Yuk yuk truly yuk.
Don’t beat about the bush David. 
Brainless knuckledraggers is my view. Why would anyone want to knowingly destroy their body is somethng i cant understand. But then it is a free world - yet.
Is that so? You’ve just been upgraded to my ‘ignore’ list @anon18867529. Pretty sure you won’t give a toss but, makes this brainless knuckledragger feel great. Bye 
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Thomas - I don’t want a tattoo - but many people do and they come from all sections of society.
My young friend, who now runs her own studio, spends a long time with each would-be client before agreeing to accept them.
Through long discussion, she seeks to understand why they want a tattoo in the first place. Only if she is satisfied that this is not simply a whim etc, will she accept to undertake the commission.
You and I may well not understand why folk make such a choice - but such is life - one big mystery.
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You hit the nail on the head, i dont. Like i said its a free world - yet and if it floats your boat, off you trot.
Can i be Number 1 on your ignore list. It would be such a priviledge.
That calls to mind for me putting a wreath on a gravestone. She’s unlikely ever to see the roses other than as an attempt to bury her past.
It might be the sort of haunting cautionary tale a tattooist ought to share with her/his prospective clients before they make a decision they can never reverse. But I doubt they will.
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Interesting, AnonyMouse. Writing, illustrating feelings/reactions to the world…on one’s self…could be less anti social than messing up walls and streets with beastly graffiti and will almost certainly be seen more easily and noticed? If tattoos are an art form, does art have to be beautiful? Absolutely not, I think. A deliberate attempt to express UGLY, can be an authentic response to life experiences? Im sure of it. Some of those beastly tats seem to me to express sadness, rage, despair pretty well. Might be compared to some of the art out of wartime Germany, I’m bored by pretty stuff, although I do my best to make it beautiful. If ever I go back to UK to live, and no, I will not do so, I want to live where people tattoo themselves in that (for me!) heartbreaking way. Avoiding “good residential areas” at all cost. I especially liked this one…
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Mmm… Peter… you and your doubts 
Blanket remarks are seldom if ever fair/correct as I suspect you know already. 
The situation being discussed here in this thread, is exactly why my young friend talks things through, long and hard, before even agreeing to accept a client on her books.
And, I really do NOT believe she is the only professional tattooist who takes matters so seriously. 
Anyway, it’s too hot already 24c at this moment and rising fast - let’s all keep our cool. 
Perhaps the most perceptive and intelligent comment on the tattoo phenomenon I’ve ever read.
Points to the tattoo as a significant act, intended as an outward signal of some inner experience that must be expressed, and can’t be expressed or properly acknowledged in any other way. The question that should be asked, and explored, is “What does this mean to me?”
Over and over again.
As Jeanette suggests, it may well be a sign of something very dark, painful, or long suppressed. Perhaps tattooists, or some of them, know this. But they are compromised by the need to make a living.
I am everlastingly grateful that I have never wanted a tattoo or a piecing of any kind. Nor do I like to wear any kind of jewellery. Our adult children have also remained totally unadorned.
Heroin, tobacco, alcohol, time, crashing motorbikes etc destroys your body. Having a few tattoos doesn’t IMO.
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On the other hand " it may well be a sign of something" … glorious/wonderful… a deep, heartfelt emotion… or whatever… 
who knows…
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For me Jeanette it’s quite simply a permanent embodiment of my lifetime passion for aviation. For me Concorde was and is the iconic representation of that - I miss her, and now she’ll always be with me. An enormous pleasure 
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It is hot and getting hotter still. But I’ve got to mow the grass!
“Blanket remarks are seldom if ever fair/correct as I suspect you know already.”
Well, Stella, my comment was by no means a blanket remark, you will note it was clearly provisional as I said “might”. Have cool drink, dear, and wear a big shady hat! 
Keeerrrrrrching Stella! Nail on head 
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Mixed emotions getting to me Peter.
My young friend and the other professionals in her circle (these I know personally) - go out of their way to ensure that no-one is given a Tattoo inappropriately. Not everyone is accepted as a client.
I did not like the way your words came over - 
you and your doubts !!!
but it is hot and I am now concerned about you mowing the grass.
I do think you made a mature decision Simon and that it was, as you always make clear when writing of your love of flying, a celebration of your life in the sky, and of the aircraft you have captained.
Absolutely no criticism or reproach of you or your decision implied in my remarks on tattooing in general.
Thomas it’s no use responding to Simon, you are on his ignore list so he won’t see your posts !
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Rather insulting Thomas, there are many people who have chosen to have a tattoo for whatever reason. There are quite a few of them on here and it’s not your place to call them names !
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Well said Ann - although I suspect I know exactly what Thomas’ small problem may be… 
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