Tattoo's

A reason why tattoos are so popular in our community is that they are considered cool. Tattoos are another way of making ourselves stick out in society and making a name for ourselves, its a way of making ourselves look unique. The need to be different is one of the ways people become cool and is especially practiced by teenagers, which is why many of us have tattoos. However, many teenagers  get tattoos for the sake of having them. To me, tattoos are only acceptable when you have a good reason for them or you have thought out what you want. They aren’t the type of things you get to fit a fad or for the fun of it. They are permanent, yet still many teens end up with random images on their bodies of common shapes like a heart or stars or of stupid words like “love”. Some teens even go to the extreme to be different. For example, a recent scandal in the papers was about an 18 year old Belgian girl named Kimberley Vlaminck. She had claimed that she only wanted 3 stars tattooed onto her face but had fallen asleep while getting the tattoo done and woke up with 56 instead. It was released a few weeks later that she was lying and had not fallen asleep. She really did want 56 stars on her face but lied because the tattoo had made her father and boyfriend extremely furious. Kimberley said  “I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them. But when my father saw them, he was furious.” I personally feel that for her to go as far as to not only get a tattoo of 56 stars but on her face was just a desperate plea for attention. She says that once the tattoo artist was done she was satisfied and loved the tattoo, but when she had seen that people did not like it , it suddenly became uncool and life became challenging. “'It is terrible for me. I cannot go out on to the street. I look like a freak.” Now that it has drawn the wrong attention, she is suddenly ashamed of her facial tattoo and wants it removed. If she had really gotten the tattoo for herself and not to impress others then it would not have mattered if others liked it or not. But the peoples  opinions were so important to her that she lied about ever wanting the tattoo. She even went as far as suing the tattoo artist for 9000 euro so she could afford to remove it.  Many teenagers get pointless tattoo’s to fit in or get attention from others. What outrages me about them is that they don't realize it will be there forever, as you get older it will just look ridiculous. 

One of the reasons tattoos are so cool is because they are all over the media. A huge number of celebrities have tattoos, especially the ones that appeal the most to teenagers like Rihanna, Lil Wayne and even Miley Cirrus! So what people do is get tattoos that resemble theirs so others will think its cool. People even go as far as get celebrities faces tattooed onto their bodies. The reason for this is because all celebrities are considered cool, so if you have a tattoo resembling them in anyway, then it should be automatically seen as cool. I personally only think of a tattoo as cool depending on the quality of it. If an actually talented artist does the tattoo, then I can admire and respect it. It doesn’t mean I  will necessarily respect what it symbolizes or the person who got it, I respect the artists talents. 

I am one of the people who believe that our bodies are sacred and we shouldn't do anything to harm them, including getting a tattoo. However, I do feel that tattoos with a meaningful story behind them are acceptable. For example, Mr Fanning has several tattoos but all (or most) have a story to tell. The tattoos are like a timeline of important events in his life, they are almost like a scrap book. Each image shows a part of his life he wont forget like the the tattoo that says strength in Japanese for when he was about to go through surgery, or the tattoo of the woman he got in Italy for when his band was on tour. They are events he wont ever forget in his life, wether they be bad or good. They are a way for him to remember them artistically through what seems to be his favorite art styles, 50s art and traditional Japanese art. Another thing that makes his tattoos unique are the fact that they aren't just random images, they are works of art. Each tattoo is done very nicely and are obviously not just there to impress people, they are there because they are something that he really cherishes.