These days tattoos are everywhere. All the kids are getting them and ever a good number of grandma’s are jumping on the ink n’ needle train. And I think that’s splendid. I love tattoos! I really do. I have 9 at the time of writing this and I’m working on a new piece with a friend of mine this week which will hopefully make it to an epidermis near you soon. But why do people get tattoos?
Sometimes a tattoo comes from a desire to be accepted by your peers, to seem ‘cool’ or to impress people you respect or long for the approval of. Other people get tatted for the opposite reasons. Tattoos can be a means to rebel. It can be an act of rebellion against a person who has hurt them or an authority someone might desperately be trying to prove they are their own person too. For many it could be an act of love. A friend of mine just got her boyfriend’s name tattooed on her. Eminem has a picture of his daughter on his arm. All of these reasons are centered on other people. Tattoos are one of the many things people do to change themselves to respond the social environment around them.
These factors all seem to interplay with one another all the time. 
Sometimes a tattoo could begin as an act of love and develop into an act of rebellion. Think of Johnny Depp’s “Wino Forever” forever tattoo. It was originally “Winona Forever” but he had it altered to reflect the changed dynamics of their relationship. My friend who got her boyfriend first asked the tattoo artist if she could get it covered up it the guy proved himself to be an ass.
Personally a tattoo is something that is influenced by all the above in some ways. My own tattoos certainly find their origins in the people in my life, and a desire to communicate with the world around me in one of the most powerful languages we have available today.
A tattoo shows devotion that simple words can’t. It is a silent scream that tell the world this is what I am about, and grabs the attention of all around you in a potent way. I am shocked at how many times I am stopped by complete strangers and asked what my tattoos mean.
To be continued….
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