Rohr-shocker
Jun. 5th, 2008 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penfield"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
- Herman Melville
Tattoos are everywhere. I sometimes feel like the only person under the age of 35 without some kind of ink, and that includes toddlers.
I don't think I ever will get a tattoo, either. It's not that I don't like needles -- I don't mind needles. (But I don't think I'll ever get anything pierced, either. Why is it that self-mutilation is considered such a badge of coolness? Is it pseudo-religious? Does it have to do with pain tolerance? Are we going to get to the point where people are lopping off fingers and toes?)
Part of it is aesthetic; as a pretty hirsute guy, there are relatively few areas of persona real estate that wouldn't appear to be overgrown by weeds. And that is notwithstanding my overall lack of muscle tone. Also, I am self-aware and humble enough to recognize that my tastes can be mercurial; ten years ago I might have selected a verbal or visual reference to Seinfeld, a show I now consider sort of passe. And furthermore, I know my place in the street cred hierarchy: I am neither cool enough nor lame enough to pull off a tattoo with any kind of confidence.
All that said, I sometimes think about what I would have as a tattoo, if I were to have one. For a while I mused about having a UPC symbol (of a breakfast cereal perhaps, or possibly Ovaltine), until I read about it in a book and learned that it wasn't such an original idea. I've thought about going ultra-verbal, with the word "Word." in a typewriter-serif font, but there is too much room for a hip-hop misinterpretation. Homages to family are trite; foreign characters are common, abstract graphics lack character.
Yet I think I've figured it out. I don't ever plan on getting a tattoo, but if I do, I want a single word, written clearly but modestly on my bicep:
NONCONFORMIST
- Herman Melville
Tattoos are everywhere. I sometimes feel like the only person under the age of 35 without some kind of ink, and that includes toddlers.
I don't think I ever will get a tattoo, either. It's not that I don't like needles -- I don't mind needles. (But I don't think I'll ever get anything pierced, either. Why is it that self-mutilation is considered such a badge of coolness? Is it pseudo-religious? Does it have to do with pain tolerance? Are we going to get to the point where people are lopping off fingers and toes?)
Part of it is aesthetic; as a pretty hirsute guy, there are relatively few areas of persona real estate that wouldn't appear to be overgrown by weeds. And that is notwithstanding my overall lack of muscle tone. Also, I am self-aware and humble enough to recognize that my tastes can be mercurial; ten years ago I might have selected a verbal or visual reference to Seinfeld, a show I now consider sort of passe. And furthermore, I know my place in the street cred hierarchy: I am neither cool enough nor lame enough to pull off a tattoo with any kind of confidence.
All that said, I sometimes think about what I would have as a tattoo, if I were to have one. For a while I mused about having a UPC symbol (of a breakfast cereal perhaps, or possibly Ovaltine), until I read about it in a book and learned that it wasn't such an original idea. I've thought about going ultra-verbal, with the word "Word." in a typewriter-serif font, but there is too much room for a hip-hop misinterpretation. Homages to family are trite; foreign characters are common, abstract graphics lack character.
Yet I think I've figured it out. I don't ever plan on getting a tattoo, but if I do, I want a single word, written clearly but modestly on my bicep:
NONCONFORMIST
