Monday, December 10, 2007
Tattoos leave more than just a permanent mark
By Pamela Bryant, [X]press Online
In a city such as San Francisco, tattoos have become the norm, and I’m not talking about within the Hells Angels. Your waiter at a five star restaurant has full sleeves; your dentist has a little flower on her ankle; your DAD has your mom’s name in cursive on his neck. Ok, I’m just kidding about that last one, but tattoos today, are barely glanced at as different as we’re approaching 2008. Or are they?
In my Ethical Issues in Journalism class last Tuesday, my teacher, whom I greatly respect and adore, made a reference to how his generation paved the way for change regarding appearance in the work place. He brought up how people with tattoos are getting the jobs their parents complained they would never get due to their appearance. Yet, when he reminisced about a time when he sent a disgruntled letter to an organization, he made a joke about attaching a picture of someone covered in tattoos to give it a menacing intent.
That got me thinking about how a large, urban city such as San Francisco or Manhattan contains only a small percentage of the remaining “judgmental” human race. And it would seem this minuscule portion is immune or desensitized to the stigmatisms that accompany tattoos.
When traveling home to visit my parents this past Thanksgiving, in the lovely, yet astoundingly slow city of Davis, I noticed people staring at me, and not in that, “oh, her outfit is so cute,” way. People in a location just shy of two hours from the city I call home, were making presumptions about me because of a few tattoos. My father himself refers to me as an “inmate,” despite his being in the military, where traditional sailor-type tattoos were the norm. He of course never embarked down that path, since only “gang members, prisoners, and people with low IQs would be dumb enough to do it.”
I also recall one of my friends making a statement that she later recanted, due to my open mouth reaction. She stated that she would feel more comfortable having a doctor with no tattoos, than one who had them. I asked her how the two differ, if they both received their medical licenses, and completed the same lengthy duration of time in college. She was silent.
I started researching tattoos and came across a CNN video clip of a couple who were refused housing, based on the amount of tattoos the husband had. The building actually has a no tattoos policy that did not violate the fair housing act. How is this legal?! Don’t get me wrong; I am not referring to obviously disturbed individuals with swastikas tattooed on their foreheads. There are extremes to every culture and lifestyle. But this was a couple that wasn’t even given a chance to be good or bad tenants based on their affinity for art.
As biased as I am due to my own personal admiration for tattoos, it still baffles my mind that people view others (myself included) with dissent. Can you really look at my tattoo of a teddy bear and think I rob banks or worship Satan? The negative connotation that comes with having permanent ink has made no hint of leaving, and as much as it saddens me, I have to admit, I myself, am just like them. I make my own judgments of others based on their outward appearance and just because it’s not a tattoo, doesn’t make it any better. People will always make judgments of others based on anything and everything and there’s nothing you or I can do about it, except maybe get a tattoo on your neck (or other highly visible place) that says, “STOP JUDGING ME.”
In a city such as San Francisco, tattoos have become the norm, and I’m not talking about within the Hells Angels. Your waiter at a five star restaurant has full sleeves; your dentist has a little flower on her ankle; your DAD has your mom’s name in cursive on his neck. Ok, I’m just kidding about that last one, but tattoos today, are barely glanced at as different as we’re approaching 2008. Or are they?
In my Ethical Issues in Journalism class last Tuesday, my teacher, whom I greatly respect and adore, made a reference to how his generation paved the way for change regarding appearance in the work place. He brought up how people with tattoos are getting the jobs their parents complained they would never get due to their appearance. Yet, when he reminisced about a time when he sent a disgruntled letter to an organization, he made a joke about attaching a picture of someone covered in tattoos to give it a menacing intent.
That got me thinking about how a large, urban city such as San Francisco or Manhattan contains only a small percentage of the remaining “judgmental” human race. And it would seem this minuscule portion is immune or desensitized to the stigmatisms that accompany tattoos.
When traveling home to visit my parents this past Thanksgiving, in the lovely, yet astoundingly slow city of Davis, I noticed people staring at me, and not in that, “oh, her outfit is so cute,” way. People in a location just shy of two hours from the city I call home, were making presumptions about me because of a few tattoos. My father himself refers to me as an “inmate,” despite his being in the military, where traditional sailor-type tattoos were the norm. He of course never embarked down that path, since only “gang members, prisoners, and people with low IQs would be dumb enough to do it.”
I also recall one of my friends making a statement that she later recanted, due to my open mouth reaction. She stated that she would feel more comfortable having a doctor with no tattoos, than one who had them. I asked her how the two differ, if they both received their medical licenses, and completed the same lengthy duration of time in college. She was silent.
I started researching tattoos and came across a CNN video clip of a couple who were refused housing, based on the amount of tattoos the husband had. The building actually has a no tattoos policy that did not violate the fair housing act. How is this legal?! Don’t get me wrong; I am not referring to obviously disturbed individuals with swastikas tattooed on their foreheads. There are extremes to every culture and lifestyle. But this was a couple that wasn’t even given a chance to be good or bad tenants based on their affinity for art.
As biased as I am due to my own personal admiration for tattoos, it still baffles my mind that people view others (myself included) with dissent. Can you really look at my tattoo of a teddy bear and think I rob banks or worship Satan? The negative connotation that comes with having permanent ink has made no hint of leaving, and as much as it saddens me, I have to admit, I myself, am just like them. I make my own judgments of others based on their outward appearance and just because it’s not a tattoo, doesn’t make it any better. People will always make judgments of others based on anything and everything and there’s nothing you or I can do about it, except maybe get a tattoo on your neck (or other highly visible place) that says, “STOP JUDGING ME.”
# posted by [X]press Staff @ 4:30 PM 
