Tattoos

[White Peacock]

I just got my first tattoo, inked in a 4 hour session over the Memorial Day weekend by Rob at 15th St. Tattoos in Edmond. The shop is immaculately clean, the artists are highly skilled and professional. I'd recommend them (and especially Rob) to anyone who may be looking around for a place to get a piece done.

Here's the finished work on the day of its completion. I'm rather proud of it. Rob took the original artwork, which I had specially commissioned (you can see a printout of it in the background), and added his own touch to make it an overall excellent tattoo:




Any other of you fine OKCTalkers into tattoos at all?

[RadicalModerate]

I was ready to plop down up to $100 (in 1974 money) . . .

But they didn't have a version of this one among the patterns in the old-time tattoo parlor out there in Long Beach--in that decrepit old amusement park area--so I told "the blue man with the faded, bleeding tattoos of his youth in the '30 and '40s" who was applying the needle to the arm of my pal that I wasn't interested at the time.

It wasn't that I would be afraid that the tat would be an identifier in the event of crime commission . . .
It was just that the design I wanted when I was young, dumb and adventurous wasn't available in his shop.

I have never regretted that decision.



In fact, the design I had in mind wasn't just like that picture (no product placement) but it had those vaguely Frank Frazetta upswept eagle wings.

Maybe when they invent dry cell battery sized ear stretchers or lip plates I might reconsider, but until then, I'll just have to be satisfied with memories of being shot/accidentally shooting myself with a nail gun. (And the more low-tech smashing of the fingers and forehead with a new corrugated framing hammer.)

[PennyQuilts]

Well, White Peacock, I am not a tat fan because no matter how good they look, they tend to amount to a skin cartoon. That being said, other than the size, I think yours looks nice and will wear better over time than most. Nice light and shadows.

[ThomPaine]

Tattoos just make it easier for the government to identify you when the time comes... ;-)

[ljbab728]

I tend to be in PQ's corner. How people want to adorn their bodies is their business but to me personally they just make someone look dirty. No offense entended, WP.

[Martin]

i'm just going to leave this here... -M

[RadicalModerate]

It is a good thing that--as a Moderator--you are neutral on the subject. =)

Tattoos are a "Gateway Mistake" that leads to Harder Body Modification.

On the other hand . . . I actually did have a Hard-Core Ex-Convict (Armed Robber/"Paper Hanger" from back in the 60's when "Prisons" were prisons, whatever that means, but just before the infamous McAllister Riot) whom I worked with on several construction projects while he was out on parole (on account of even though he was a bad guy . . . he wasn't a bad guy) give me these words of wisdom: "Never get a tattoo . . . It makes it easier for your victims and the cops to identify you." He bore no ink so I guess he was a man of his word.

I think it was during an informal, misty-eyed, lecture--during lunch--on how to rob supermarkets.
His lack of tattoos didn't prevent him from later being identified as the member of a group of "adventurers" who ripped off a drug dealer in Tulsa and was busted--along with the rest of the crew--just outside of that town south of Supulpa on Old 66. He never thought that the drug dealers would actually call the cops on them.

But I think he was right about tattoos. =)

P.S. to O.P.: Please do not take any of that as a condemnation of what you spent several hundred dollars and four hours on. As far as artwork goes, it looks good and is far superior to the average crap people settle for tattoo wise (such as that lame-ass barbed wire bicep b.s.). I think I might have been satisfied with an old school black light poster of the design.

[Roadhawg]

I have 6 tats and none are visible with my shirt and jeans on. Naturally I don't think they make me 'look dirty' and other than the Foghorn Leghorn one on my leg they aren't cartoonish, many tats are works of art. It's a personal choice one makes and not everybody likes them. It's like many other things, if ya don't like it don't get one. It's funny to hear women say they don't like body art but they spend a lot of time on makeup and other things to alter their appearance. The next one I get will probably be across my chest and something from the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.

[RadicalModerate]

Anyone with Foghorn Leghorn/Fabulous Furry Freak Bros. Tats can't be all bad =) . . .



Tat = Gateway Mistake: Just Say No
(or, if you prefer, No, Thank You)
(or even Nope)

Or not.

[kevinpate]

...

BoJo the Clown was never really the same after that fateful day he was running from some mall thugs and fell into the Claire's Spring Sale display.

[RadicalModerate]

At last. Somebody got the joke. =)
And made an even better one. =) =) Like a Hundred Times Better.

(Garrison Keillor: "Geez . . . The kid looked like he tripped and fell face first into a tackle box.")

Words o' Wisdom
From A Former Possible (but not actual)
Father in Law/Retired Hog Farmer/For Fun Law Student
from Fayetteville, Ark. c. 1972?
who was quite a bit like Foghorn Leghorn
in a nice way and knew the Clintons:

"A tee-shirt with a message on it says two things:
The message on the shirt itself
and something about the person wearing it."

Me: (Forty-Plus Years Later)
Tattoos are like that . . .
Except you can take off a tee-shirt.

[PennyQuilts]

Hmm. For all the ones who love tattoos, I should go get one. Once they see how THAT works out, they'll be changing their tunes on tats. = )

But I agree, white Peacock, as tats go, it is pretty. And roadhawg, if only your intimates can see it, I say hang onto your intimates. In time, their vision will go just about the time you really want it to. It is nature's way.

[White Peacock]

Thanks for the compliments. I think he did a fine job with the details.

As far as the getting a job thing, I have a pretty decent job (fifth anniversary coming up), and this can easily be covered with a longsleeve shirt, so that's not really a concern for me at this point. There were tattoos that I wanted in my youth (on par with the Harley Davidson image above) that I'm damn glad I didn't commit to. I'm 31 now, and I have planned on this collection of images for a few years now, so regret is also no concern.