The Great Tattoo Fallacy 

People who don’t have any tattoos yet hold strong opinions against people who do remind me of people who have never smoked but are highly critical of those who do.

I was a smoker for many years until I decided to quit back in 2005. I also happen to have two quite prominent tattoos. So I have been on the victim end in both these cases.

Now that the summer has kicked in, and my tattoos can be seen quite clearly even from a distance, I tend to get the occasional tattoo related comment from non-tattooed people.

“You have tattoos eh? Interesting… You know, I could consider doing a tattoo if someone was clever enough to invent a type of tattoo that is removable. The main negative thing  I find about tattoos is that they are permanent. I mean, what if you change you mind after you have them? You will be stuck with them forever!”

“What if the tattoos no longer look good on your skin when you become old?”

“Don’t you think that by having tattoos you will also encourage your children to have tattoos?”

“What if many people decide to have the same tattoo with you in the future? It will not look so unique or special, will it?”

First of all, permanence is the greatest fallacy of all time.

Today I may be alive and well, tapping the keys on my laptop, writing a blog about tattoos hoping to sound cool and to get more people interested in my blog-writing skills.

Tomorrow I may suddenly suffer from a stroke or a heart attack or be hit by a bus or get struck by a lightning or find out that I suffer from a rare disease and soon I may pass away. 

Get this:

Permanence is an i l l u s i o n .

I  s w e a r  to God…. if I manage to live a blessed and fulfilled life for as long as I can…I will consider each and every single tattoo on my body to be a blessing; to be a trophy, signifying the triumph of life over death. 

For me, a tattoo is an external reminder of an internal wound whose occurrence I purposively choose to remember; a personal reminder of a turbulent phase or life-changing experience I had to face at some point in my life.

A tattoo is not only decorative.

Tattooing is a  r i t e  o f  p a s s a g e;  a process that begins the moment you feel the urge to have a tattoo, of choosing a design that resonates with your state of being and ultimately the experience of feeling the needle pierce rapidly through your skin, with pain embellishing further the experience.

Permanence lies at the heart of the very reason for having a tattoo. 

I will have my third tattoo at some time during autumn. The third tattoo will mark the most difficult decision I have taken in my life.

The decision to leave behind everything that has been eating away my soul for many years now and to immerse in a journey of rebirth and complete self- transformation. 

What about you? What is your opinion regarding tattoos?