Many of my girlfriends have "girl nights" around getting tattoos, as if it were as casual as getting a haircut or a manicure. The casual attitude toward tattoos bothers me for two reasons; there is the age old argument that tattoos are permanent and not a decision to make lightly. The other argument I have against tattoos is that getting a tattoo on a whim significantly cheapens the tattoos that others have for cultural reasons or to commemorate a major life event. I will explore both issues further in this article. I'm sure that everyone has heard their mother or grandmother go on about how tattoos are permanent, look bad, aren't professional, etc.. While I've seen some beautiful tattoos that are works of art, I can't deny that the other common arguments are true. As someone that is in charge of hiring employees for professional settings, visible tattoos are a serious turn-off. I would never completely discount a person with the right qualifications, because he or she had tattoos on their hands (I would if the tattoo was on the face, though!), but if I have to decide between two equally qualified candidates, one tattooed and the other not, the un-tattooed candidate will win every time. The reason for this is that, while tattoos are more acceptable within our culture, there is still a stigma attached to them, as marking yourself to stand apart from the crowd. A professional should not want to stand apart from the company, but will stand as a trusted representative of the company. Our company doesn't tattoo things on its face, and you shouldn't either. This actually leads in to my second point about tattoos. Why is there a stigma around tattoos when it comes to the mainstream, even if every girl is sporting a lower back tat these days? It's because that, traditionally, tattoos were meant to indicate that someone was marking themselves to set themselves apart. In our own western culture, tattoos were traditionally used to identify oneself as part of a subculture. For instance, my grandmother's neighbor had tattooed forearms that would rival any full-sleeve tattoo of today. He got his tattoos in memory of his Navy days. The tattoo is iconic of the American sailor, who tattooed himself to remember his adventures and mishaps on the sea. In other cultures, tattoos carry significant symbolic meaning. Tattoos indicate a change in status of the group, indicate rank or accomplishments. The decision to tattoo oneself is not taken lightly. I feel that the casual attitude toward tattoos does something to diminish the importance of tattoos to those that have tattoos to indicate a life story, whether it was a voluntary tattoo like those of European sailors, or forced tattoos, like those given in Nazi concentration camps. It used to be that when someone got a tattoo, everyone would ask, "What does it mean?". Now, very rarely do people ask, because, frankly, "I thought it looked cool/pretty." is not a particularly satisfying answer. I don't begrudge people that tattoo themselves. It's their bodies, of course. But I myself wouldn't get a tattoo unless it was in honor of a major life change. I certainly won't be getting a butterfly for the hell of it just to spend time with my gal pals. My tattoos have meaning to me in my life, and I don't share them with strangers. Unless you are my husband, you probably will never get the chance to see my personal tattoos. That is the way it should be - with reverence and as a private memento of a special event in your life.
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Many of my girlfriends have
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