Here are 6 reasons why you shouldn't-
1) It is a trend and all trends end. This one is ending. Justin Bieber has tattoos. Watch the "Baby" video by him. Yeah that guy is now covered with tats. They used to be seen on actual tough people- military, bikers, etc. Now they are increasingly seen on people who are just the opposite of tough but who want to come across as such. What was once a symbol of being outside the mainstream is now very much mainstream. Is something rebellious if every 20-40 year old has one? A dolphin? A butterfly? Spiderwebs on your elbows? How original- I've never seen those before.
2) It will date you. Tattoos started to become commonplace in the 90's and 00's and this generation is starting to have kids. Since when do kids think that their parents' fashion choices are cool? They don't. Mark my words- teenagers are going to start to say, "uuughhh, I don't want a tattoo- my MOM has a tattoo..." Those lower back tattoos for example, they're already out of fashion. At the beach, you'll be able to see a woman with one of those and say, "hmmm those were popular in the late nineties so she must be...about 40."
3) Change is good. When you are in high school, you have posters on your wall of your idols and patches on your jacket or backpack telling everyone what kind of person you are. When you are young it's important- you want to be part of a group and fit in with your friends. But you go to university and normally you start to leave you high school identity behind and form a new identity. How many people wore the same things in high school as they did in college? This is healthy. You liked hard rock and your new roommate likes electronic music- so what? You change your tastes a little in the interest of meeting new people and fitting in with a new crowd. You should do this. Pretty soon the stuff you liked in high school just isn't that important anymore. Tattoos inhibit this process. You get a symbol that means something to you when you are twenty, when you are forty you probably wouldn't even have remembered it... except for the fact that it is etched into your arm. You are forced to identify with it on some level forever. Grow up. You put those high school clothes in the drawer and move on, you don't wear them for the rest of your life unless you are a very narrow minded, unimaginative, fearful person.
4) Reminding yourself of horrible things is bad. Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris Jackson, was in the news recently for getting tattoos in commemoration of overcoming some traumatic events in her life. Here's the thing- things that are hugely traumatic, very painful and make you cry when you are sixteen, well, maybe when you are forty, these things have long faded into the past...unless you have a tattoo staring you in the face every time you look at your arm. There was a trend to get semicolon tattoos as a symbol of overcoming deep depression. Overcoming depression is great. Hopefully you've changed your life and are, at least much of the time, a happy person. Don't you want people to see you as a happy person? Is it necessary and healthy to advertise to others that you've had a traumatic past? Sure, you can share that with people so they know your whole story, but is it good to immediately put that in people's faces? Especially if it's something that happened decades prior? I would even go so far as to say deaths of loved ones should not be commemorated in this way. People die and it's horrible but it's important for the survivors to move on. It's part of life and everyone goes through it. Traumatic events fade into the past. This is a natural process. Let it happen.
5) You're just going to end up getting them removed anyway. Good news- you can!
6) "They're just for me, I don't care what other people think!" BS. BS. BS. If you have visible tattoos, especially if you have a lot of visible tattoos, you got them so other people would notice. "I'm young, I'm creative, I'm tough, I'm a rebel, I'm different." Bad news- the message is the exact opposite of all of those things. Nobody sees the "art" either- just another dude with a bunch of tattoos. Boring.
1) It is a trend and all trends end. This one is ending. Justin Bieber has tattoos. Watch the "Baby" video by him. Yeah that guy is now covered with tats. They used to be seen on actual tough people- military, bikers, etc. Now they are increasingly seen on people who are just the opposite of tough but who want to come across as such. What was once a symbol of being outside the mainstream is now very much mainstream. Is something rebellious if every 20-40 year old has one? A dolphin? A butterfly? Spiderwebs on your elbows? How original- I've never seen those before.
2) It will date you. Tattoos started to become commonplace in the 90's and 00's and this generation is starting to have kids. Since when do kids think that their parents' fashion choices are cool? They don't. Mark my words- teenagers are going to start to say, "uuughhh, I don't want a tattoo- my MOM has a tattoo..." Those lower back tattoos for example, they're already out of fashion. At the beach, you'll be able to see a woman with one of those and say, "hmmm those were popular in the late nineties so she must be...about 40."
3) Change is good. When you are in high school, you have posters on your wall of your idols and patches on your jacket or backpack telling everyone what kind of person you are. When you are young it's important- you want to be part of a group and fit in with your friends. But you go to university and normally you start to leave you high school identity behind and form a new identity. How many people wore the same things in high school as they did in college? This is healthy. You liked hard rock and your new roommate likes electronic music- so what? You change your tastes a little in the interest of meeting new people and fitting in with a new crowd. You should do this. Pretty soon the stuff you liked in high school just isn't that important anymore. Tattoos inhibit this process. You get a symbol that means something to you when you are twenty, when you are forty you probably wouldn't even have remembered it... except for the fact that it is etched into your arm. You are forced to identify with it on some level forever. Grow up. You put those high school clothes in the drawer and move on, you don't wear them for the rest of your life unless you are a very narrow minded, unimaginative, fearful person.
4) Reminding yourself of horrible things is bad. Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris Jackson, was in the news recently for getting tattoos in commemoration of overcoming some traumatic events in her life. Here's the thing- things that are hugely traumatic, very painful and make you cry when you are sixteen, well, maybe when you are forty, these things have long faded into the past...unless you have a tattoo staring you in the face every time you look at your arm. There was a trend to get semicolon tattoos as a symbol of overcoming deep depression. Overcoming depression is great. Hopefully you've changed your life and are, at least much of the time, a happy person. Don't you want people to see you as a happy person? Is it necessary and healthy to advertise to others that you've had a traumatic past? Sure, you can share that with people so they know your whole story, but is it good to immediately put that in people's faces? Especially if it's something that happened decades prior? I would even go so far as to say deaths of loved ones should not be commemorated in this way. People die and it's horrible but it's important for the survivors to move on. It's part of life and everyone goes through it. Traumatic events fade into the past. This is a natural process. Let it happen.
5) You're just going to end up getting them removed anyway. Good news- you can!
6) "They're just for me, I don't care what other people think!" BS. BS. BS. If you have visible tattoos, especially if you have a lot of visible tattoos, you got them so other people would notice. "I'm young, I'm creative, I'm tough, I'm a rebel, I'm different." Bad news- the message is the exact opposite of all of those things. Nobody sees the "art" either- just another dude with a bunch of tattoos. Boring.