I started watching this video and had to literally restrain myself from responding before it finished. Now this, this is a subject I can talk about, though let's not pretend I'm an expert. I've had five tattoos. All except one I've drawn myself. This one is also the one you would probably consider most conventionally regrettable. It may have come up at the Hubski meetup, it may not have. Here ya go. So! Once upon a time I was engaged. I was also not in a mentally sound state. Hypothesizing about this engagement would take an entire 'nother post full of text so we won't. Suffice to say I did not get married (and I do not regret that; I'd rather not have to shell out money on the divorce). However, when we were engaged we decided to get matching tattoos. Most people would expect me to regret this. But I don't. I view it as a life lesson emblazoned on my hand. It is a reminder of a time period in my life, a mistake that I made, and in addition, the fact that I am not yet ready to marry. If (and a big if) I ever get married, I will have the tattoo changed, probably filled in, to honor my change in status and partner. I actually like it and the way it looks - although sometimes I have to explain to people that I'm not married. SIDE NOTE. There is a small chance I'll lose the ring tattoo before I get married. The tattoo has been showing irritation, peeling, and cracking for some time now, which may be a sign of a slow rejection. It's not typical but also not unusual. We had to go to 4 different shops before we found one that would tattoo a ring - because shops generally like to guarantee their work for life, and ring tattoos generally like to fall out. It's interesting to observe. Now, the one that potentially had regrets - I have a Mandelbrot set on my right shoulder. I got it in March 2012. I was dead set on getting the tattoo and on going by myself and getting it by myself. I had a tattoo place picked out - it was where I had gotten my second tattoo, a place I'd really liked, an artist I'd really liked. Come the day I decided to get the tattoo, turns out the shop had moved an hour away. I was dead set and determined on getting the Mandelbrot that day, however. So I found a nearby place I'd wanted to check out and went there. It was sketch. Well, no, it wasn't sketch, exactly. But I could tell the experience wasn't ideal. The tattoo artist was unwilling to bring the color up to the line, which is a really simple thing for any tattoo artist to do. You should be able to color things in fully. His color blending wasn't great and he tried to recruit me to his Satanist group and told me all about how I'd love Big Bang Theory (I'm in the extreme anit-BBT camp, not that I advertised) while tattooing me. I found out later that that shop is known for not being good. Apparently that artist is also known for hitting on women who try to get tattooed there; at least I escaped that, right? Anyway, I got the Mandelbrot touched up earlier this year. It looks a lot better. There's more color and blending and it's up to the line and so on. I mean, it's clearly an artistic representation of a Mandelbrot and it's not what one might expect - I didn't get the interior of the Mandelbrot filled in, I left it as a window because I didn't like the idea of that much dark color on my arm - but it's what I envisioned and what I wanted. It also, sometimes, looks like a heart. I like that. Those are my potential tattoo regrets. I was 23 for the Mandelbrot and 20 for the ring (see guys? too young). I don't regret either. Besides, this video doesn't cover that fact but tattoo removal is expensive, painful, and not guaranteed to work. As an end note, I will share with you my favorite tattoo, both most original and most recent. This little guy is on my upper left back. b_b can see it on Instagram right after it was tattooed (and the rest of you that are on there, if you wish) (The other two are: an ohm on my left torso - ok breast - and an impossible four-bar on my lower back, which was my first tattoo at 19) Next: I think a typewriter, on the inside (near the crook) of my left-arm. I'm left-handed after all. But I am not in any rush.
I like the lantern fish! I'm sure that there are other people out there who like you, still get meaning from tattoos they've gotten at different points in their lives, even after those circumstances have changed for whatever reason. What's interesting to me about tattoos is that they're part of this class of objects that are totemic for personal reasons but that they make certain people so very uncomfortable. I suppose that the object is in the skin of the bearer, makes it more intimate in an obvious way that some might feel uncomfortable with seeing. And yet, people have similar objects in their bedrooms or homes or wherever and no one really gives it much thought. For example, for years I had a stethoscope hanging on a peg in my room, which my then-girlfriend asked about. She'd expected that I had it since I might have wanted to be a doctor at some point or other and so was curious about it. When I told her I had it because it was the stethoscope that had been used to pronounce my grandmother dead with, she became a bit uncomfortable with it.
Yes, my first though was that it was a hanklerfish (Hank Green likes anglerfishes too and has a funny song about them) I spend too much time on youtube...
I find this a little hilarious. On the serious side, I'm surprised you were able to wrangle that out of the doctor. It's also a nice (in my mind) piece of memorabilia. I was talking to someone about tattoos once and he said "I think we only live once and I should be able to have as much fun decorating my body as I want." I like that viewpoint. I love tattoos. Pretty fond of some piercings as well. I think they are a great way to personalize your skin. Some of my tattoos I thought about for years before I got them; the ohm, the impossible four-bar, the mandelbrot. There have been times in my life I have thought I wouldn't get any more. But now I realize, I do truly love them both on myself and on others and if I want more, I will. Thank you. I love the anglerfish. I don't believe in spirit animals but if I did, it would be mine. I have a big weakness for what mainstream folks might consider "ugly" - or grotesque. Recently I have also been fascinated by cuttlefish. I don't think I'll get one tattooed on me, though :)When I told her I had it because it was the stethoscope that had been used to pronounce my grandmother dead with, she became a bit uncomfortable with it.
I thought it funny too, but some cultures have deep seated beliefs in ghosts, the supernatural and power that can be imbued or remain in an object. <shrug> Oh, my grandmother didn't die in a hospital and I'm not even sure it was a doctor who pronounced her dead. Whoever it was, left the stethoscope in her room. I agree that decorating and modifying the way it looks, is a great pleasure in life. Personally, I don't care to do anything to my body that I can't easily undo. Plus I scar really easily, so if I do decide to get a tattoo, I would make certain that it's something I can at least live with until I don't. I guess if I got a bad enough scar I'd consider covering it up with something. It's funny you mention cuttlefish. I've seen more and more squid/octopus/Cthulhu tattoos lately.
You know the male anglerfish attaches onto the skin of the female (pictured in tattoo) with its teeth, and then over time their vasculature fuses together, and the two are no longer separable, all the male's nourishment coming directly from the female, the male reduced to an unautonomous sperm donor and nothing more? If that's your spirit, then yikes! I'm afraid. It is one of the coolest creatures in the whole animal kingdom, from its weird mating to the glowing lure on its forehead. It's one of those things that if it were made up in some fantasy story we'd role our eyes and say, "C'mon, be reasonable. Even for fantasy this is a but outlandish." The cuttlefish is another awesome creature with weird behavior. I hope you slowly cover yourself in tats of the world's most remarkable animals. That would be an amazing collection. May I suggest the whiptail lizard, all females who reproduce asexually, but only after simulating sex with another female.I love the anglerfish. I don't believe in spirit animals but if I did, it would be mine.
You really think I'd get a tattoo without researching it? shakes fist at you Yes of course I know this! You know that they find each other - well the males find the females - because they have absurdly advanced olfactory organs, and they literally smell their way to the female? I think what I find most cool about their mating process is that they fuse together on a - I think it is - molecullar level and share bloodstreams. It seems very Platonian to me. People have pointed out that it's also possible to interpret that I see males as parasites, but it's more like - man, that's something real and true. Whoever talks about penguins mating for life don't have SHIT on the anglerfish. Ah-ha! I shall read about the whiptail! There are so many things i find cool about cuttlefish. I wrote a poem about them recently (kind of about them). They start seeing before they hatch out of the egg. How weird would that be? Moreover, they - like the octopus - can camoflague themselves to their surroundings, but they are colorblind. So whatever they use to camoflague is some other sense that scientists haven't been able to figure out yet. The sea is full of fascinating, awesome, weird creatures. And again, part of what attracts me to the anglerfish is the fact that they are so conventionally "ugly." In a world where we often judge everything based off their appearance I am drawn to ugly things. Perhaps my tattoo is a warning to the predatory male :) Perhaps it is a symbol of how I feel inside. (Perhaps these are reading deep.) I agree that the bioluminscense is yet another fascinating factor about anglerfish. I also like to read about the honeybadger.
Last year I met a writer named Sy Montgomery on a flight to Chicago. She was on her way to Washington to do research on octopus mating behaviors. She's a great conversationalist and we talked about all kinds of things, particularly animals (which she primarily writes about). Anyway, she told me a bit about octopus intelligence and how they've been observed using tools and even building rudimentary structures, like entryways to crevices and little caves to protect themselves from predators. They're pretty damn cool. Here's something she wrote about octopuses (it's not cuttlefish, but same family)
I was just thinking that. But then, I've eaten dogs and I've eaten pigs and I've had both as pets. I wouldn't willingly eat my dog (or dog in general, again) or my pig (and I abstained from pork for a whole month, just to be on the safe side) or I guess my octopus (if I ever own one, unlikely as that may be). But yeah, eating intelligent animals is uncool, though not as uncool as a lot of other "acceptable" human behaviors.
Haha. Sorry. I should know better. You just strike me as the fiercely independent type. But I suppose everyone wants someone to stand by them for life. Anglerfish are a great example of how in the majority of species it's the female that is the strong, large, aggressive sex. We have a misconception of what it is to be a female, because among mammals (whose total species aren't very many--5,500 or so--while there are some 200,000 varieties of beetles, for example) males are so dominant. I wish this (well, biology and science, generally, for that matter) were taught more in school :/You really think I'd get a tattoo without researching it?
I cannot deny fiercely independent :) not in any way. But I would stop short of calling males parasites, which is where many go with that metaphor. I love many members of the fairer sex. Haha. Sometimes I feel like KB but the opposite, when he talked about how he realized he just loved women, as a gender/personality/whatever, and wanted to surround himself with beautiful, intelligent, clever women for his whole life. I don't love all men but there are some I greatly, greatly value. So really all I shy away from in the anglerfish parallels/metaphor is demoting men to mere parasites or leeches. I am not so radfemmy as all that.
I liked the fact they included the guy that was really into tattoos and was covering up his dragon tattoo not because he regrets having tattoos but because the art was not good enough for his standards. It's a whole other kind of "regret" that rarely gets mentioned.
Wow i JUST watched it on r/documentaries. It's interesting, but honestly if you are mindful of what you're getting I doubt you will regret it. I mean that girl in the documentary that regrets the tattoo with the typo? Well just don't make typos and all is good. I really want a tattoo but I guess i'll wait till I'm older to get one. It's never too late, after all my aunt got her first one for her 45th birthday.
Haha, you caught me! Yeah, I agree that mindfulness is a good thing to have while making a tattoo decision. I liked that this documentary highlighted the way that some young people getting tattoos have vs. how people who got tattoos at 18-early 20's felt about them later in life. I met a guy who planned to set up a tattoo removal shop to support himself in his old age and it does seem that with the prevalence of tattoos (and big ones), it's an industry that will continue to grow.
Yeah, true. I think it could be more balanced, for sure. I think with the subject of tattoos, which can be such an emotional investment, that it is a bit difficult to create an unbiased view, especially since people either have them or don't. I do think that this is worth a watch though.