Blog: Tattoo Abuse

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always been fascinated with tattoos. I’ve always been fond of the way a picture looks on the skin. But even more than the way it looked, I liked finding out the deeper meaning behind the tattoo.

To me, it’s the meaning behind the tattoo that makes it worthwhile. Not the picture or the color. The meaning. And I think a lot of people forget that. All too often, people get tattoos solely because they can.

The idea of getting a tattoo simply because you’re old enough and have the funds to do so is belittling to the art form. A tattoo is far more personal than people give it credit for. It’s a permanent depiction of an important part of your life, and there should certainly be thought put into whatever tattoo a person chooses to have permanently inked on their skin.

A tattoo is permanent it’s not like an earring where you can take it out, let it heal, and forget it was ever there. A tattoo will be with you for the rest of your life, so it seems almost silly that someone would get one just because. You’d think that if you were going to spend the rest of your life with a picture on your skin, you’d put some thought into it first. Leopard print stars down the side of your stomach aren’t going to look nearly as good when you’re forty-five and overweight as they did when you were eighteen, but at least some sort of sentimental value justifies that.

Personally, I love tattoos. I think they’re a really lovely and bold form of expression. But I also feel like they’re easily abused. To fully capture the essence of a tattoo, there has to be some sort of deeper meaning; otherwise, it’s just a picture.