Tattoos

I never believed people when they used to say that tattoos are fucking addictive, but yea, it turns out they are. I got one when I was 18, and I've had the itch for another one since then. Not knowing what I wanted to get was what was holding me back (that and my mother saying she's going to throw me out if I get another one), but now I've got the idea for what I want.

Of course, tattoos seem to be a very polarizing subject. I hear a lot of people saying that they don't carry the stigma that they used to, that they aren't so much for the trailer park anymore as they are for lawyers and doctors and what not. Apparently, now it's "OK" to have tattoos, and that they aren't looked down on so much as they had been previously.

Personally, I don't like this. I got a tattoo because I didn't want to be like these boring old fucks, these cute little family men who practice law or some other reputable profession, all the while sporting their off-the-wall tribal armband, or maybe even a little sun on their shoulders. I've seen them come into the Garden Center, driving their Mercedes, skinny except for the gut that accompanies a desk job, wearing their tank tops to show off the colorful markings that shows that deep down inside, they're really a masculine, rebellious guy.

No, I want my tattoos, and I don't want them to become reputable and acceptable. I like when people look at me differently, when they think that I'm not exactly part of the main stream. The same look they give me for having tattoos is the same look they give me when I say "fuck" fifteen times in a sentence, or light a cigarette in a crowded place, or when I pull up next to them with Motorhead blaring out my truck (it is one of my greatest joys to see people scowl at me, then roll up their windows and put the air conditioning on so they don't have to hear the music). It's giving the world a big "fuck you" without even having to say anything.

So now the only thing that I can do is to just get more, and make them visible; the "professionals" haven't yet taken the stigma out of having ink where the whole world can see it every time they look at you. Some folks tell me that I have to watch where I get them, because, "You never know, you might work in a place where that's like, unprofessional or something, and then what are you gonna do?" Honestly, if they can't deal with a guy that has tattoos, something tells me that they're not going to be able to deal with a guy like me anyway. If they couldn't look past some ink on my arm, would I really want to work there anyway?

The next tattoo, minus that background: