Love them or hate them - tattoos. (Body Tattoos in general)

Member Name: sugar_snap123

Product:	Body Tattoos in general
Date:	01/06/09 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Mine are personal to me.

Disadvantages: painful, and permenant (disadvantage if you change your mind!)

Tattoos - you really love them or hate them. I love them, well some of them! My parents, hate them. I have always wanted a tattoo but had no real reason to get one, plus I was underage. I was doing my Alevels and found a huge interest in Hinduism and studied it quite thoroughly for 2 years. I absolutely love the religion. I, myself, am not religious. But the premise of Hinduism fascinates me.
There is a symbol which to me depicts peace, freedom, faith, family and love. This is the 'Om' symbol. I decided that I wanted this symbol to be my first tattoo.

I then had to decide where I wanted it. I thought about this really carefully, I want to be a teacher after university so I have to have it done in the right place and for it to be tasteful. I chose to have it on the inside of my left ankle, so it is easily coverable if it needed to be - but in the summer its lovely to wear a skirt and flipflops and let the whole world see it!

I wasn't really planning on anymore tattoos as there wasn't anything that I REALLY wanted. It wasn't until my dad was diagnosed with cancer, that I decided I wanted one to be an image of the struggles we have been through as a family. My dad was diagnosed with Hodgekins Lympoma at the age of just turned 40. It was another huge blow for my family. With three younger brothers I just knew this was going to be a huge struggle for the family. I was thinking about getting something to symbolise this, but really couldnt decide. It wasnt until the whole family pulled together and we were such a strong unit - THEN I decided. I was having the lymphoma flower tattoo. Its a lovely little purple flower, unique to that type of cancer. I carefully traced the flower and designed some swirls around it. That was to be my next tattoo.

These are the only two I have. I don't plan to have anymore unless I have another major turning point in my life, when I am sure I will reassess it then! My parents actually love my lymphoma tattoo, and think its really pretty. My dad, I think, was secretly really proud of me when I got it done. I hadn't seen him for a month and a half, and when I did see him the first thing he said was "lets have a look then!".

With tattoos if they are done tastefully and by a good tattooist, then I don't see a problem with them. What I don't really like is when you see people absolutely covered in them. But then again, it is up to them. I just think "god they must have had a stressful life with all those tats!" as I just assume that people have them when big things happen like I have done!

The key things you need to think about before having a tattoo, is to go to a reputable tattoo shop, make sure its clean and they are using clean needles etc etc. Make SURE its the design you want, after you have it there really is no going back. See the artist's previous work, you can tell then what yours might look like. And finally be prepared for the pain! It does hurt a little!!

Summary: Tattoos, becoming more socially acceptable now! Give it lots of thought before its done!