You know, as much as I want to agree, it feels a bit shallow to look at life that way. I've got tattoos, sometimes people ask me "What does this represent to you?" and honestly I never really know what to say because I don't overthink them. What I do remember is where I was, what I was doing, and my whole vibe back then. It's a cool reminder that nothing stays the same and that I'm a different person now. It's kind of like asking your grandpa the story behind a scar he has.

Now lately I feel like the speed on which trends are born and die, the non-stop over sharing, and that constant itch for "what's next" is really pushing us all to become these kind of formless blobs, scared to show any real "edges." For example:

- Cars all kinda look the same now and are mostly some shade of grey. Same deal with phones and pretty much all tech.

- Buying clothes with bland colors with almost no originality with the expectation that it will probably be in the bin the next season.

- The whole clean girl aesthetic on putting in a ton of effort to look like you put in zero effort.

- And don't get me started on how sad beige parenting is not a joke

You only live once, there's no scoreboard at the end. Just do what you want with your life. More often than you'd probably like to admit, nobody really cares that much anyway.

I got my tattoo when I was about half my current age. I wasn't too worried about not liking it later -- I'd wanted the idea for a few years, and I figured that it'd be a good memory if I changed later.

I didn't change later. I had another artist expand the design about ten years ago. And while it had some meaning when I got the first round, I've realized over time that it means a whole lot more to me as I've learned more about myself.

But when someone asks me what it means, I just shrug it off. I'm not sharing that kind of thing with people.

I am a disembodied text, you can tell me.

tell

I agree with you about overthinking, but the second half of your comment is very broad-brush. If you went back in time to any era of vehicles or other artistic objects, you'd find they all had a similar feel reminiscent of the era. There are plenty of cool modern cars/clothes/etc.! For example, look at Toyota with their wacky 3 cylinder turbo AWD Gazoo Racing Corolla or Hyundai with their angular Ioniq. I will say the arms race going on re: vehicle height/size is a pox on car design, kind of like sealed beam headlight requirements and afterthought add-on 5mph bumpers were a pox on car design in their respective eras.

Gray shift is real https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/j7yfqb/oc_...

That's a bit of a non sequitur and assumes white/black/gray = boring isn't it?

> Do you disagree with that?

100%. It's all about the entire package, of which color is only part. Aesthetics are always subjective, but, for example, the Ioniq I mentioned definitely (subjective :P) looks best in gray.

Do you disagree with that?

I recently bought my first car, Ioniq 6. Gray. It was used, no choice. I'd prefer a splash of color

I approach it the same way. My tattoos don't "mean" anything, and honestly I find the ones that have "meaning" to not be that great. My tattoos do remind me of where I was in my life. I also stick to American traditional style since they tend to age pretty well.

Yeah when people ask me what my tattoos mean I give the truthful answer - owls are cool as hell, I like the horror/skull aesthtic, gas masks look badass etc.

Not everything needs a deep meaning.

>> It's kind of like asking your grandpa the story behind a scar he has

I'm old enough to be a grandpa for many of the people here, I've got a lot of scars, and none of those scars are from going to a scar store, getting out my wallet, and saying, "hey! give me a cool scar, scar artist!".

The scars I have on my body are from moments in my life where everything went wildly fucking wrong. If you want that in your life, something is wrong with you, same as it was for me, and I don't what to tell you other than you don't have to pay money for it. You can get scar tissue for free.

I was a member of a group at church that was populated mostly by old retired White men. And many of them were veterans of various military services. They were not the kind of guy who tooted their own horns. They often struggled with various disabilities.

One fellow I was very close with, had served in Vietnam, and had significant pieces of shrapnel/flak embedded in his skull that they couldn't pick out. He sometimes had minor memory lapses and PTSD bad enough to require sleep medication, every night.

Another fellow was doing well and had a construction job still, but noticeable scarring all along his forearms. And he never made a big deal about it or anything, until once we were all gathered for a meal, and our pastor pointed out that this fellow had run back into a burning building to rescue someone and his arms were set on fire from that incident, and he sustained significant damage to them, but in the end it was indeed an act of heroism and unselfish bravery to save another human being.

It was very humbling to be given this new perspective on guys whom I barely knew. There is definitely a story behind every scar on someone's body. Some of those stories may be quite eye-opening!

The Monkey's Paw: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8rtxPmHTA&si=v607QuxDK11...

It’s much deeper than that, I think. The constant sharing actually prevents edges from forming in the first place.

People are simply less unique nowadays, full stop.

This is why I likely will never get a tattoo of any kind, other than the fact that I simply have no desire for one. Some people become themselves early in life, but I feel like I different person every year that goes by. I don't even like the kinds of clothes I used to wear not that long ago, so I know I would soon hate any tattoo I'd get.

It all depends. I got a couple of tattoos 20 years ago and I’m not that guy. But seeing those tattoos connects me to who I used to be, and even if I wouldn’t go get them now, I could never regret them.

It also helps that my tattoos are wholly original, i.e. not based on some trend, and that I chose the subject matter specifically because I didn’t think it was possible to hate it later on (a dinosaur and a 4d hypercube). Like, am I ever going to hate dinosaurs? I’ve loved them for 40ish years already.

I feel the same way about my self-inflicted scars. People who do not have one do not like to talk about it, but there can be beauty in them, in a way. It is kind of a taboo, I would say.

I got a ‘meaningful’ tattoo on my 18th birthday. I don’t fully relate to it with the same passion 20 years later. I still like it though for different reasons. It’s a snapshot of who I was and what I stood for when I got it. Tbh I don’t regret it at all and mostly forget I even have the thing. I think I’m lucky to have a mindset to appreciate that permanence, a lot of people end up regretting ‘meaningful’ tattoos once they lose their meaning.

I kind of want a tattoo because I'd like to know what it feels like to get one. I don't think I'll ever get one though. I have a hard enough time deciding what kind of art to hang on my walls.

You can get one that's only visible under UV light, but given the topic here it might be relevant to know that these are much harder to remove and also if they age they may become visible under normal light and/or stop fluoresced under UV light.

Don't believe the people who say it's not that bad

It hurts a ton. It bleeds a lot

It wasn't intolerable pain, but it's not "not that bad" either

Really depends on where you get it done. On your forearm? Not that bad. On your scalp? Hope you take a stick to bite down on while you get it done.

I'm 50 now and never got a tattoo; pretty happy because I'm not sure where I would have put it that hasn't bagged, sagged or disappeared.

I think for some people, at least myself, tattoos are a narrative, it's such a bizarre process, half art and half science, that each session, wether it was in a punk house with no electricity or an upscale art gallery on the other side of the world gets ingrained a little deeper. They're like little time machines, I can remember who I was, where I was, who I was with. And I'm guessing I'm in the minority here, but I can't stand the look of a fresh clean tattoo, the stick and poke in a dorm room, the 20 year old one done in a studio that wasn't too concerned with checking ids, the one that was done way too deep, in the dark, and healed into a puff sticker like scar consistency, that's what I love. I've considered a few times going in and getting some of my more visible ones removed, and the occasional must wear long sleeved shirt wins every time, no matter what I gain or lose, I like my garbage art time machines

I got inked twice before I made a commitment to my third tattoo on my wrist so it would be plainly visible. I committed to never working with or for someone who refused to hire a person because of something like a tattoo. Sometimes the commitment goes beyond the ink on the skin.

I'm not sure, in my experience, the older people I know with tats have exactly the personality that goes along with it.

None of the millennials I know who got tatted during the height of the fashion wave match the character* of being tattooed. And some of them really went all out. Truly amazing what the desire to conform to our tribe will make us do to ourselves.

(*statistically a drug addict, criminal or prostitute)

Maybe I shouldn't be telling on myself like this, but I think tattoos look really cool and the only reason I'm not getting one is because how many people look down on them.

I knew a man who had been in the Navy, in the Pacific, during WW2. Not many men of his generation had tattoos, but most of the ones who did were sailors, and he was no exception. Large tattoo on his forearm: a jester, with the hat and bells, like from a deck of cards.

I knew another man of that generation with a number tattooed on his wrist. He never talked about it.

I don’t regret or fancy my decade old tattoos.

They symbolize a past life to me basically, and that brings meaning and unique introspection to me in a way.

I don't have tattoos because I could never commit to having any specific image permanent on my skin. I have considered getting a public key tattooed though.

a qr code for your home page may be another option

A guy in jail once described his tattoos as “a permanent reminder of a temporary idea” and I found it insightful.

It depends on one's outlook. I know people who's attitude is both "boy that was a dumb tattoo to get at 18" and "dumb 18 year old me is still me, and I don't want to remove that tattoo any more that I want to remove that part of myself".

Obviously circumstances may change if the tattoo is offensive.

Your second perspective captures my personal take. I feel indifferent about the actual ink at this point. It’s more about a personal/symbolic mark of who I am, who I was, maybe who I’ll be - all the same person. No regrets.

"Nothing lasts forever, only change" --Genghis Khan

change is the only constant

except from vending machines

Some people get them as things they have done or experienced. In that sense it doesn't matter if they change in life because their story hasn't.

For many of us keeping a reference to not change/forget some things is a strategy not a mistake.

Yup, that's what all my tattoos are. They're markers of things I've done, experiences had, and mistakes made.

If when I get older and those memories mean less to me, the tattoos will become markers of who I was and what was once important to me. I could see myself getting some of them removed, but I don't think it's likely.

Because of the way my brain is, it's difficult for me to stay attached to the past. Having permanent marks on my body makes the past unforgettable, inescapable. I like to think it's made an improvement on the person I've become, but of course it's impossible to know.

The idea that your character is able to be quantized to a moment in time instead of the history of your life is bizarre to me.

For the vast majority of people who haven’t suffered some kind of brain damage, life is append only and the current state is completely dependent on the history. You have markers of your past good and bad decisions all over you.