Tête-à-tête: Tattoos

Take ownership of your body

I’ve heard all of the criticisms before: “getting a tattoo will reduce your employability”, “it will look awful when you’re older”, even that, “it’s just unnatural!” However, tattoos these days are not uncommon – more people are opting to get inked and the negative attitudes towards them are becoming more and more outdated.

The notion that people who have tattoos are unemployable is entirely untrue. They have become much more socially acceptable over the years and employers are now much more open minded when it comes to an applicant with tattoos. The idea that a tattoo indicates irresponsibility – or whatever other attribute your mother tells you when trying to dissuade you from getting inked – is wholly outdated. Unless you’re applying for a position for which appearance is of the utmost importance (i.e. don’t get a full torso tattoo if you want to be a model) employers are more likely to be paying more attention to what’s on your CV.

Tattoos are a way for people to express themselves – they’re a form of art. Whilst many people might argue that you can express yourself without “destroying” your body, I’m a strong believer in self-ownership; it’s my body and if I want to have someone draw all over it then I will. Most people get tattoos that have a deep meaning to them; as a reminder of loved ones or a particularly significant time in their life. For so many people they are much more than just a ‘drawing’. Yes, there’s always going to be someone who got a camel inked on their big toe when they were in Maga, but to say that all tattoos are stupid is a gross generalisation.

Rebekah Holland

Don’t embarrass yourself

You are not David Beckham. When you see a sleek H&M poster of Golden Balls pushing his next range of underwear, with his arms and chest covered in neat ink, I would forgive you for thinking you could pull it off. But the strong likelihood is that you can’t, so please don’t kid yourselves. After having this conversation with numerous friends, it is clear that tattoos are an attractive prospect but are never fully thought through.

And the chances of them coming off how you want them to look is slim. Superstars spend thousands of pounds on ridiculously talented artists and spend months crafting the perfect looking print on their skin. This is way out of most people’s budget and timescale and so we settle for the guy on the high street who looks like he has done a good job on a friend of a friend, so he’ll do. No.

I understand the reasons behind it. Tattoos are brave expressions of body art that have deeply personal connotations for the person getting one. However, these days there is too much focus on image. What looks good, rather than what means more. So by all means, if you are serious about getting one and you have spent time and effort looking for a design and artist that gets it, then I have no qualms.

I am talking to those people that get the Chinese letter for ‘soup’ tattooed on their arse and claim it is ‘purity’. The people that upload pictures of their ink to Facebook expecting waves of likes. If you want to draw attention to yourself, do something more useful and less permanent. Because the chances are, when you sober/grow up, you will look down and ask yourself what possessed you to do something so expensively stupid. Save yourself that embarrassment.

Hiran Adhia