I just returned from Boston Saturday. I’m from a big city (Chicagoland) and not shocked easily. HOWEVER: I saw a young man in the public library with his face tattooed all over (sort of like the KISS makeup). He couldn’t have been 30.
Later in the day I was in a meeting and a young man in attendance about the same age was covered on his whole upper body with a mountain scene. I had a glimpse as he removed his coat and his t-shirt lifted.
I am not a high control person, more libertarian than most. I don’t think regulation by the nanny state answers anything.
I’m not against the vanity tattoo (Mom on the upper arm, Butterfly on the butt, or an Anchor on Popeye’s bicep). I don’t want one but if you decide to do it I won’t stop you.
Like everything, moderation in all things, nothing to excess. These tattoos were excess. Way excess.
Do they have a right? Yes, or maybe not. Please read on.
A year ago a man was arrested in Europe for killing and eating another man (cannibalism) he had solicited on the Internet who had agreed to this activity. Did the man who was eaten (who had agreed to this) have the right to engage in this? He's still dead.
If a young man of 23 wanders into a clinic and asks a physician to cut off a finger, or hand (so they can be like Captain Hook or Luke Skywalker) and the doctor agrees, does that man have the right to do this?
If a young woman of the same age decides she would like to have an eyeball removed and a large jewel inserted in its place is that OK? Sort of the ultimate body piercing. Does she have that right?
Is the handicap in life from the disfiguring of the tattoos I saw OK??
(I haven’t described them well, your imaginations can’t reach what they are)
The idea they can get them removed is not practical. No existing method does it effectively. Makeup doesn’t work. People with these unbelievable tattoos will for the rest of their life be as handicapped as if they were blind in one eye or an arm or hand removed.
My core question is, is that OK? Isn’t there some responsibility on the part of the tattoo provider NOT do this; particularly if it’s a very young person? If the doctor in either of the above scenarios were to in fact poke out an eye or cut off a hand I imagine I could find a lawyer or two to bring them to court and win.
What about tattoos……………… You decide.
1 comment:
I think they will look pretty silly when they are 90 and the mountains have slipped into the valleys and the butt butterfly has slid down her thigh.
But, I think they look pretty silly on 20 year olds too.
It's our age.
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