How Tattoos became mainstream....

[bernie's bender]

Distracts me completely, can't take my eyes off it, so that kind of kills any conversation going on with me.

EXACTLY!

But, I'm just an ogling, knuckle dragging male of the species!

[bernie's bender]

I was working as a consultant a few years ago (hired through my company) and I got to be friends with this guy who was in charge of the project... we spent a bunch of time together and over time, he took me into his confidence...

Now, I will readily admit to being an idiot and I frequently answer questions without worrying about the context or cause of the question...

anyway, one day we are driving to lunch and we see a couple of attractive young ladies getting ready to cross the street (we were downtown in his city) and we both commented at how attractive the girls were.... not lewd or foul or anything... just the usual "my my" kind of thing. Anyway, out of the blue he asks me "So, what do you think of, you know, like belly button piercings and those tattoos on girls lower backs?"

And, like a total idiot I just blurt out typical 'boy truism # 23 and # 24' which is that if you date a girl with these attributes the time from first conversation to complete sexual activity is decreased dramatically. (but stated much more crudely.) He literally puts his head in his hands and tells me "oh man, my daughter got the piercing and my wife got the tattoo, what does this mean?"

Then, in an even stupider response, I said, "I think you are safe unless they smoke too." and he groaned even louder.

I capped off this flurry of Faux's Pas by saying "oh man, don't take it too hard, just remember, good girl's go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere!"

[AzEaglesFan]

I can't stand needles either but did manage to get my ears pierced but nothing else. When my husband was 18 and in the Navy he got 3 tattoos, one of them has the name of his first "true love". For 47 years I have looked at his tattoo with Connie on it and thougt what the heck was he thinking but it has never really bothered me. I finally net Connie about 5 years ago and she is a nice lady. Does anyone know if any of the Eagles have tattoos??? I've never noticed any on their arms.

[bernie's bender]

Sweet, sweet Connie was doin' her act.....
She had the whole show and that's a natural fact

[Molly]

bernie, your story made me think of this:

Quite a few years ago a co-worker of mine, a very smartly dressed, quiet woman who is pretty much old enough to be my mother approached me at my desk and with a grin on her face asked me to guess what she did that past weekend.

When I said I couldn't guess, she proceeded to "whip out" one of her boobs and show me her new tatoo.

Once I had recovered from the shock-I started laughing. She was so proud and it seemed so out of character for her-it was totally hysterical.

I told her I was grateful that she didn't have anything pierced. Coz that, I absolutely didn't want to see!

[Brooke]

I like the belly button piercing on gals that are "in shape". I hate any other body piercings. eta: except ears!

ETA: bb and Molly your stories are hilarious!

[DonFan]

My daughter Rachel (who several of you know from the Eagles concert in Myrtle Beach) has two quarter-sized tattoos of a ying-yang and a peace sign, one on each wrist. She got them on her birthday when she was 20 and 21. While I'm not fond of them, it was her lip piercing that really sent me over the edge. Rachel is an honors student in college, bright, hard-working, and as nice as she can be--but that @#$% piercing just really irks me. Next fall she will be a senior in college so I am hoping she will finally tire of it when she graduates, because no matter how mainstream tattoos and piercing may have become, I still don't like them--and I'm afraid potential employers may not, either.

[sodascouts]

I'm with you on this subject, but she probably has nothing to fear about future employers as they are younger and in all probability have tats and piercings(covered)themselves. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many working in high places.

I don't know about that. Many places are still old-school about employees' physical appearance. For instance, one of my friends had to shave his very bushy "mountain man" beard in order to get a job as a documentation writer down South.

Especially in this economy, unless you've got so much going for you that you're a shoo-in regardless, the person with the piercings and tattoos will probably lose the job to another applicant with comparable qualifications who doesn't have the body art. Not ALWAYS, but most of the time - especially in the Midwest and South.

There's a reason it's a rule of thumb that you wear a suit/nice clothes to job interviews... to appear professional. The tattoos and the piercings don't broadcast "professional." Is it fair to the person with the tats, who might be a very good worker and just as professional (if not more so) than the next guy? Not in cases like Rachel's, but it's a reality in many industries nevertheless (again, not all, but many). This is especially true if your job will involve a lot of interactions with people outside of the company. Even if the CEO has tattoos, what he/she can do isn't necessarily what the new applicant on the bottom rung can do. Hypocritical but true.

I was once told a story about something that happened during Amelia Earhart's time as a professor at Purdue University. At that time, girls had to wear skirts to class, but Earhart wore pants. When some girls tried to emulate her, they got in trouble. When they pointed out the hypocrisy, they were told, "When you've flown solo across the Atlantic, you can wear pants." Times have changed, but the idea that the higher-ups have earned the right to break the rules while the lower-rung people have to stick to them remains.

Of course, Rachel's such a clever girl she'll probably be OK (say hi to her for me DF) and some companies/interviewers couldn't care less, but I'm speaking in generalities.

[DonFan]

Thanks for saying that about Rachel, Soda, but what you said is right on target. The higher-ups can have tattoos but the new hires usually cannot.

[Koala]

I revive this thread ,
I don't have a tattoo yet but I get one soon!I want stars, 2 large (which stand for my deceased grandparents) and small ones ( for my parents and my sister)!I think the tattoo should on the inside of my right wrist!