I have been busy of late, and so haven’t gotten to a plug of what my friend Steve Jeffery recently said about tattoos. But I am now in a position to remedy my shortcomings, and so here is the link. While I am at it, I shall also include a New Yorker cartoon for your edification.
Have 'Em Delivered
Write to the Editor
I particularly like Steve’s article. Freezing n time. Love it
When I was a senior in HS a friend wanted me to go with him to a tattoo shop so he could get some new ink. While there I browsed the tattoo designs and never felt inclined to get one despite the peer pressure. There was simply nothing that I saw that made me want to have it on my body until I die. I am now a volunteer fire fighter. I am also married and have 4 children. During my recent annual wildland fire refresher course we discussed and reviewed the after action report of the tragedy in Arizona… Read more »
The only thing I see wrong with the cartoon is that the message is so 1990s. The 2000s message should say, “Ask me about my need to be culturally relevant.”
– on a side note, I gave myself a tattoo in the late ’80s and it is a constant reminder of me when I was dead in my trespasses and yes, my parents were divorced.
Good thoughts on tatoos. I wonder is Steve Jeffery’s point is also true about our cultural obsession with image/branding and online identity. Individuals through facebook, twitter, etc. “create their brand” and then have to live up to the image they’ve built of themselves, which usually precludes the continual change and development that are part of growing and maturing as normal human beings. Just a thought.
I do not see the comment I made earlier. Did you delete it or did it not go through?
Hmm, could you comment on the suggestive nudity of the tattoo that you’ve now plastered on your blog?
Seth B.,
He could be making the point that all tattoos are suggestive of sexual aggression?
All tattoos cannot all be suggestive of sexual aggression, lol. In some cases they can very much be a case of that as well with trying to appease guilt or past hurts (like divorce). Steve is right with the permanence of the tattoo freezing the wearer into saying the same thing forever…that’s why the tattoo I got after I was saved is one declaring the date God rescued me from my sins. April 25, 1999
The urge to have a tattoo is a sacramental urge, a ritual which leaves one changed. It is an urge to have one’s body visibly identified and marked in a way consistent with deeply held ideals, convictions, emotions, experiences or relationships, and usually a combination of many or all of these. Getting a tattoo (at least, if you are sober and thinking things through ahead of time) is a decision which is usually tied to a past (recent or distant) event that you presently believe will go on defining you into the future. The desire to get a tattoo is… Read more »
@Kimberley: the Reformed theologian in me says that your tattoo should read, “Before the foundation of the world”. :)
Dan — Thanks. Those are helpful thoughts — they help me explain why I can’t get bent out of shape about my nephew’s tattoos. He couldn’t wear his wedding ring on duty, so he got his wife’s name tattooed on his ring finger. He’s the first in at least four generations in our family to have any kind of commitment to being a good father, so he got his sons’ names tattooed on his arms. He’s willing to honor his own dad, who was not a great father, and got a memorial tattoo for him. And I can’t bring myself… Read more »
@Moor LOL! You are right! I was chosen before the foundation of the world to be called forth! Praise God for that! When I got the tattoo I was a Baptist ;) Also, while we are called before the foundation we are saved within time. Your point is well taken though :)
I have on more than one occasion had my tattoo noticed by a stranger and been able to speak to God’s goodness in redeeming me!
@Valerie Praise God for His mercies for your nephew!