[SHINY-J]

Tattoos are a VERY subjective thing... I'll be honest... Most of the time, I don't care for them..., however, I've seen some that I thought looked amazing! But, it was because they were perfectly drawn, perfectly placed, and on the amazing, sexy body of a young, fit, and attractive woman.

That, and they were a unique design and the perfect size... SO many things have to be PERFECT for a tattoo to look attractive to me... It's almost impossible to to that and make it look that way for your entire life... Trouble is, tattoos fade over time.... styles come and go....personal tastes and preferences come and go.... People age and muscle tone goes down... Wrinkles slowly appear later in life... More than that, People get carried away with it and end up getting multiple tattoos all over that don't really "mesh" together... Etc... Almost like a compulsion or an addiction as opposed to something they actually like or has a true meaning...

Plus, people don't seem to take into consideration that tattoos fade over time and you need to go in and have them touched up and gone over every couple of years... Otherwise, it does look lousy, cheap, and trashy...

Tattoos have been around forever, but they used to be much more taboo... It wasn't until around the early 90s that it crept into "mainstream" about the time of the "grunge" movement ...

I remember being a kid at that time that time living in a college town. the older college girls and guys began getting small ones on their ankles...or on their hip... or their shoulder... It was a "risqué" thing to do... But it was still easily covered up for when they were around family or applying for jobs after they graduated... Still being easily covered, it graduated to the bicep, belly, back of the neck, chest, pectoral, and the worldwide phenomenon known as the tramp stamp... People wanted to one up everyone else and just got more and more adventurous with where they put them.

Now, when I see people in that older age range today, they're into their 40s or 50s and they're typically ashamed of the tatto as its dated, faded, sagging, ... Some have zapped it off completely... Others have tattooed over it. I even ran into one mother that had 3 kids and ended up having a ton of excess stretched skins afterward... she got a tummy tuck and while she was excited to look thinner, she was more excited that the skin they excised also had a sunflower tattoo she had on her pelvis.. Now she didn't have to get it lasered off...

Go back to 1996 and watch "From Dusk til Dawn".... I was just a kid at the time, but I remember seeing George Clooney's sorta tribal tattoo that went from his wrist all the way up and all around the arm and shoulder and then even went into his pec and also back shoulder and continued up into his neck a little... Now, I know it would look dated today, but if you were around at that time, it was completely cool and unique! I wanted one so badly! But, go back to what I just said a sentence ago... "It would look dated today" ... How many "tribal" tattoos do you see today that just look terrible because there faded and on on the flabby arm of a douchebag who got old?

Preferences and styles change too often for something that's a so painful and expensive, not just to get, but also to maintain, and eventually remove...

To truly pull it off, you have to be OCD committed to making yourself a beautiful person with an amazing body all over-- and keep yourself appearing as young and as fit as possible for as long as possible - all while continuing to touch up your tattoo so it doesn't look faded... Almost more impossible, you've got to make sure that you chose a tattoo that looks as relevant, attractive, and stylish today as it did when you first got it..

It's just almost impossible to do that... So, that's why I never got one... It's simply high-maintenance, fad art on an aging canvas that's on a slow, inevitable road to decline.

I know, that's almost criminal to say something like that today as almost everyone has gotten one, but ive just seen WAY more bad, regrettable tattoos than tattoos that were cool and attractive... And I mean like for every one cool tattoo I've seen, I've seen 100 DREADFUL ones. Maybe even 1/200...

Right now, it's really the "mainstream" thing to do--- I know- I hate that phrasing too... But it's true... It's become so popular now, that it's almost getting got the point where you're the weird one if you DON'T have one... I hate to sound like a grandpa as I'm only in my 30s, But, I promise you... There will come a time when these people will look down at their arms, legs, back, etc and wish they hadn't gotten all of these tattoos...

In fact, for you members on here who are in college or early twenty-somethings looking for a career, I would think that a laser tattoo removal business would be something that you might look into... I've seen several posts on my Twitter and Facebook feeds from different people that have gone in and shown the before, during, and after pics and tweets as they update the slow disappearance of the tattoo with each visit when they go and get it zapped... I feel pretty confident that the demand for tattoo removals will be growing quickly pretty soon..