New Tattoo thread

[jebreject]

You ... don't? Shit.

Guys, I've made a terrible mistake.

[jebreject]

AH CURSE YOU PAGE BREAK

[clare]

:-)

What'd you get? Tears? no, wait! Your zipcode across the bridge of your nose!

[RoyBiggins]

So, I think I might get a tattoo of a two-headed snake, in a sort of ouroboros-looking circle, but the snakes are also biting each other.  It's part of this deck of tarot-looking cards that illustrate talismans against the sorts of things we all experience.  It is the one for "protection from self-sabotage."

Here's the original. I wouldn't get the squiggly lines around them, or the text.

http://78mirrors.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/portable-fortitude-ace-of-clubs.jpg

[mountmccabe]

I like it!

[dieblucasdie]

:-)

What'd you get? Tears? no, wait! Your zipcode across the bridge of your nose!

DRAKE

[Chet]

YOLO

[Em]

So been thinking about it and I'm pretty sure I'm ready for a yoga-related tattoo, which of course would be your typical OM symbol (yeah, I know, but I want it!). I'm gonna go for the traditional script. Any yogis out there see anything somehow sacrilegious or offensive about such a tattoo? Definitely keeping it above the waistline--back of the neck. I've seen people with it on their feet and you gotta think if they ever actually go to India that's gonna evoke some ire.

[Antero]

All love but if I saw that tattoo I would immediately assume you were an imbecile.  There HAS to be a better yoga-related tattoo you could get.

[Bernard]

when you assume

[fishjim]

when you assume

yep. nothing imbecilic about OM. sorry dude.

[Antero]

Nnnnno.  OM is cool as a religious symbol.  OM as a tattoo screams Orientalism.  If you have to ask whether or not it would be offensive you are not in the demographic that can get away with it.

[elpollodiablo]

Gonna have to second AK on this one.

[Em]

To me it is a religious symbol. My practice is extremely devotional and my own personal religion definitely incorporates some of the old ways that that sound is associated with (and I know what I'm talking about and can read some Sanskrit). I don't see how it's different from a lay Christian getting a cross or sacred heart or whatever.

[peacocks]

In the sect I was raised in some people get tattoos of the phrase we chant in Sanskrit and I've always thought that was kinda tacky but it doesn't make me like or respect them less as people.

[Greg Nog]

I don't see how it's different from a lay Christian getting a cross or sacred heart or whatever.

I think that's a terrible idea too, but then, I'm coming from more of a Matthew 6:5 perspective on that than an orientalist one.

[elpollodiablo]

I guess ultimately if it's significant for you and reflects some deeply-held conviction, go for it, but there's no reason to expect that people won't judge you out of hand and maybe to a slightly more contemptuous degree than if you were just some jabroni with a kanji tat.

Which, y'know, having no tattoos myself I can't speak to how much the judgment of others plays into one's pre-tattoo considerations. It would play extremely heavily into mine, but I'm self-conscious as fuck and, again, have no tattoos.

[jebreject]

some jabroni with a kanji tat

Don't be like me and get a tattoo when you're freshly 18 years old and you don't have any idea what you actually would want on the body for the rest of your life but someone else offered to pay for it

Is all I have to say about kanji tats

[Em]

Which, y'know, having no tattoos myself I can't speak to how much the judgment of others plays into one's pre-tattoo considerations. It would play extremely heavily into mine, but I'm self-conscious as fuck and, again, have no tattoos.

Well I guess I just didn't know some people were so frickin' judgy. If I saw someone with an OM tat I would think, gee, I wonder why they have that OM tat and what it means to them, just like I would wonder about someone's band tat or any tat really. I suppose I'll consult another one of my teachers (already got the go-ahead from one of them) and see what they say, and if it's all clear I'll go for it and hope more people are like me than like you! (Sorry to be touchy, but being called an "imbecile" [and yes, I realize it wasn't you who said that] for wanting to mark something deeply meaningful to me stung a bit.)

[elpollodiablo]

In all frankness, there's a certain amount of reflexive judgment on my part when it comes to *any* tattoo. As someone who will (likely) never have one, it just seems rather strange and alien to me, which I'll readily admit is a shitty attitude and one I've at least tried to reflect on over the years if not actually change. There are some beautiful, amazing tattoos out there, and LPTJers especially have some extremely awesome ones, but then there's the other 95% which make me seriously question the tattooee's good judgment. But judgmental assholes abound for every conceivable act of self-expression, so you just gotta ask yourself how much you care, I guess.

[elpollodiablo]

in b4 Tatooine joke

[Em]

Okay, the amount I care is not one whit unless a teacher I respect says it's a no-no. So that's settled. Thanks guys.

[peacocks]

I think that is a fine amount.

[elpollodiablo]

I, on the other hand, only care about what one Whit thinks

[jebreject]

I'm going to wager that he's in favor of any tattoo that's meaningful to you personally, even if someone else might find it dumb