "Bud Man" (short-lived Budweiser ad campaign) on his entire lower leg. Every time I see an old sign with the Bud Man, I think of that guy still walking around somewhere with that stupid thing on his leg.

Another friend had a huge tat of Darth Vader; the actor who played Darth (forget the name) autographed it with sharpie, and he had the autograph tattoo'ed over. :p
 
lemonpie3 said:
I work in bridalwear so I see a lot of women in their underwear. And while I see some nice tattoos I see a lot more that I wouldn't want myself. And I think it's fair to say that of the ones that are in a visible place on the body, i've not yet met a bride who wants hers showing in her wedding photos, and some brides go to quite long lengths to cover them up.

Obviously less conventional brides probably would be happy to have theirs showing, but their not the types to come to my shop.

A friend of mine had the pyramid from a dollar bill tattooed on her shoulder. I pointed out this was the symbol of the Illuminati and she was quite taken aback as she saw it is in the shop and quite liked the look of it.

Her wedding dress was a strappy number (the only reason I managed to get it nearly on - if it'd had sleeves it would have been a non-strater) and she wore a large skin coloured plaster over the tattoo (and I'm sure had the wedding photos taken so it didn't show).
 
My aunt went to some lengths to find a dress that covered the tattoos on her arms. She told me that her mother had told her when she had them done, 20 or so years earlier, that she would regret it on her wedding day, and she turned out to be right, but how many 18-year-olds listen to their parents?

As for covering tattoos with a flesh-coloured plaster, I'm thinking of those photos of Michael Jackson at his trial with the nose-plaster thing. In the case where all that's being camouflaged is a tattoo, perhaps its better to either let it show or find some other way of covering it. A plaster's just going to look daft.

I've never met anyone with a particularly strange tattoo. My bf's mate recently had an Arabic saying tattooed up his forearm arm which was a bit odd, but not in the same league as autographed Darth Vadar pictures. I saw a bloke in a magazine once who got a load of Teletubbies tattoos. Surprisingly enough, his girlfriend dumped him for it.

I think tattoos are usually a bad idea. I don't wear the same clothes as I wore 5 years ago, but at the time I liked them. With clothes you can at least stick them in a binbag and drag them off to Oxfam when you decide they don't suit you anymore. Also, tattoos start to look minging after a few years when they go all smudgy. Also, won't they distort if you gain or lose weight?
 
Never mind the tats. Why was Emps trying on a wedding dress? :shock:

Her wedding dress was a strappy number (the only reason I managed to get it nearly on - if it'd had sleeves it would have been a non-strater)

There are lots of ULs about tattoos. One is about the tattoos done in 'exotic' languages which actually spell out obscenities or Chinese menu items. :lol:

I saw a variation in a TV drama a few years ago, where a woman admitted infidelity to her partner, who forgave her on condition that they had matching tattoos on their backs. His tattooist friend would do them. She went first. Hers said SLAG.

Escette's mate had 'guitar' in Arabic on his arm. It does say that - an Asian colleague confirmed it. A bit late though - what if it'd said 'wanker'? :lol:

I plan another tattoo, in the only slightly unrespectableworking class tradition of the 'ink memorial'. :(
 
The Times, June 24, 2006

Death penalty for abusive tattoo

A Chinese man who tattooed the word “prostitute” and other insults on his girlfriend has been sentenced to death. Zhou Jingzhi, 44, from Jilin province in northeastern China, used a sewing needle dipped in ink to make the tattoos, the Shanghai Daily said. Phrases along her legs included “Seduced seven men”, “Adultery” and “Never forget”. Zhou’s sentence could be commuted to life in prison if he is a co-operative inmate. (AP)
Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.
Link is dead. No accessible archived version found.

The Guardian article on this provides more details about the man's crimes. He similarly abused two other women, and he held them against their will.


Man sentenced to death for abusive tattoos
Associated Press in Beijing
Fri 23 Jun 2006 19.01 EDT

A Chinese man who tattooed the word prostitute and other insults on his girlfriend, and similarly abused two other women against their will, has been sentenced to death, the Shanghai Daily reported yesterday. Zhou Jingzhi, 44, from the north-eastern Jilin province, held his girlfriend Li, 54, captive for three months, etching her body in ink with the words "seduced seven men", "adultery", "never forget" and "prostitute".

The paper said Zhou's ex-wife and a former girlfriend had been similarly abused. His sentence could be commuted to life in prison if he is a co-operative inmate, it said.

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jun/24/china.mainsection
 
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I wonder how he managed to tattoo her.

It's funny how attitudes to tattoos differ from place to place. The area where I was living in Toronto (admittedly a fairly alternative part of town) I'd say tats were almost the norm, and no one - in any environment - shops/business etc. - would bat an eyelid. I never felt treated differently over there. Since moving back to England I'm constantly aware of disapproving looks, and now that it's summer and so I'm in short sleeves even in central London I get security guards following me in shops. So bonkers.

I've got a japanese word tattooed on my arm and whenever I walk past a japanese person i always hear them say it. a friend of mine had one chinese symbol tattooed on her back, then got the (alleged) chinese symbol for strength added underneath so of course now it's an utter nonsense word. she didn't see the irony of being stopped by a chinese lady on a bicyle in chinatown and asked what on earth it meant.
 
I recently saw a photo of a tat which stretches right across a young man's shoulders. It says 'Smile like you mean it', which is a song by The Killers.
The line was in memory of the young man's good friend who died last year. Mourners were invited to write a last message on the man's white coffin, and those words were his message. :D
 
i've got shivers but in a nice way - that's such a lovely idea. i like the thought of carrying on the memory in such a permanent (although ultimately mortally temporary) way.
 
I will post a photo of the tat when I can, it is on someone's phone.
 
i've got a tattoo of a crippled black panther wearing a crown, on my forearm. even the tattooist asked why, but there is a story behind it like.
 
lemonpie3 said:
I work in bridalwear so I see a lot of women in their underwear. And while I see some nice tattoos I see a lot more that I wouldn't want myself. And I think it's fair to say that of the ones that are in a visible place on the body, i've not yet met a bride who wants hers showing in her wedding photos, and some brides go to quite long lengths to cover them up.

Obviously less conventional brides probably would be happy to have theirs showing, but their not the types to come to my shop.

There seems to be a 'thing' in England for women to have tattoos of cartoon Winnie the Pooh characters. Just as common if not more so is the tattoo of Thumper from Bambi. I work in a pub and have seen this same tattoo on at least five different women; usually on the shoulderblade or the top of the arm.
And guess what... they're all done badly. Can you see the guys at Miami Ink doing a bloody Thumper on some lady's arm?
And in the last couple of years it seems to be the law, in my town at least, for men to get their childrens' names tattooed on the inside of their forearms in large Gothic lettering. I have lost count of the many, many of these I have seen.
I think the lettering style is copied from Mr Beckham but the inside forearm thing I don't know.
I have two tattoos, one from when I was 18 and one 19. The small spider on the top of my arm I got because I was 18 and could; it was done very quickly and is already beginning to blur.
I have two flying parakeets on my back between my shoulderblades (prettier than it sounds). It was a beautiful tatt when I first had it done but within a year the colour had nearly all faded and leached out and the lines were blurring. It still looks okay- I'm not ashamed of it yet- but I have been to a good tattoo parlour and seen about a recolouring, this time with quality inks! It's truly a shadow of what it first looked like; make sure you go to a high- standard parlour (the prices are indicative unfortunately).
My back birds, if done in a proper quality place, would have cost me at least £70 7 years ago- I paid £30. But I was only 19 so thought I was getting a bargain!
Believe me its better to pay up for good work!
 
I had a friend who got a Tweety Pie tattoo done when she about 20 - she now hates it. Thankfully it was on her back, so she doesn't have to see it everyday.

I have 5 tattoos myself, and like other people said, a lot of the time I don't remember they're there. They're a part of me, and I'm really pleased I got them done. I don't parade around showing them off to people, because they're personal - other people might not like them, but that doesn't matter. I chose them for me, not for other people.
 
Here we go - Smile Like you Mean It, as sung by The Killers, as written on a coffin, as tattooed on a young man's back in memory of his friend. 8)

Smilelikeumeanit.jpg
 
This page links to a video of Mr Cool Ice appearing on some kind of Germanic chat show. We also get to see Mr Cool Ice shopping for T-shirts, working out, and gazing at himself in very big mirrors. And he shows us his business card on which he is rather confusingly billed as "Mr Lover Lover" and "Mr Sex" as well as "Mr Cool Ice". That's too many names for one man. Even if that man is Mr Cool Ice.

Tragically, Mr Cool Ice is dogged wherever he goes by the haunting strains of Ice Ice Baby. I guess that's the price you pay for being so cool.
 
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