Today's Bizarro is brought to you by The Garfield Admiration Society of Greater Muncie.The idea behind this cartoon was to show what would happen if kids could get tattoos. I'm not certain I did the best job of conveying the idea, but it was the best I could come up with.
People without tattoos frequently assume that people with them will one day regret their choice, as this guy obviously would, having gotten a Garfield tattoo as a kid. I think that is more true of people who get a single tattoo on a whim, especially when they are young. Or anyone who lets a bad artist attack them with a needle.
But those of us with numerous tattoos choose it as a lifestyle and simply accept it, knowing full well it can never be changed. You might regret the way a certain one turned out exactly, or wish something had been done a little differently, but those thoughts are minor and fleeting, the way one's dislike of the shape of ones toes might be.
I often hear people joking about how tattoos might look cool when you're young, but what will you look like in the old folks home? So many people under 40 have tattoos now that it won't be an oddity in their old age. I'm guessing wherever I end up, we'll be making fun of the geezer who doesn't have any droopy, indistinguishable tattoos.
If you're thinking of getting a tattoo, common wisdom dictates that you choose the image and tape it on your bathroom mirror for six months. If you still like it after seeing it a few times a day for half a year, you're likely to be okay with it as a tattoo.
Or, better still, drug someone and have him/her tattooed with your chosen design. Put it on their back so they don't know it's there. Remain friends with them for a couple of years and visit the beach with them often, so you can get regular glimpses of the ink. If you still like the way it looks on them after a couple of years, go for it.
5 comments:
Great post. I think you got the panel just right too. I often see folks with designs on their skin that make me go, really? THAT'S what you chose? Love the example link for the bad artist piece especially. I've been getting modest pieces applied in different spots since I was 18 and have never regretted any of my tattoos, I actually like them all more with each passing day. I like the idea of looking at it every day for six months first though. I actually looked at mine more than once a day probably for at least that long before making the plunges, or at least designs that were very close. I've gotten very lucky and had outstanding artists for every piece too though. In Texas folks don't wear much in the way of clothes in the summer and I see A LOT wrinkled ink down here, so I think aging gracefully with art on you isn't going to be a problem for me either :-)
new animal tatts:
rat
cat
So I'm imagining a small, innocent kid branded with a cat tat...that slowly transforms into an unsettling Louis Wain painting. Yeah--Garfield isn't too far off the mark.
Maybe one of the images from "Garfield minus Garfield" would look funny as a tattoo
yea great post! when people ask me about regretting tattoos, here's my answer and it works every time. i even convinced my dad (mr. conservative).. i say "even if you regret it later in life, it symbolizes who you were at that time. you may not like it so much later, but you at least liked it enough at the time to get it forever embedded in your skin. and THAT means something." and it's totally true, because you see people with tons of tats and you know they don't particularly like ALL of them. i think anyone with a number of tattoos has that one they don't particularly favor, but that one still calls upon a time in their life when they thought it WAS a good idea. or perhaps that one tattoo was to support a friend who just ended his apprenticeship... ie: the one on my foot.
3-thighs: you got any pics of your inkage?
Post a Comment