Tattoos and the meaning.

Now before I start this I want to say a few things.

1 thanks to Dave for lending me the space on his blog to publish my opinions

2 this is not meant as personal to anyone and just my views.

Right now that’s out the way let me begin.

Anyone who knows me will know that im a huge fan of tattoos and the lifestyles and cultures that involve them. But I have a problem.

It seems to be more and more that people are getting a tattoo in order to say “Look I have a tattoo and im now officially original and no longer mainstream” This is BOLLOX!!!!!

Walking into a tattoo studio and just grabbing something that you have seen off the wall or getting the same tattoo that your favourite footballer or celebrity has does not make you mainstream it makes you a sheep, becoming part of the flock and having something that someone already has as it you think its going to make you into them?

I don’t think there has ever been a month where I have bought a tattoo magazine and not see the very generic Black Panther tattoo that you see on every tattoo shop wall around the world, and I have to be honest and if you know me will know how true this is but I hate them! There are 1000’s of variations of this tattoo but they are all the same no matter how different they are. (please note this is the tattoo I don’t like not the canvass).

It almost seems to be that now a Tattoo is a fashion statement and people don’t seem to look into the meaning or history of them, e.g. saw a guy in a bar in London that had the spider web tattoo on the elbow and also a tear drop tattoo under his eye, out of curiosity I asked him how many years he served (tear drops are normally a prison tattoo obtained when you have killed someone). He gave me a strange look and asked what I ment? After explaining the meaning of the tattoo his reply was “ I just thought it looked cool”

Im guessing the message of this is if you want a tattoo that’s cool, but make sure that it is a tattoo that has meaning and relevance to you. That’s assuming you’ve read this far and have not thought im mad man that just rants on.

Thanks for your time and big props to Big Dave for letting me hijack his blog.