Should You Get Rid of Your Old Tattoos?
My son keeps staring at the faded, badly rendered tattoos I got when I was in my teenage years, asking me why daddy has funny drawings on his skin. Maybe it’s time to get rid of them for good?
The tattoos I have were a product of teenage rebellion and aren’t something I give much thought to these days. I don’t look in the mirror much and months have gone by without me even noticing they’re there. It wasn’t until my two-year-old son clambered over me last week and paused to prod the fading ink on my ankle that I remembered I had them.
Teenage Rebellion
I admit I was a difficult teen. My parents were patient with me but must have been forever despairing at the weird body modifications I routinely came home from university proudly and loudly parading. First there was the lip piercing. Then, when they didn’t balk sufficiently at that, I stepped it up a notch to the septum. The bull’s nose vibe finally caused my dad to look slightly askance at me on the car ride home from the train station at the beginning of Summer break one year but the reaction was still not what I was looking for. So I stepped it up to tattoos.
My First Tattoo
I got my first tattoo in a grimy biker’s parlour in Weston-Super-Mare, my girlfriend at the time, Bryony, tagging along for support (she ended up getting one too). It was a traditional style ship on my calf, like something a 19th century seaman might have inked on him in some far away port. I loved it and couldn’t wait to show off to my mates (and piss the parents off, of course).
I loved it so much in fact, that I went on to get several more tattoos in quick succession; stars on my ankles, a Japanese-style hand proffering a lotus flower on my chest (that one HURT!). With each successive inking, I felt like I was gaining some new identity while bolstering my image as the guitarist and singer in the heavy metal band I was playing in at the time. If fact, my love for body art came directly from my obsession with heavy metal and punk which I have loved since I was probably 8 years old. Watching my heroes tearing up a festival stage with full sleeves made me want to do the same, while looking the rebellious, counter-culture part.
Getting Older
But then I got old. I got married, got a steady job. I “Sold out”. You’ve heard it all before. I now have two children, one of whom has started to question me on my body art. Of course, he’s none the wiser as to what they are and in his innocent, child-like way knows nothing of what they represent, nor what tattoos can connote in wider society. However, having children and necessarily moving my focus away from bearded, tattooed guitar wielding heavy metal madmen to spending every waking moment caring for and worrying about my energy-sapping offspring has made me look at my body ‘art’ in a new light.
The heavy metal life isn’t mine any more. I no longer aspire to that look nor to the lifestyle. As well as having kids, part of this is because here in Korea where I now live, public displays of body art are still fairly rare and it is very seldom you see someone on TV or in a movie with a tattoo. Couple this with the fact that in western media, the opposite seems to be happening, with every bloke and his dog on TV and social media now inked up to the eyeballs (literally in the case of a few rappers, who appear to enjoy inking children’s drawings on their cheeks and foreheads) and the satisfying feeling of rebellion and individuality associated with tattoos has evaporated as they’ve become totally mainstream. A combination of these factors has made my start to question my tattoos.
Final Thoughts
The question I have now then, is should I keep my tats as a reminder of my past self, or get rid of them in an expensive lasering process that will allow me to start afresh and look more like the person I feel I am today? Thoughts, please.
