WTF were some of these people thinking?!

[Pixilated]

This has killed any possible desire I might have developed to have even the smallest tattoo. (Yes, I'm a wimp, LOL)

Some are silly, one or two are funny/cute, but the rest ...

[ExRetailDrone]

I actually really like the guy who's tattooed as a skeleton. Nothing that I would remotely come close to thinking about, but the work is done well and it looks pretty cool. I'm a sucker for the macabre.

But the rest? No thanks. I love tattoos - I have one and want more - but the things people will permanently stick on their body baffles me sometimes.

[Kaylyn]

Yeah, and Rick Genest (aka Rick the Zombie, the full-body skeleton/zombie tattooed guy)...they're calling him Mr. Unemployed. But the dude is a MODEL, both with his tattooed self and when he does the cover-up. He's doing quite alright for himself, thank you very much Mr. Article Writer.

[Ginger Tea]

A lot of people would know of him via the born this way video

[Pixilated]

I actually really like the guy who's tattooed as a skeleton. Nothing that I would remotely come close to thinking about, but the work is done well and it looks pretty cool. I'm a sucker for the macabre.

But the rest? No thanks. I love tattoos - I have one and want more - but the things people will permanently stick on their body baffles me sometimes.

The detail level and the accuracy is stunning. It'd be interesting to see an interview with the person who did it.

[Andara Bledin]

There is a very lively market for freaks. The skeleton guy, the lizard guy, and Stalking Cat (aka Catman, RIP) all did quite well for themselves, although Cat only did it as a side to his actual business of computer guru.

[siead_lietrathua]

yeah... never been a big front-of-head tattoo fan myself. some are pretty but most of the time they just look odd around the features.

also, skeleton guy was in one of my favourite ads ever for dermablend... and he looks so different without the tattoos!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mIBKifOOQQ

[XCashier]

This has killed any possible desire I might have developed to have even the smallest tattoo. (Yes, I'm a wimp, LOL)

Some are silly, one or two are funny/cute, but the rest ...

A small tattoo here and there, okay, but all over? Call me old-fashioned, but I just don't see the point. (IMO, YMMV)

Like the skeleton guy. I saw the Dermablend commercial, and he's a good-looking man. Or was. Why'd he mutilate himself that way?

Look, I enjoy art, but I prefer the type you can hang on your wall. If you get tired of it, you can take it down and put something else up. With tattoos, if you get tired of them...you're stuck with them. I know there is laser removal surgery, but that costs lots of money and can cause scarring and other problems. A small tattoo here and there, that wouldn't be much problem, but trying to remove the all-over tattoos...it's better not to get them in the first place. I can think of many, many things I would rather spend my money on.

[Andara Bledin]

I can think of many, many things I would rather spend my money on.

And I rather suspect they feel similarly to the things you'd spend your money on.

[the_std]

This quote from reddit user dko seems fitting here...

i can't find it now, but maybe a decade ago i read something on everything2 about tattoos that has stuck with me and may be less relevant today with how much more acceptable they are now. it was a short story about a man who worked as a paleontologist or archeologist and was leading a tour group through a museum as part of his summer job.

he had a large and prominent tattoo in a visible place, probably an arm or leg, and it was exposed. not anything obscene or even particularly challenging. a person in the tour group, a middle aged woman, if memory serves, was persistently very snippy and dismissive of his lecture and when he finally confronted her about it in front of the group, she said she couldn't take him seriously because he was tattooed.
he replied "this isn't an ordinary tattoo, you see." while slightly tilting the tattooed extremity, almost as if he expected it to beam a glint of light back at the viewer if cambered just right, "this tattoo is magic." he said with a twinge of mysticism in his voice.

"if i hold it just right, it exposes the prejudice and ugliness of small and petty people."

that always stuck with me and i often think of tattoos as an interesting social filter. i think the venn diagram of "people who wouldn't interact with someone because they have a tattoo" and "people i would like to talk to and perhaps know" has absolutely no overlap. if someone is so close minded and, frankly, shitty, as to rule out interacting with someone because they made a decision you would not, a decision whose consequences you absolutely do not have to face, i probably don't want to know them.

don't let the dregs get you down. their esteem is worthless anyway.

Obviously, if the tattoo is inflammatory and prominently displayed (pictures of genitals or messages of hate), it's a different story, but the mere act of getting a tattoo no longer means what it did even fifteen years ago. People who cannot update their thinking about a piece of body art that is becoming increasingly common are allowed to have their opinions, but holding on to that prejudice will make it harder and harder to deal with people in the real world.

[Aethian]

I wonder what people are going to do when the new form of nanotech tattoos come out for diabetics...

[Nekojin]

The business world is slow to change. Visible tattoos are still pretty much completely verboten for any corporate position that involves management or customer service. IT is one of the few departments where it isn't seen as an automatic strike against you.

[Andara Bledin]

Thus: Hooray for Dermablend and the like, yes?

[static]

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[Ginger Tea]

The artist is a Canadian fella called Frank Lewis. He has some nice black and grey work but his color stuff isn't the best.

Some black tattoos end up being those that A look the best B age better compared to colours.

The list of girlfriends names looks fake, none of the crossed-out names have aged significantly. They're all as sharp and dark as the one at the bottom so they must have all been done around the same time, if they were really done at all.

It reminded me of the UK Giff Gaff mobile phone banner advert that had all the UK phone companies crossed out on someone's arm.