Our Kids' Tattoos

"well, if it's ok for mommy, then why can't I get one?"

My kid is a married mother herself. The "tasteful" small rose on her ankle she got in college I still find distasteful whenever I see it. Not only the idea of scribbling on one's own skin like washroom graffiti but the fact that it's bad art and trite as well!

All the teenagers in our family swore off tattoos after we visited a nude beach in the Caribbean and they saw the vivid effects of aging on "body art". No nagging needed.

I'm heavily tattooed... got "sleeved" between 1976 and 1979. Emigrated to Israel at the start of 1980, and spent the next 25 years answering people's questions about my "ink".

My daughters grew-up hearing (in retrospect, perhaps too much) about what I had to endure as a tattooed person in Israel. When Shira (my older one) turned 18, the first thing she said was "Daddy, I want to get a tattoo."

"WTF?! Didn't you listen to a word I said all these years?!"

"Yes, but I still want one."

I had to search Tel-Aviv for a tattoo shop which (a) was hygienic, (b) did good work, and (c) within her price-range. Found one, took her, sat with her while she chose one, returned with her a few days later and waited while she got it. She paid for it.

Kids' tattoos? Please. Pick something of meaning as your battle-ground, line-in-the-sand, or whatever you think you must do; but tattoos? Small change, and if there will be a problem later on, it'll be *their* problem, not yours. Life's too short.

If I had a child, or when I do, they will have good reason not to get one - myself as the example that you can be cool and not ever NEED one.

The comment I hear most often about Tattoos is that it's a sign of non-conformity, and individualism. In actuality, I find it the most conforming attribute that followers of non-conformity and individualism have in common.

I have had my chances, but I am very glad that I never got a tattoo. What I now discover as a non-tattooed person, I'm the real example of non-conformity, because no tattoo for me says: Don't need one to fit in!

However for many parents, they lack the skills and discipline of their children, because they all gave up on it, or so it seems to me, in hopes of creating a kinder, gentler kid.

Whatever - discipline worked for us right?!

What might still work for those parents that have the guts to confront their CHILDREN, is the word "NO".

The only thing I taught my kids was: A tattoo is forever so don't get your girlfriend's name tattooed on your body because she may not be your girlfriend 20 years from now.

My son and granddaughter who are both in the music industry are probably the only two musicians without a tattoo. My granddaughter loves the temporary tattoos and wears them much of the time. She is smart enough to know that what she likes today will probably not be what she wants tomorrow. I have a feeling that when she becomes an adult, she will probably sport a couple of tats. I have no moral stance against them. My only concern is that when you tire of them, they don't go away.

For myself, I am a chameleon. I become whatever I want to be without permanent change to my skin. My artifice is acting and a tattoo is like a label, ruling out certain roles and pointing toward others.

The most important facet of me is that nobody can improve me but me. Tats don't add to my mystique or my manliness or even my soft feminine side. Some people, I believe, get tatted because all their friends are doing it. Some people take drugs for that same reason.

There are three kinds of people in the world: People who follow the leader, people who lead and people who are pathfinders. I am of the third category. If I were to get a tattoo, it would have to be something I design for myself and I am no artist so I am not able to join the club. Anyway, I'm like Groucho Marx: I would never join a club that would have me for a member!

My wife has a small butterfly on her left foot. It's OK but really not my thing not adding anything to her longer slender lovely foot which as a retired "Shoe Dog" was one of the many things that attracted me to her when we met upon her coming to my store where I waited in her.