Tattoos and you

I currently have three tattoos and I already know four more that I want to have done in the near future. But if you ask my mom, I've already got three more than I should have.
The funny thing is, I'm going to turn forty this year and my mother still tells me her opinion on stuff like this.

Basically, her outlook is "you don't want to be an old man with tattoos all over your body, do you?".

So, ok, it's a valid point. But, do you think when Ozzy was getting his tattoos, he thought about how he'd look when he got into his 80's? (on a personal note, I think a lot of us are surprised he's lasted this long!).

Or what about Kerry King?



The man has tribal artwork stretching from each side of his head to each arm.
Do you think he's really worried about how he's going to appear to others when he gets older?

Everyone has their own reason for getting inked.
In 19th Century Europe it was fashionable among some sections of the upper class to have discreet tattoos, of family crests and other aristocratic emblems.

I recently read an article that had this quote:
"For some women, the most popular explanation of the motive for getting a tattoo is about "reasserting control over your own body". In a Western world where body image, plastic surgery, anorexia and the depiction of women is a topic of daily debate, tattoos represent a different current of thought."

So it's about personalization. It's about self expression. It's about doing something that you actually want to do. It used to be considered taboo, but now it's become so mainstream, that even Ozzy Osbourne is to have told his daughter, Kelly, 'If you want to be different, don't get a tattoo '.

It seems that our generation has been introduced to something that, having been around for centuries in some form or another, has become more acceptable among mainstream society.

I for one look forward to being put in an "old folks home" surrounded by other old fogies that are all inked up. It might actually bring a new type of "rest home" where there truly is no rest for the wicked.