Finals

Working on Fashion Design project surrounded by 57+ pages of research images, space heater, computer (blasting tunes), full teapot, and mug.

Lets get 'er done.

Watermarks Shouldn't Skin Your Heart, But Heart Your Skin

I was recently having a chat with one of my sisters about tattoos. It all started with a statement that the beauty of this man:

Rick Genest (AKA: Rico The Zombie)

is all that is keeping me going through finals right now.

My Desktop

I went on about how fucking gorgeous I find this man, and said "Man, he's even cute without the tattoos..." citing the image bellow from when they covered his tatts for a concealer comercial

Sis rated him a 9 out of 10 without the tatts, but not so much with them visible, "I mean its well done, but he was gorgeous to begin with. It took away some of his looks when he got all inked up. Its like a distraction, he doesn't need them."

Doesn't need them? He IS them... or they're him.

However you want to say it.

This is an old argument that two of my sisters and I get into whenever the subject is broached.

"[...] its hard for me to see a lot of them as beautiful and not just visual clutter." Says this particular sis.

So here is what I have to say on the subject and this is what I told her and then some:

I apply this same thought process to any and all body modifications, but right now I'm using tattoos as my example because that's what I, myself, am devoted to someday getting. Tattoos are not something apart from a person, but a part of them. Once added tatts become like a birthmark, and add to the beauty of the body. It's not like they're going away. Okay, yes, with a lot of money (and pain) tattoos can be removed, but stop thinking like that. Whether or not the person is ashamed of their tatt or wants it removed is not your business, it is purely theirs. In the meantime, not all of us (soon, hopefully!) want them removed and it's hurtful that this beautiful part of us is thought of as "clutter." I liken it to parents telling their homosexual child that, "It's just a phase." Please, please, don't think of people's tattoos as ugly, distasteful litter on their body. It's a very real and visible part of them. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean that you have to be cruel about it. "Cruel?" You say.

Yes.

Cruel.

Sometimes I feel like my hopeful tattoos are already there, simply because the designs are so much a part of me and who I am as a person. Unfortunately, I have lost count of how many times my tattoo and/or piercing plans have been met with suddenly fallen, or awkward facial expressions followed by, "You're too pretty for that." It just kills me a little every time the people who I care about, who supposedly accept me for who I am, tell me that these pieces of me shown on the outside will mar me. Mar me? They are me! How can you say that you know and accept who I am, but deny these same parts of me when they are made a tangible part of my appearance? Some of us really do wear our hearts on our sleeves, or back, or face, or leg, or hey, even our arse. Saying that you don't approve of a person's heart? That is cruel.

"If you're getting a tattoo, I assume that you don't care what I, or anyone else has to say about it." Was the sentiment expressed the last time this subject was dragged onto the theatrical stage of our conversations. Now, I couldn't give a weasle's left testicle what the majority of humanity thinks about my heart or how I show it. However, I think it is the exact opposite of hypocritical to say that I care very much what my friends, especially those close enough for me to think of them as sibs, have to say. 

I should clarify and say that my caring what they have to say, does not mean that it will stop me from getting my tattoos.

So I want all you tattoo-haters to chew on that for a while.