(ThyBlackMan.com) Do we tattoo because we are seeking permanence? Do we tattoo because we are grappling for something that will adhere to solidarity and focus in our lives? Do we tattoo to be a part of an increasing community?
Why are we quick to “mark up” our bodies so randomly? Several of my friends who have tattoos actually considered what they were doing, while more of them did not.
I may very well be shooting an arrow into the dark, but I wonder a few things. Things like: Do we get tattoos because we do not understand the true value of our bodies? Think about it. Many of us will take care and make sure not to put 
any dings on our cars, but we will get a permanent mark on our body. At least on a car, the ding can be buffered out. Tattoos can be removed with laser surgery, but what a pricey cost to remove something that one was not born with. I mean really, my birth mark is enough for me. It actually looks like a butterfly. How nifty is that?!
Ladies? What point have we come to that it is okay to put a man’s name on our bodies? Does it prove a point? And if so, what does it say? That he will never leave me? That he loves me? That I love him? That if I put him here or there, then we will be bound forever? What does it mean? Does getting a man’s name on our body now replace the fact that because many men do not know what getting down on bended knee with a proposal and a ring in hand means, that we have started to compensate or attempt to make up for them not doing such? So, tattooing his name outwardly on our body is better? Is tattooing a new age form of marriage? “I mean the celebrities do it, so why shouldn’t we?”
Does having a tattoo of a flower make you more feminine, more sexual, more erotic, coyer, gentler, or more alluring? Is it supposed to empower? Empowerment, most definitely, can be fueled by exterior circumstances, but it comes from within.
An act that supposedly sets people apart because we come up with “oh-so original pieces” actually categorizes and creates a blending-in process. Tattoos used to be taboo and now they are the norm. So much that some companies and agencies have relaxed policies to ensure that they have people to work for them!
Does having a tattoo of my children’s name or their picture mean I am less likely to forget them? Are the natural tattoos of stretch marks not enough or the fond remembrances of life growing inside of me that faint that one has to get a tattoo?
And what gives with these teenaged young ladies getting tattoos? Do we not understand that we grow, change, and evolve ever so much from our teens to our early twenties to our mid-twenties to our late twenties, to that beautifully phenomenal age of 30? Why on earth would we do something so permanent if we fully understood our value and our worth? Why can we not on a large, immense scale encourage our young ladies to understand beauty and art according to inspirational, constructive messages and not degrading negative ones, like tattooing and body modification?
It is sad that many of the permanent things we do in our youth unforgivingly plague us in our adult lives when we are attempting to start a career, start a business, start a family, or start a new chapter not riddled with the permanence of yesterday—the temporary permanence of yesterdays that because the decisions were simply that—rash, now cause us to live lives reaping the fruit of seeds planted in haste, without consideration and reason.
Seriously, young ladies before getting a tattoo think about the permanence of it. Think about the longevity? Think about it. Right. Actually THINK. What is cute today could very well be foolish tomorrow.
Staff Writer; J.J. Vann
Find out more about this talented sister over at; JJ Divine Expressions.
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