Inking

Why…? Oh Why…?  I mean, Why…? would anyone get tattooed?  It’s trendy.  How pathetic is that.  It’s cool.  Ye gods. 

It’s mutilation.  That’s what it is.  Samoan men tattooed from thigh to buttock to waist… Simply unnecessary, aggressive and silly.  Women with butterflies and other stuff everywhere – it’s like bad graffiti on toilet walls. 

Maori facial tattoos, Maori women with moko.  Well, I don’t know what effect they think it has on me, but I am unimpressed, and find it all somewhat distasteful and tedious.

There are all manner of professional surveys and reports on tattooing, by dermatologists, sociologists and others.  I have read some of them.  But none of it alters the fact that tattooing means hacking into human skin, which is a major and essential organ of our bodies, injecting ink, and leaving permanent damage. 

It may look pretty.  Mostly it doesn’t.  But it is very difficult and costly to remove.  The removal is at best partial. 

And the reports show that most of the more perceptive who have ever, for whatever reason at the time, had tattoos, later profoundly regret it. 

I guess some people live in families, clans, hapu, where everyone is already tattooed.  It has become a rite of passage… and a big joke at some drunken party.  The main streets of provincial towns have grubby looking tattoo shops along with liquor outlets, loan agencies and social welfare depots. 

You may have the impression from this entry that I am opposed to tattoos.  You bet I am.  It’s silly, entirely unnecessary bodily mutilation, and it adds nothing to life.