what do you think about Tattoos?

First off, I want to point out that every bloody post Nall has made is quality. At least all of them that I've read. Getting my nod for best new member if this keeps up.

Anyway, I'm going to pop in for the well and proper inked up. The problem here is multi-tiered. On the really surfacey bits, there's the obvious: A video game tattoo is on par with a band logo, or a girlfriend's name, or a Buffy the Vampire Slayer tat. I don't care how much you self-identify with it, it's going to be something you take shit over. And there's good reason. For 95% of people, in ten years that's not going to have any meaning to you, and people will constantly be asking you what the fuck an Angelus is. You're going to want it gone. Now, sure, for 5% of people they self-identify with whatever otakukin style tribalism their entire lives, but 95%? Let's be fair, people, you're probably in that group if you're even halfway sane.

Now, we touch on a huge issue with tattooing (modern, I'm not going to go into the history or the historical stigma. If anyone wants this sort of stuff, I have three published papers on it, just drop me a line.) and the issue is this, a large number of tattoos people get are poorly thought out and purely decorative. Now, this in and of itself isn't bad. In his book, Wrapping in Images, Alfred Gell talks about how decorative tattoos have this tremendous tradition (and they do. The Japanese pioneered tattooing as a purely decorative art, and it has a tradition steeped in cultural significance.) and are still a valid form of expression. And as much as I personally disagree with tramp stamps and barbed wire jock tats, there is a point to be made there. Tattoos have been used as a way of marking pure aesthetics forever. It draws a certain form of attention, and it still does. Why do you think those chicks with the tramp stamps generally go home with someone at the end of the night? It's creating an image conducive to the goals they desire.

But we don't need to deal purely with aesthetics. Neo-tribalism is the source of the modern revival of tattooing, and let's not stray too far away from that. Self-identification can be a huge portion of tattooing, from gang signs to memorial tattoos, it's a way to mark yourself and identify with something. A tribe, a group, a family line. Permanence brought through pain, there's enough metaphor in that image to keep academics hopping for years.

I have a clear preference for tattooing that goes into symbolism and beyond aesthetics, but I love aesthetics in my symbolism, if you follow. And that's what tattooing is, at its heart, symbolism. Now, whether that symbol is just that you're a juvenile prat and want a picture of Link on your chest because, hey, you want to save the Princess Zelda too (Princess Zelda here usually played but a marginally pretty, slightly overweight girl who keeps falling for other guys who use her) that's up to you, but ink is all about symbolism.

Body modification is at its most base level, an external expression of internal issues. Now, this can be incredibly cathartic; a way to deal with loss, or to mark a strong shift in your life, or simply to record some event that is cherished. But let us all remember, some times our internal monologue isn't something we need to express externally. Sometimes it's a conversation about Baldur's Fucking Gate, and we don't need that to be permanently blared on our forearms, now do we? Take your time, think it through. If it can't wait a year to be done, it's probably impulsive and a bad idea. Tattoos will represent you for the rest of your natural life. Don't let that message be "hey, I'm a massive berke and I should be smacked upside the head by everyone I meet for the next twenty years."

And yes, I carry ink. A fair bit of it, and there will be much more of it come February.

Jam it back in, in the dark.