I dont understand why everyones so hot on their tat having so much significance, like people try sooo hard to think of some stupid reason that tattoo is meaningful. Why? so you can explain why its on your body if someone asks you? To me that is giving way too much of a fuck of what other people think. its cool and all if you have a specific reason you wanna get a tattoo to commemorate somebody or what have you but people that are like "oh i wanna get this tribal because it symbolizes love". No, you secretly think that tribal is gonna make you look cooler. To me tattoos are art and should be treated as such. I get tattoos because they are cool or interesting pieces of art. the body is a canvas
Well I dunno man if I got inked I would make sure it's meaningful enough for me to want on my body for the rest of my life, how much more meaningful can you get? My cousin recently got this awesome ink done on his upper arm. It's a lighthouse under a stormy sky, and like I said it looks great, he spent more than $1k on it... But it means nothing to him! And really I just can't see why people are spending that much cash on something that has no significance to them, or just "looks cool"... But hey that's just me an I'm sure others will disagree but whatevs
I think people can be pretty fickle and stupid about the things they find meaningful. The classic example is someone else's name... sure... your gf/bf is hugely meaningful to you at some point. Maybe even the most important thing to you. Doesn't mean that meaning won't seem stupid and hugely regrettable in a few weeks/months/years. Maybe there is some meaning in a lighthouse to that guy, it's just not something he can articulate succinctly or maybe he just doesn't want to tell you about it because he knows people often sound super cheesy when explaining their tattoos. Or maybe he just would rather something that looked awesome without explanation than something that looked lame, but made sense with an explanation seeing as he will only be able to explain it to .03 of people who see it anyway.
not sure if there's a question in that OP but... here's my answer: my tats all have special meanings to me, and i happen to think they look great, too.. which is a big reason i like them. i wouldn't get a tattoo just because it looks cool or would make me look cooler. i know some people who have done that. an acquaintance of mine got a Gandhi quote tatted on his chest, and he misquoted/misspelled it. i told him i thought it was dumb of him to get a tattoo of something he really didn't know anything about, but i mean...whatever, it doesn't bother me much. people can treat their body as a canvas, and find a shitty artist to fill that canvas with whatever strikes their fancy at that point in their life. it's gonna be their regret, but ya know, maybe they can get over it, or get it removed/covered up. i don't see myself ever getting something tatted that i haven't thought about for a while, or something that didn't mean a lot to me.
Word--that's how I feel about tattoos. Granted, I don't think there's anything wrong with having a deep meaning behind your artwork! However, it seems like a lot of people feel the need to justify ink by giving it some silly meaning. If you ask me why I got my tattoo, I'd say, "Because it's fucking cool, man." I randomly pictured it one day while at work, and sat on the idea for about a year before getting it done. It is meaningful to me, but not something I can put into words. You don't NEED to justify tattoos by having some in-depth meaning behind them. I've been considering my second tattoo now for a few months. I'm in no rush to get ink done, so I have no clue when it'll happen. I need to get some funds saved up, and after that I'll probably continued to procrastinate just because I'm nervous about having my whole side drilled. But again, no meaning I can put in words for that idea. I think good artwork doesn't necessarily have any set-in-stone meaning to it, and that's how I view tattoos. Just my perspective! Edit: Just to clarify, my current tattoo/planned tattoos aren't just to make myself look cool (you can't even see my ink unless I take off my shirt + pants--it's for me, not to show off). As I said, they have a meaning to me, but I can't actually say what that meaning is. I just know I have a connection with the artwork.
well ya thats cool and all that you guys have tats with special meanings dont get me wrong, my gripe is really with the person whos sitting there fiending to get a tattoo and then they get a star because it stands for happiness or something stupid like that. like if your gonna get a stupid little tattoo dont create some nonsensical story as to why you have it, just have it. @h8machine see thats exactly how i see tattoos, just like your friend with the lighthouse. The skin to me is a blank canvas. So i fill it up with art that i can appreciate everytime i look at it. if thats not meaning enough idk what is
I used to want one in high school, was going to get the keywork or dragon fly but decided not to. Some are cool, but as I've gotten older I started viewing them as tacky rather than cool.
I like my skin clean, and until the day I truly NEED something on my body, it will remain that way. I've seen too many stupid tattoos, it's better to plan it for months or even years before going under the needle. Plus I kinda feel like a minority, at least in my group because a lot of my friends have tats. Too many followers though, unoriginal bullshit tattoos that could be made into stencils because they're so generic. Nice bold outlined star bro, what's it mean?
because people often overthink to the point where the meaning isnt actuslly something that means something to them, people just feel the need to have to explain why they got something. I dont understand why art isnt reason enough for some people.
I like tattoos because I see them as art, as you do. I can understand if people want to put meaning in them though, because its just like art. Some artists put together a shoe and a cup and say done because they can, they have that right. Others put years into canvas pieces because they want to convey a message that they see important. I get tattoos and piercings though, because I honestly have minimum attachment to my body. I see it as a fancy shell that holding a soul, so whatever my soul wants to do with it it will. That includes cutsey decoration. I have a bow behind my ear and when people ask me why I got it I just say "because I'm kawaii as shit." I really have no other reason for getting it
My first tattoo doesn't have any meaning. I don't particularly mind; I just loved the design. Everyone always says you'll regret a tattoo that doesn't have any special meaning. I don't think that's so. Not for those of us who truly see tattooing as an art form. Maybe for someone who just turned 18 and got one just because they could without much of a second thought....But 5 years later, and I still don't regret my meaningless tattoo. My second tattoo had a bit of meaning. I just wanted something to commemorate my college days, good time with friends before the weight of the real world crashed down. But it's nothing terribly earth shattering in meaning lol. In fact, I've always been a bit hesitant to get a deep, meaningful tattoo. I don't mean memorials or anything, but more...something that symbolizes who you are as a person. Because god damned, people change you know? I don't want a symbol on my body that may be the exact opposite of what I stand for when I'm 40. For example, I was a Liberal at 18....I'm nearly 24 and about as hard core Libertarian as you can get (in many ways Libertarians are even more conservative than Conservatives). I'd feel like a jackass if I'd gotten the Dem donkey tattooed on myself freshly legal.
I don't have a problem with people getting tattoo's just because they think they look cool but personally I want mine to be something symbolic/meaningful, but I'm also a pretty symbolic type of person if you know what I mean. I like things that have a history behind them and I view tattoos the same way. I've seen plenty of good looking tattoo's but they mean nothing too me so I wouldn't want them, I'm planning on getting one of the statue of liberty crying and holding a torn american flag; it's really symbolic to me and in my opinion that's what makes it cool not the way it looks.
I got a whole octopus/koi fish Sleeve because tattoos are addicting and cool as hell. Just turned 18 too, it was very impulsive, and I'm still working on it to this day after about a year. Spent at least 2k and 25+ hours of tattooing(like 3 hour sessions at a time)and were still not finished. It has no meaning to me at all, except making me happy to have some art work on my body. Some of the stuff people say their tattoo represents is so cheesy, but hey, I'm not one to judge.