Plainskins say the darndest things...

[sarahmohawk]

A crazy old dude came up to me in the street a few weeks ago, he was pointing out his wrist to me. He had a tattoo on the top of his arm and so do I, so I started showing mine thinking he was looking to talk tattoos. Turns out he was just trying to do the universal signifier for 'do you have the time'.

I guess Decoratedskins say the darndest things too. Haha.

[Suiren]

I was recently asked if my tattoos are real tattoos...by someone who sees me once a week. Was she thinking I draw them on every friday? ;)

I guess it says something about my style of tattoos though :p

[beez]

Maybe it's because I live in the PNW, where people are either a) pretty laid back and progressive or b) too pass-agg to tell you what they think directly...?

LOLOLOLOL option b is killing me. I too live in the PNW. You nailed that one on the head. ROFL

[Hospitelli]

I had visited family I had not seen in about 7 years or so and around that time I did not have any tattoos. It was a bit of a shock to say the least for them and to which my Uncle belted out this gem " You do know that you are not japanese, right?"

[ClintonStitch]

Nearly a year ago I moved away from the City to start a new job in quite a small Town in a fairly rural area, there are a few shops around here but most are pretty poor quality and most of the work you see is black and grey "Footballer Sleeves", Tribal and really tacky "girly" tattoo's with little to no Colourful Traditional or Japanese work on show.

Anyway since starting my new job and until last month I've managed to keep my arms covered up by wearing long sleeves, not that I am hiding anything but it's generally how I dress when I work. I also like to keep my private life to myself at work and knuckle down at so getting Tattooed had never really came up in conversation. Recently though the weather has improved a lot so a few weeks ago I went to work with a short sleeve shirt and some of the reactions and questions were priceless.

"Do you keep getting them touched up? My cousin got Tattooed a few weeks ago and the colour has already faded and your Tattoo's are older and still so bright!"

"Those snakes and wolf are they some sort of Hells Angel thing?"

"That Indian Girl on your arm what does she represent?"

Then came the awkward moment when one guy showed me his really shitty tattoo on his leg telling me I should go see his Tattooer and that he would do me a good price If I mentioned him, as usual I politely told him I'd check him out and that his Tattoo's were real nice.

[polliwog]

I really, really don't enjoy being asked to participate in conversations that begin with "so I just bought a tattoo gun online."

[bongsau]

my 7yo nephew:

"Uncle Eric, why do you have a Chinese guy on your back?"

"Uncle Eric, do you have a tattoo on your bum?"

"Uncle Eric, I'm gonna get a tattoo like you. Like a Metal Mulisha tattoo. Or maybe Fox Racing."

...don't worry kiddo, Uncle Eric will set you straight when you're old enough ;)

[The Tig]

I really, really don't enjoy being asked to participate in conversations that begin with "so I just bought a tattoo gun online."

Yikes!

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I remember talking about tattoos 15 years ago at my Dad's house. He has an old one on his shoulder from the navy, circa 1954. My wife just got a small traditional rose (her deceased mother's name was "Rose") and I already had two. My conservative brother then blurts out, "Only bikers and whores have tattoos."

You could hear a pin drop.

My wife was about to jump his shit when I jump in and say, "Well, it looks like we'll need to buy you a Harley since you sure aren't a whore." I gave him the stink eye. My sister even came to her rescue saying, "I have eye liner tattooed to my eyelids and I'm no whore." My brother backed down and stayed that way. Dick move was called out.

[SeeSea]

@The Tig - lemmee get this - your brother all but called your wife a whore and all you gave him was stink-eye?

[The Tig]

@The Tig - lemmee get this - your brother all but called your wife a whore and all you gave him was stink-eye?

Yeah, it was a generalized statement that he suddenly realized was actually shit hitting the fan. I was more focused on keeping her from exploding and kicking his ass (she grew up in South Jersey in a racially mixed neighborhood during the civil rights riots and can still handle herself). The family did what it took to moderate the situation instead of escalate it. Each family has it's fucked up chemistry and mine is no different. Fast forward... I no longer spend much time with them for several similar reasons.

[Mushu]

Went to the hospital on monday for my weekly blood test (under cancer treatment, so i'm followed by my doctors very often) and the nurse, who was maybe in her late 50s, just went on about how she loves "it", being my full sleeve. Grabbing my arm, twisting it in all directions, trying to lift the sleeve of my shirt all the way up or my collar down to see where it goes.

I was just sitting there playing the rag doll.

Understand me, SHE's the one with the needle.

Pretty shitty monday nontheless.

[AverageJer]

best of luck with your treatment.

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best of luck with your treatment @Mushu

Seeing this thread pop up reminded me that my dad excitedly told me one of my tattoos was starting to fade. He kind of had an "I told you so quality" in his voice that both myself and my wife picked up on.

Sorry dad, my skin is just a little dry. One quick application of lotion and the tattoo I got last summer in Japan still looks amazing.

[Mushu]

best of luck with your treatment.

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best of luck with your treatment @Mushu

Seeing this thread pop up reminded me that my dad excitedly told me one of my tattoos was starting to fade. He kind of had an "I told you so quality" in his voice that both myself and my wife picked up on.

Sorry dad, my skin is just a little dry. One quick application of lotion and the tattoo I got last summer in Japan still looks amazing.

Had the same thing happens this summer from my mom and my gf ( at the same time), working outside all days I made sure to have something on my arm all the time ( i used a long sock with the end cut) just put a bit of lotion on and suddenly they had no words.

*Thanks for the good words :)

[Colored Guy]

I'm at my machine shop job this evening and a part time programmer stops in to check on a job we're running. He's seen me in a sleeveless shirt before but stops and says, "geeezzzz.. you have a lot of tattoos".. no kidding.

I wonder what's up.. and out it comes. He has 2 daughters, age 16 and close to 18 and they're both dying for their first tattoo. Of course he and his wife say to wait until the girls are 18.. but his wife now wants to get one. So he's in a bit of a bind. He's no fan of the art form.

He asks me if I have any regrets, I say no. I have no problem, but the rest of the world might. I just told him not to make that big of a deal out of it... teen girls... can be quite rebellious. And once they don't need permission, they're gonna do what they're gonna do. I advised him to talk to them about going to a reputable shop when the time comes and avoid "artists" who work out of the kitchen while the parents are at work.

[bongsau]

Contractor "What is all that shit? Spilling out of the collar eh. What did you get drunk a few times since we finished that last project?"

it was all jokes...but I get this often - equating tattoos to a foolish drunken mistake...yeah sure duh

[themonkeypaw]

One of my favorites from my brother.

"Is that the mark of the devil"

"No its a symbol from some hp Lovecraft fan art"

"Sounds like the mark of the devil to me" :cool:

[Colored Guy]

One of my favorites from my brother.

"Is that the mark of the devil"

"No its a symbol from some hp Lovecraft fan art"

"Sounds like the mark of the devil to me" :cool:

Your tattoos make noises? Cool....

[Guerillaneedles]

. My response :"If he is the perfect man, then he'd love my tattoos.".

I said the same thing to my dad many moons ago! When I got my second one he said 'hasn't the first one rubbed off yet.' more recently in a family WhatsApp conversation, after I'd posted my bird of Prey by Emily Wood, he said 'that's nice, but don't got think you've got enough now? My sister started laughing. I put him straight now, fact is I'm not going to stop getting tattooed anytime soon!

[bruceparker]

I've always gotten a lot of "ooooh let me touch it!" RIGHT after I got one done......um, no thank you.

[Guerillaneedles]

I've just been reminded of when is I'd just had my feet/ankles tattooed with beautiful birds and flowers and some guy walked past and said 'I thought you had mud on your legs' (they're actually super colourful). I just thought cheers mate, some pretty expensive mud!

[Kill Uncle]

Damn did this make me laugh !

I was at a wedding too last week, and a grown man, who managed to reach 35 years of age, with a family, asked me if I was working on my backpiece myself. From neck to knees. Full backpiece. Was I tattooing it on myself. I just told him I wasn't flexible enough to do that and left forever.

[ApprenticeLife]

I got a 3 hour Samoan tatau all the way around my knee this past weekend. The knee cap, the sides, the ditch... all of it. As I walked back to my convention booth, a lady stopped me to look at it. My knee looked like a bloody watermelon. She actually said, "Did you feel it?" I said, "What?" She replied, "I know some tattoos hurt, but could you even feel this kind of tattoo?" I told her that it felt like they were trying to cut my leg off... and hobbled away.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[LadySparrow]

They just don't know... A nurse was measuring my blood pressure, touched my skin and asked: would that wash off?

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[Devious6]

It's funny - something I'd not noticed with other people who work with me who are inked and perhaps I'm probably one of the last people they expected to get a tattoo (probably not too many college presidents sporting ink :cool:) - that people keep asking me to see my work and want to touch it. I think they truly believe it is fake and are waiting for the late April Fools joke.

[Ducky15568]

I was at a college party one night, hanging out with friends. Suddenly some dude walked up to me and said "you look stupid" and walked off. Later that night the same guy started telling me about how tattoos now a days are looked at the same as being black in the 1920's, After that, I told him to get lost and walked away. He then proceeded to tell me (almost yelling BTW) that "my parents didn't raise me like that, blah, blah, blah." at this point I was ready to leave. The last thing I said to the guy before leaving was that "my parents taught me to treat everyone with respect, I guess we were raised different."

Plainskins Say The Darndest Things.....