FASHION In Which Why You Wanna Go And Do That Love Huh
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 7:29PM 
Your Body Is A Wonderland
by Molly Lambert
I hate tattoos. I know this is not a particularly popular stance, it reminds people of being pro-life. "Keep your opinions off my body!" they say. And I say "Why not just keep your favorite quotes and song lyrics off of them too?" Some people have tattoos. Other people do not. Who am I to say which is better?
It is possible that I am just prudish about body modification in general. I have never been pierced, even in the ears. I do not disapprove of earrings or body jewelry, I just know that if I had any extra holes in my face I would neglect them out of laziness and let them get infected.
Some people look great with a nose ring, but they are usually people who are already beautiful to begin with. The nose ring serves to point out "look, I can put shit on my face and it just underscores that I would look perfect without it." Like when pretty girls wear ugly clothes and they seem even prettier.
For a while I thought about getting a piercing, mostly out of boredom with looking at my face. I think this is why people get body modifications, because they are bored of seeing their same selves all the time. But a new person would not be bored of your body. They would not find its lack of marks dull.
I could not pick one shirt to wear everyday, or one piece of jewelry. I could never pick a quote or a picture to put on my body permanently. I'd get sick of it, probably right away. I would want to scrub it off in the shower as if it were regular pen ink.
When I was in high school I drew on myself constantly. My mom gave me a hard time about it. "You're going to get ink poisoning" she'd say, but of course I never did. I drew mandalas on my hands and scenes on my calves. Anything I could do during class to avoid paying attention.
My standard line about tattoos these days is "your body is not a MySpace." But I know that I am wrong, and that it is. Your body is yours to do whatever you see fit to do with it. Perhaps my distaste for tattoos is because they remind me of the Nazis branding Jews as cattle in the Holocaust.
And yet there's something fascist about my desire for an unmarked body. Like Michael Chabon's essay about superhero costumes, I feel as if a lack of tattoos makes a figure its own ideal costume. Like the perfected unmarked human forms in Triumph Of The Will.
Or maybe it is just the humorlessness of most tattoos that offends me. Kurt Vonnegut quotes are popular, and yet I think he'd disapprove of being propagandized as such. Even joke tattoos are serious in their permanence. I know that is the point, I just can't stomach it myself.
Some people have beautiful tattoos. I have seen sleeves and back pieces that are absolutely gorgeous. But I have also seen grim reapers and Tasmanian Devils and eight balls that were nothing besides tacky, and to get tattooed seems to me to be putting yourself in a club with them somehow.
I do not aim to stop tattoos, or even really to make you reconsider them. If you have some and love them, that is great. If you are thinking about it and remain unsure, it's still really up to you. I'm just warning you that when you show it to me I will flinch, because you were already so lovely before.
Molly Lambert is the managing editor of This Recording.
"Elegie" - Patti Smith (mp3)
"Sisters of the Moon" - Fleetwood Mac (mp3)
"Storms" - Fleetwood Mac (mp3)
Herman Melville tat is pretty good
PREVIOUSLY ON THIS RECORDING
The Best Superhero Comic Books
Of Course There Are Always Exceptions To Rules
Reader Comments (57)
The only tattoos permissible are a USDA CHOICE stamp and a big heart with MOM across it.
why is the girl exposing her butt crack in promiscuous fashion tattooed in bible verse?
hey make a picture with writing over a girl's boobs, when u do, tell me on my site plz and i'll pay u $$$
You like tattoos or you don't like tattoos. It's your own choice. When people get really foolish tattoos, it's humorous and sad at the same time. I do have tattoos, each has a special significance for me. I am a firefighter, I have crossed fire axes for graduating the fire academy (one of the most arduous things I've ever done), I have the star of life for a 2 year old I did CPR on and brought back.
Not all tattoos are foolish or ugly. Some are quite beautiful pieces of art. I specifically avoid having any lettering or 'flash art' (commercial art for tattoos, usually lots of little goofy things that look like crap) put onto me.
Neither do I think that only American Indians should wear 'tribal' tattoos, nor do I think that only the Japanese should have Irezumi art imprinted into themselves. The thought that "only this group can do this..." is foolish. That would be like rolling your eyes in disgust when you see a non-Irishman drinking whisky, or a Japanese guy riding a Harley instead of a Kawasaki.
The simple fact is that there is symbolism that some people are drawn to. Who is anyone to tell them that they should not like what they do?
Frankly, I think tattoo flash and lettering on human skin loathsome. It doesn't preclude me from finding the occasional genuine piece of art amongst tattoo work. There are a lot of paintings not even suitable for hanging on a refrigerator for each piece of true beauty in the Louvre. To find something especially beautiful or fine and good, you must put up with seeing an awful lot of crap along the way.
Just my 2¢
JTK
I agree with you completely in theory. But after many years of proud tattoolessness I eventually reached a point where NOT having a tattoo was saying more about me than any tattoo ever could, and since my whole objection to tattoo-getting was related to doubting the whole project of trying to SAY something about oneself through having/not having tattoos, I cried "Uncle" and got one. It's a tattoo that if I were to describe it you'd rightly peg me for an asshole, but it has "meaning" ("Really!") to me and I kind of love it; what I love even more than it was the experience of getting it. Above all else, getting a tattoo is a) fun, and b) feels good. I'm desperate to repeat the experience but sort of ambivalent about actually carrying a second tattoo: quite the pickle.
Some people think writing a blog is pretty asinine too, but you know.. it's all just opinions isn't it? Like assholes, everyone has one.
[...] Chosen People You'd All Be Living In CavesIn Which We Count Down Our Top Twenty Albums of The YearIn Which Why You Wanna Go And Do That Love HuhIn Which Ellen Page Is The Lesbian We Identify With The MostestIn Which We Ruminate on Sexism, [...]
tattoos are the only art that no one can ever take from you. they cant be repossessed, they cant be altered by someone elses opinion. they are there for the wearer, the canvass, and nothing more. i dont see how someone can have an opinion on something that couldnt have less to do with them, other than something stereotypical. tattoos are not for the poor. they are not for the wealthy. they are for the people who like to wear their hearts, souls, or beliefs on the outside, to be reminded of them every time they look in the mirror. Tattoos are a statement of self. every tattoo has meaning... even the silly ones, because maybe that is the side of life that person values. tattoos seep into your blood and rarely have i met someone with a tattoo that didn't love it, even if they didnt originally. they become part of you as much as you are a part of that piece of art.
That is a lovely post - glad to have found your blog!
Janet Jackson title? Innteresting.
I think tattoos are attractive & respectable if some actual thought has been put into it, or if there's some meaning behind it besides "omgomgomgomgogmomg trampstamp"/"omgomgomgomgomg let's get matching tatts!*giggle*".
Although I will say that I have a secret attraction to people mostly covered in tattoos.
[...] Literary Tattoos [...]
i have a tattoo on the back of my neck which is small and says "child of the universe" which comes from the desiderata. i am twenty now and i got the tattoo done when i was 18. i don't regret it for a second. mum and dad had just split, mum was showing signs of recovery from a 4 year strugle with depression and had also lost her way a little bit with drugs. As the eldest, my two parents who were finding it rough, turned to me for answers to the questions and problems they had. i was completley lost. i had just finished my hsc overseas at an international school and was also under the stress of moving back to australia for uni.
when i wear my hair down, no one can see my tattoo, and as its on the back of my neck in tiny thin little writing, sometimes i forget that its there. but you know what? i am glad its there. it reminds me that i have a right to be here, that i AM a child of the universe. and it brings me peace.
some people are offended by the fact that i have a tattoo, that i have "ruined my body" with ink. Especially amongst the private school and international school set that i grew up with.
i think every single one of the tattoos in your blog are beautiful, and if they bring strength or hope to people who need those physical marks on them, then thats okay with me.
thank you for posting the pictures of them.
some people would argue that you don't need those reminders on your body. well some of us do. some of us get to such a low place in our lives that we need words of beauty and encouragement etched into ourself forever.
my mum, who has turned her life completley around, has the words "fortune favours the brave" on her arm - from her elbow to her wrist. i think its inspiring more than anything else, because she sees that everyday and knows she can keep going.
The way I see it was summed up in a funny way by a comedian: "Marriage and kids are fine, but tattoos? no thanks, that's permanent!"
I think if you need a tattoo to make you feel better, you probably have unresolved issues. No way should you be dependent on ink for your psychological well being. Can you imagine a psychologists recommendation if that is really what people needed?
"Get two tattoos and call me in the morning."
i too have a literary tattoo and this makes me cringe. yes, there are times i just want to pretend i never got it it's from dante's inferno and i will burn in hell for it. it says: "abandon all hope ye who enter here" and it's just above the pantyline, below my navel. oh the shame!
becky lee,
I like it!
These are outstanding, beautiful weBLOG I say!
-S.
The difference between tattooed people and other people is that tattooed people don't care if you don't have any.
At the same time, you're free to hate whatever you wish, in the same way that I'm allowed to hate fat people or gingers I guess.
PS. Well written and I even though I have an opposing view point, I enjoyed it.
Jews weren't the only ones tattooed in the Holocaust. Jews weren't the only ones killed in the Holocaust. Six million Jews were slaughtered, but so were another six million Russians, Poles, Gypsies, making the total 12 million.
I really fucking hate it when people forget or were never taught this fact.
you can see that chicks butthole
I am sort of anti-tattoo but really I just can't relate to why someone would want one. My obsessions are always changing and I think that's healthy, and I hate the idea of trying to stop that and pick one beloved image to look at every single day for the rest of my life. I think a lot of people who get tattoos are in some way daring themselves not to change. Some of the images and quotes that really meant something to me at 18 still do mean a lot to me in my 30's, but who knows whether they still will when I'm 53? In any case it's not like I'm in danger of forgetting them just because I don't have them inked on my body.
Don't hate on word tattoos.
Depending on the tattoo, some of them can be wonderful and meaningful.
I wouldn't change mine for the world.
Oh man I so totally disagree, I mean yeah tattoos can be just about the most heinous tacky things ever but the kind of people that are going to get tacky tats are probably going look tacky already, and isn't it just a nice heads up if they don't? Like oops I thought you were nice but your trampstamp says otherwise. And yeah, granted all the ones you've posted are nasty, but there are plenty of amazingly beautiful tattoos out there and I think it's just closed minded to reject beautiful works of art based solely on a prudish rejection of all body modification. I don't think that people should mindlessly accept what nature gave them, I think it's totally valid to alter your appearance to reflect how you are on the inside. And if how you are on the inside is tacky then fine, go for it, it's good for my amusement and I can post it on failblog.
As for the permanency of them, they don't need to sum up who you are and will always be but they just need to show how you feel right now. They make people's body tell a story about their life, probably at some point in my life I'll stop feeling the way I do now but I'll never regret my tattoo.
Hell yeah! My Flickr arm made it further through the interwebs. My body is a Myspace! Whoo! I'm cool.
Seriously? Not a single person is going to mention how offensive it is to compare free-thinking, personal choices to being branded by Nazis? Or how offensive it is to the Jewish people who were persecuted that they're being compared to people you consider to be low class? There is a HUGE difference between putting art on yourself that is meant to be an extension of your personality and an expression of yourself, and being forcefully branded as "cattle". People with tattoos would probably even argue that getting tattoos makes you even LESS like cattle, because you're no longer part of the herd.