Bad theology; stupid tattoo
From Kenyon Martin’s back, courtesy of ESPN:
It says, “Fear no man but God.” Does he mean to say that God is a man?
Tattoos are a bad idea. Here’s my theory for why they are in cultural ascendancy: their popularity skips every two generations. Because I was born in 1960, I had the opportunity to view the tattoos of male relatives who acquired these flesh ornaments while in World War II or the Korean War. But by that time, these men had aged, with gravity and diminished elasticity having had decades to work their dermatological mischief. So, the big patriotic American Bald Eagle embossed across my grandfather’s chest now sported wings that drooped as a consequence of his developing and wrinkling man-boobs. This immunized me from ever considering a tattoo. This present generation, however, has not had the benefit of having witnessed such aesthetic atrocities. But their children and grandchildren will get a glimpse of it soon enough. And then tattooing will lose its popularity, only to return again in the middle of the 21st century.
I never got a tattoo because my tastes change. I can hang a picture on the wall and if I get bored with it change it. Not so easy with a tattoo.
I personally find tattoos on women a real turn off. But that is me.
And I agree that trends in tattoos skip a few generations, but I disagree this current trend is in ascendacy. I think the ebb has already started. One of the biggest growth areas in plastic surgery is tattoo removal.
Joe, what I cannot grasp is how a woman like Angelina Jolie can mutilate her own beauty.
When I was younger-and in the service- i got tattoos. then I had a girlfriend who thought they were great, and now, 20 years later, with a wife and two young sons, I really wish I had never gotten the first one. I will try everything I can to talk people out of getting tattoos,and I really don’t think anyone gives thought to how they’ll look when they are older.
Frank, don’t even get me started.
My wife looks at girls in their twenties with piercing and tattoos, shakes her head and comments beauty is wasted on youth. My wife is a very beautiful woman, but she recognizes that there is a narrow window when women can walk into the room and make every guy’s head turn. Why some women try to speed up that process is beyond me.
I don’t know about the assumption that how a tattoo appears later should command whether one ought to get one or not…
I know many men who are quite proud of the insignia that adorn their bodies. One retired Navy Chief I know has a cross tattooed on each ear – one for each of the river-boats he commanded in Vietnam.
I don’t think he much cares whether we like them or not.
One of the agents I know has a tattoo of his brother’s face on his shoulder as a memorial and many of my co-workers, male and female, have their kids’ names tattooed on their upper arms. (There is a cultural dynamic here too since the practice of memorializing people with tattoos is perhaps most common in Hispanic culture.)
My point is only that you may give it a tsk, tsk, tsk, but your outsider’s view is no more valid for the claim that tattoos look different on a 20 year old arm than an a 60 year old arm.
I think the issue of tattoos has been addressed.
As for the “bad theology,” (not that I agree with the above man’s theology), is not one of the Roman Catholic Eucharistic prayers: “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”
I completely agree with your tat assessment. My dad is two generations *ago* so I think I inherited from him this tat disdain. Not that I judge! But I can’t imagine getting one myself.