Born to do Math 133 – An Aside on Tattoos
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/08/22
[Beginning of recorded material]
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Why does everyone have a tattoo now?
Rick Rosner: People could only see mine when I posed for art classes. In the 30 years since I have gotten my tattoo, which is faded and blurry like an old sailor’s tattoo, people have nice, elaborate tattoos or not-so nice elaborate tattoos.
I have OCD about fitness. I am kind of a prick about it. I am a little bit judgy, even though I shouldn’t be I used to say, before I trained myself not to think shit like this so much, “If you are going to decorate your body, do some work to make your body worth decorating.”
It is a shitty thing to say. I trained myself to never say it, except now, and think this much less. We live in an era when people are chunky because food is cheap and delicious. Not because people are weak. Everyone is weak.
I am weak in a huge number of areas. People only have a limited amount of resistance to deliciousness. I probably shouldn’t eat Popeye’s fried chicken, but I found out that I like it. I think it is better than others, especially the tenders or the boneless wings.
Because they aren’t really that greasy. The chicken legs and thighs are greasy. But the wings and the tenders, I take three cholesterol blockers too. I have little resistance to Popeye’s chicken. Anyways, we should talk about why people get tattoos.
Jacobsen: Why did they get tattoos? Who do they get tattoos?
Rosner: You are making a correct point that people get tattoos for a different set of reasons now. Tattoos used to be – 40 years ago – a sign of badassedness, and not playing by the rules of society, and setting apart and not being able to take certain jobs because they wouldn’t allow a tattooed person get hired.
If you went to get hired at a bank and had a tattoo on your wrist, they would say, “No, you can’t be a teller or anything else here creepy tattoo weirdo.” Even in the military, you can’t have a tattoo past a certain line in your body.
If you are in a uniform that has short sleeves, I am not sure if you can have a tattoo past a certain line on your body. If you have a uniform with short sleeves, I am not sure you’re allowed to have tattoos poking out from under there.
If you join the military after getting tattooed up, I am not sure if they will turn you down. I think there is a social media or a sharing aspect to them. The same way people announce themselves on social media, what they like, who they are.
You can share what you’re into via your body. Also, there’s a chance that people want to mark or have a reminder of what they like. Maybe, they want to use their body to mark the passage of time by getting something that’s irreversible or only reversible with great effort and expense.
If you’re getting tattoos to mark the passage of time, don’t do it, because your will do it for you – for free. After having tattoos for 30 or 40 years, it will just make you sadder. Or you won’t care that they now look like shit.[End of recorded material]
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 