I hear it all the time, either when I mention that I have four tattoos or someone sees a flash of my wrist or my lower back.
"Aren't you worried what they'll look like when you're old?"
"Why did a nice girl like you get tattoos?"
"Didn't that hurt?!"
I've come to realize that the objections boil down to a few important points that need addressing.
-We don't like to think about death or aging in American culture. If we could pickle ourselves in order to remain youthful looking, we probably would. Thus, tattoos will naturally defy gravity and show our age, which we just can't have.
-Women, especially, are supposed to remain ever youthful in order to a) catch a man, b) retain said man and c) pop out children and bounce back immediately. Getting tattoos means touching on the first point as well as the fact that we dared do something for ourselves, to mark ourselves irrevocably. How fucking dare we!? Our bodies don't exist for ourselves, but everyone else.
-Yes. In fact, I'm getting that tattooed on my forehead so I don't waste my breath answering stupid questions.
Yes, I'm female and yes, I dared take my body back and yes, I dealt with the pain.
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