GORDON: Only a moron thinks that having class has anything to do with having money. How very Jersey Shore.

In really rural, poor areas, you get a lot of fundamentalist religions where people who aren't doing very well laying up riches on Earth do a real good job of convincing themselves of how much better they are than anybody else at laying up riches in Heaven.

They're lacking something, so that's their way of congratulating each other on how much better they are than all those other people around them--pretty much everybody who isn't them.

I generally find that the parts of having "class" that diverge the most from having kindness and compassion and showing courtesy and respect and hospitality----those parts of "class" tend to come from the same drive behind the muddy fundamentalist tent revivals. We're so much better than all those other people around us---than pretty much everybody who isn't us.

And of course, it can't be about money, because then any outsider could get in "the club" by acquiring money. And any insider could fall out of the club by losing it. So there has to be the intricate code of behavior and taste, so arcane that any outsider who wants to get into the "in" crowd has to do a lot of studying, mind a lot of p's and q's, and do a hell of a lot of ass-kissing to climb socially without getting smacked down too hard or too often for social climbing.

Class? It's mostly a socially formalized and ritualized system of hazing and bullying---wherever it diverges from compassion, kindness, hospitality, courtesy, and respect.

And those five attributes you can find just as readily on the blue collar side of town as on the white.

Remember that poster that hung on your wall back in college? You know why it's not longer there? Because it grew tired and lame, so you took it down and threw it away. Can't do the same thing with ink after you realize how stupid it looks. It's expensive and hurts to remove a tattoo.

My favorites are the douches who complete an Ironman triathlon and just can't wait to ink themselves with the M-dot tat. Love to attention whore and show off. "Look at me, I'm an Ironman!" Oh, the lulz.

Have ink of Thor and Jormungandr on my shoulder, so I'm getting a kick...

lordargent: [www.hobotraveler.com image 461x665]

// for me, a tattoo is just art, and like any piece of art, I judge it based on aesthetics. IE, I've seen some awesome pieces with good placement, and I've seen some ridiculously ugly shiat.

In short

Something like these two == cool to me.

[s2.favim.com image 640x513]
[4.bp.blogspot.com image 277x246]

But something like these two == lame to me.

[todayfash.com image 500x374]
[3.bp.blogspot.com image 600x899]

I actually really like that tree and birds.

MoronLessOff: fanbladesaresharp: ph0rk: crotchgrabber: People always say that it's only people without them that judge people with them, but it's only the inked that say that... Usually in a self righteous manner. No. I really don't care that you don't care. But, if you have the finger mustache tattoo I will wish a lawnmower accident on your hand. I will wish it so hard!

I don't really care that much as I am pretty far from the kind of stuffy work environment where tattoos matter, but anyone that has tattoos from the wrists out or the neck up just makes me think they have poor judgement.

Very poor judgement.

I know college professors and and a couple doctors I've met that have their wedding bands tattooed on their fingers. Was that poor judgement, or just you being judgemental?

Poor judgement.
*snert

Getting married or getting the tattoo?

/no regrets...yes, i am a nerd

kiwimoogle84: I would think someone from New Zealand would be more alert about this sort of thing, what with the drop bears and all.

Uh... Just because the word kiwi is in my name doesn't mean I'm from New Zealand. Kiwi and Moogle are two words never found together in the English language so my chosen screen name is always available.

Doesn't matter; drop bears hear "kiwi" and down they come, claws open. They can teleport; they speak an ancient incantation, then a wormhole opens up and they drop through. There were some terrifying incidents when kiwi fruit were first imported here; now we know to not speak the unholy name. Hey, I'm just looking out for you.

Today I saw a superannuated South Beach swinger boasting a tarantula on her right shoulder. Every time she hoisted her sippy cup to her lips the spider jiggled....

That wasn't necessarily a tattoo. Ever hear of spider veins?

HailRobonia: The main difference between people with tattoos and people without tattoos is that people with tattoos don't care that you don't have one.

Eh, not always. Used to hang out with a girl who would bug me about getting a tattoo to always remember her by. It was like I didn't really love her unless I got a tattoo for her, or something.

Tattoos are for losers, period.

As a heavily tattoo'd girl, all I really have to say on the subject is that I had one person in mind when I got these: me. I looked at myself in the mirror and didn't like what I saw, so I changed it. It's vapid. It's shallow, but no more so than any varying degrees of plastic surgery. I have a job that pays me well, and I do well at that job. People often ask me what I will feel about them when I am much older because they will indeed look like shiat. Well, we all age. We all get stretch marks, varicose veins, and saggy skin. The only difference is that I won't be able to see those veins, and those stretch marks. Me having tattoos has no ill effect on those around me, and it supports my nephew (his dad is my artist) through college.

I do have the advantage of living in an area that is open minded, but even still, when I was unemployed I dyed my hair a normal color, hid my tattoo's and found a job almost instantly. My skills and personal knowledge got me where I am today. Tattoo's are irrelevant when it comes down to it.

SkinnyHead: A tattoo is the mark of the lower class. It's doesn't matter whether your whole body is covered or you just got a tiny little butterfly that no one ever sees, you're still low class.

No thread is complete without deep thoughts from Fark's mouthbreathing community punching bag.

/father had a tattoo
//from the navy
///before the days of dog tags

MoronLessOff: 20/20: Well, I'm glad to see the tide is turning on this. I absolutely hate tattoos, especially on women.

Why would anybody get a tattoo on themselves that they can only see in a mirror?

I have one that I can only see in a mirror, but I like where it's at. My next will go on the opposite shoulder, and I'll only be able to see it in a mirror. But it's mine and it's for me. You don't have to like it.

Of course it's for you, but wouldn't you enjoy it more if you could see it more easily? I've got a lot of artwork on my walls, but none in the closets.

People who are listening to you explain the meaning behind your tattoos are nearly as interested as they are in your fantasy football team and that dream you had last night.

The clearest sign for me that someone needs the knowhowiknowyouregay.jpg is if a beautiful woman who has a tattoo throws themselves at them and they retch with disgust because "she's ruined her beauty with that horrid, whorish ink."

Someone who vehemently hates tattoos on women has something of a closeted Madonna/Whore complex going on. It's just ink! Look at it formally. It's a painting that is in continuous movement and is attached to a being who has an extraordinary realm of associations that enrich or drain the meaning of it on a regular basis.

I'd prefer to think of it as an exaggerated use of Leibniz's question," Why is there something rather than nothing?"

/people scared of that kind of question and how deep one can go down that rabbit hole can be scared of people with colored marks on them too, I suppose.

"personage" "moi" "yours truly"

author of TFA writes like he doesn't speak to real people that often. Which makes the fact that he has no tattoos unsurprising

Mawson of the Antarctic: The clearest sign for me that someone needs the knowhowiknowyouregay.jpg is if a beautiful woman who has a tattoo throws themselves at them and they retch with disgust because "she's ruined her beauty with that horrid, whorish ink."

Dramatization: stereotype may not exist.

Some chicks look freaking hot covered in ink.
And she's got a voice to match.
Link (new window)

I'd be more inclined to like tattoos if they didn't all turn into that gangrenous dark-green color after a while.

I got my tattoos almost two decades ago and i'm not even aware of them any more. People at work were talking and showing their tattoos, and it took me a few mins and i actually had to think 'do i have tattoos? omg yes, i have tattoos too!'

I used to think it was a fad that would pass rapidly. Now it can't. All those people with all that ink---their ink is there to stay.

At some point there will be a backlash movement of not getting ink.

Right now it's a little odd because so many people consider tats sexy, I don't have any, and I really don't want any. I've had to remind myself a time or two that it simply doesn't matter.

I dunno. It's possible that the trend towards tattoos may stay around long term, even intensify. It may just be that what kind of tattoos are stylish may change with the generations.

"Mom. I am not getting a tramp stamp. That is so lame. The purple butterfly has to go on my left hip. Geez, do you want me to look geriatric?"

MoronLessOff: It's practically a safe zone for LGBT, pro-marijuana and atheists. But bring up tattoos and suddenly everyone who has one is a mindless low-life dirt-bag whore.

No, we think that about atheists too.

It seems that tattoos used to have great meaning- that you were in the service, in a secret club, or were a degenerate criminal.

Now tattoos are just conformist, along with piercings and lame facial hair. It's like telling people that you're into 'blues' music. Totally non-threatening, but at the same time it gives the impression that you are not a total square.

/ nothing against blues btw

Having a tattoo of a wolf pawprint means I liked the image enough to have it permanently inked onto my body.

Someone once asked me "Does that hold any special significance for you?"

I was like "Naw, I just tattoo any old thing on my body, it's not like it's permanent..."

Because People in power are Stupid: s2s2s2: Because People in power are Stupid: [img.photobucket.com image 388x335]
This is on my neck.

Couldn't decide between Edward or Jacob, huh?

Who?

I have no idea. Some teenage girl that was looking over my shoulder said it all snarkily as I was browsing the thread. I was hoping you'd know.

Captain Howdy is not impressed.

VictoryCabal: Well my tattoo is deeply meaningful. All my frat brothers in my pledge class got matching Taz tattoos because the older brothers said we were the craziest pledge class they had ever seen. We'll be brothers for life after graduation, and you're just jealous that I'll have connections and networking opportunities all across the country that you'll be shut out of. That's what my tattoo means to me, and you can make your lower class jokes while my brothers are getting me an upper management position on Wall Street right out of school. Have fun being poor, I'll be rich with my tattoo.

To fortune 100 companies a degree means you are a trainable monkey.

You just don't have the life or real world experience to manage shiat right out of school, regardless of what industry you go into you need real world + life experience to be an effective leader.

This About That: If you are a pretty girl, having a tattoo means you have made a terrible mistake.

THIS! Women need no extra adornment. It's like drawing a mustache and glasses on the damn Mona Lisa.

Seriously, have you ever looked a beautiful naked woman and thought, "Meh, she looks nice I guess, but she could really use a couple of stars right above her ass."

I'm being tattooed right now so getting a kick outta this thread, etc. will post pic later. Ow tender inner arm part.

Well, considering that Queen Victoria, Lady Randolph Churchill, and the Empress Elizabeth of Austria all had tattoos then I am in excellent company.