If you were able to read the title of this post 10 times in a row without mistakes, you are allowed to read on 😉 If not, you probably already have a tattoo and want to know what I will say to offend you.
A few days ago I asked Elon Musk on Twitter whether someone is allowed to tattoo the Tesla logo on his or her body, and also where on the body he thought would be best. I still wait for his advise, but in the meantime I wondered what made a tattoo such a taboo in my youth and why everyone seems to have at least one these days.
According to research, tattooing has been around for at least 5000 years. The art of the tattoo, which is ingraining pigments under your skin, has been used for very different purposes. One was to label criminals so they could be easily recognized. Another was to number people to easily keep track of them. But we can see more and more how not just celebrities but also ‘the girls nextdoor’ use tattoos to define themselves, to set them apart from the crowd.
I like art in many forms, and tattoos can be beautiful. But I wonder how many people actually decide they will get a tattoo without thinking about the future. Because no matter how good you take care of yourself, you and your tattoo will grow older and change shape and meaning.
As your skin stretches and wrinkles over time, so will the art underneath it. Also tattoos fade over time. But I am most worried about the change you will go through as a human being and how this will affect the reasoning to have, or rather get rid of, a certain tattoo. An easy example would be to ingrain your loved one’s name all over your arm only to break up 3 years later. Another one could be a quote you did not really understand until you got older, and now come to regret. Or you misspelled those foreign characters and someone told you 30 years later…
Even though tattoos are more common these days and also do not instantly suggest you are an escaped criminal anymore they could have a big impact on your career, so besides deciding on which one to have also be careful about placement.
Especially thanks to following lots of gamers on social media I have seen wonderful tattoos in their posts and I will not judge them like I would have done 25 years ago. It is good to remain an individual in these modern years in which we are forced to follow a herd. But I am still not sure about having that Tesla logo on my…
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