So are tattoos a thing you love or hate? I suppose you could not have bothered to ask yourself the question. I must admit it was not on my list of priorities though if asked I think I would have taken the great big British compromise answer and said that a tattoo placed in a subtle position is okay.
The UK is alleged to be number one in the world for tattooed people. I have no idea how that is arrived at, is it numbers of people, square footage of skin or how many tattoo parlours? However my observations would suggest that the U.S. must come a close second. Here on Maui it appears that there are more folk with tattoos than without, of course in the Pacific Islands it's a cultural thing as well.
Once the province of sailors and soldiers they now adorn the beautiful and not so beautiful in almost every walk of life.
Not everyone accepts and embraces them. I was surprised to see the the London Metropolitan Chief of Police recently stated that he thought that police officers with visible tattoos reflected badly on the image of the Force.
In my career I have heard lots of Chiefs of Police take this attitude and at the same time heavily recruit from the military, because ex-military make good police officers.
Once a dictate came down from on high that officers with tattoos on their arms had to wear long sleeve shirts!
I'm surprised that in the 21st Century some employers are still expecting their employees to cover tattoos up.
Why am I going on about tattoos?
When I was cyber dating via Skype they came up, I posed the question, "Have you any tattoos?" A very coy reply ensued basically saying that we were not really on discussing tattoos and their location yet and in time all would be revealed. Of course that made me more interested, far more intriguing than a straight answer.
Fast forward to my Sweetheart’s arrival in Paris.
At the airport I had seen her for the first time in the flesh, so to speak. She was beautiful, radiant with striking blue eyes.........and this was after a "Red eye" flight from the U.S.
However we were quickly in the car and negotiating Paris traffic, definitely a time to keep ones eyes on the road!
Once on the Autoroute I could take a few quick looks to my right.
What's that I see just visible above the neck line of her sweater, (No I was not looking at her breasts)?
I do a double take, yes it's a tail of a scorpions tattoo. We;; blow me down she does have a tattoo, it's small and looks quite nice if not elegant.
So you do have a tattoo then, I said. I've got more than one she replied. So where are the others?
One on my lower back and another on my arm. Wow was my thought.
At the first rest stop I said let see these other tattoos. The one on the lower back looked good as did the scorpion, however the one on the arm raised my suspicions, it didn't look professional or classy. Were they real or henna?
She insisted they were real but when she said it there was always a twinkle in her eye which made me unsure.
After torturing her for a few hours the truth came out, her and her girlfriend had thought the idea of getting some transfers applied would be a good jolly jape to tease me with. I must say that it worked for sometime and a little bit of me was disappointed that the little red scorpion above her breast was not real.
There are a couple of twists to this tale:
One being that at a dinner party where she was meeting my friends for the first time, the Astrological birth signs became a topic of conversation. She declared that she was a interjected with I thought you were Scorpio as you have a scorpion tattoo. No I haven't was a little embarrassed reply. Of course my friends were intrigued as to whether she had a tattoo or not and what was the joke all about, them not being privy to it. For some the thought that my new girlfriend was a tattooed lady was, to say it mildly was a shock.
The other was that on my first visit to Maui I suggested that we get matching scorpion tattoos. Which we did.
That's when I found out that there is more to this tattoo lark than meets the eye. Firstly there is an art to it, the guy we used listened to what our thoughts were and then came up with a super design.
Secondly the positioning is important, we wanted ours hidden, private to us. Again we heeded the advice based on what we wanted and the least painful place.
Thirdly the cost. Tattoos are not cheap if done professionally.
They also need a lot of care for a couple of weeks after, no sea bathing, special soap and moisturiser.
We are very proud of our tattoos, however before you all rush off to the nearest tattoo shop.
Remember a tattoo is not just for Christmas (or any other religious holiday) it's for life!
