Mr. Sa might come for a home visit.

The tattoo in the article has one of the worst tattoos I've seen - classic :)

And ZOMG! 1.68 million hits for tattoo starter kit (even though I get 2.55 million for some reason). Daily Mail, how we love your fear-mongering brand of cancerous journalism.

Hey, "now" got a new definition and no one told me?

Is it Friday already?

tophergartman: I don't get the DIY distinction from tattoo equipment that has always been available.

Marketing. It's what differentiates a Slanket from a cardigan worn backwards.

2KanZam: 20 years later and I still have some ghost images of stuff that looks like I got in cell block K ("K" for Kindergarten)

I've still got "JUICE" and "COOKY" on the knuckles of my left and right hands, respectively.

The girl I babysit always insists on giving us matching temporary butterfly, shooting star, and rainbow unicorn tattoos.

They aren't THAT temporary though, which I always forget until I'm at the gym sweating it out and notice people smirking at me.

Firethorn: brap: They aren't THAT temporary though, which I always forget until I'm at the gym sweating it out and notice people smirking at me.

No idea if you're a guy or a gal, but I'll point out that haters are going to hate, and being wrapped around a little girl's finger isn't necessarily a bad thing at all.

I'd just smirk back.

I have no idea either.

I do just smirk back. I know jealousy when I see it, they just wish they were on Team Pretty Princess.

Tattoos are a personal choice. Get them or don't. Sure there's always some bad decision that the rest of us can clearly see looking in from the outside, but if that terrible looking tat that someone has makes them happy, who are you to judge?

As for the increase in people getting them, I doubt it's a reduction in the intelligence of the general populace. I'd say it's more along the lines of society in general become more liberal in its views and tattoos no longer existing solely in the domain of perceived scumbags.

CSB moment I know, but I just got a second tattoo this weekend just about 20 years after I got my first. I'm quite pleased with the new one and yeah, it probably won't look as spectacular when I'm 90, but both of them are on my upper arms/shoulders where they are going to look decent far longer than say my torso and are easily hidden from narrow minded folk.

There always will be some place of employment that would immediately turn you away if they knew you had a tattoo, but there's a pretty simple solution; don't work there. If they're that uptight about tattoos, it'll likely be a corporate nightmare of a job anyway. Likely the same kind of place that won't give your cv a second glance if you don't have a degree or certifications up the wazoo. Some of the most talented sysadmins I've worked with have looked like utter criminals, but I'd hire them in a second over some clean cut farkwit with an unrelated degree or meaningless certifications with little practical experience.

Short of it is, carve your own path through life and screw what the people so unhappy with their own lives that they have to tell you how to live yours have to say. We all get one shot at this folks and I'll be farked if I'll listen to what anyone has to say about how I should live it or look. So far, life's worked out just fine for me, tattoos and all.

/end of pontification