The Appeal of Tattoos & Piercings?

9/10? Attention.

1/10? It means something deeply to the person who got it.

3/10 drunk

I'm too much of a wuss when it comes to needles to ever get a tattoo, but I do find them very attractive. I'm not entirely certain why, I just do.


SFW Example:

For me, I have no desire to decorate myself with anything I can't change later.
I have no ink, no piercings, no implants, nor any other body mods, and I have no plans to get any. I also don't take more medication than I absolutely need, figuring that overall I want to keep my body as close to "stock" as possible for as long as possible.
I presume the attraction is the same as for folks who landscape their yard, or trick out their car with lights/chrome/etc. Do you value the core or the accessories? It's a good question.

I put respect/honor tats in a separate category. I can appreciate the desire to honor an event with a process which is more or less permanent for the person receiving the tat.

--Patrick

For some, it does become somewhat addictive. The pain caused by getting tattoos makes your body produce endorphins that basically get you a bit high.

PatrThom said:

For me, I have no desire to decorate myself with anything I can't change later.
I have no ink, no piercings, no implants, nor any other body mods, and I have no plans to get any. I also don't take more medication than I absolutely need, figuring that overall I want to keep my body as close to "stock" as possible for as long as possible.
I presume the attraction is the same as for folks who landscape their yard, or trick out their car with lights/chrome/etc. Do you value the core or the accessories? It's a good question.

I put respect/honor tats in a separate category. I can appreciate the desire to honor an event with a process which is more or less permanent for the person receiving the tat.

--Patrick

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You know, I don't have any body modifications either, but I'm just going to state now that if I'm still alive when we cross into the cyperpunk era of cybernetic augmentations and awesome robot bodies, I'm going to be the first in line.

Maybe the second in line... I'll wait for the first update patch.

My tattoos are a form of expression, there are somethings I haven't found a way to express through words. I also appreciate art and like having "paintings" on or around me constantly.

Gilgamesh said:

9/10? Attention.

1/10? It means something deeply to the person who got it.

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What about just pure aesthetic appeal? I like the way many of my tattoos/soon-to-be tattoos look, without there being much meaning to any but one of them. You can't see most of them usually so it's not attention, but that said, I don't mind answering questions about them when they are visible/commented on.

To answer ThatNickGuy The appeal is largely aesthetic to me. Significance matters, but less so. I'd take a nice-looking meaningless tattoo over a mediocre meaningful any day. I like having art on my body, and seeing it on others'. Girls with tattoos drive me crazy, it is a huge turn-on for me. Like you, I grew up in a conservative family (who disapprove of my tats but ah well they're used to it by now), but I always liked them, and got my first one impulsively at 18 (a companion cube on my wrist).

As for piercings, I have no desire to get any, and they aren't much of a turn-on or turn-off for me vis-à-vis the opposite sex. I do sort of find nose rings unappealing, I guess, but not like... Repulsive or something.

Can't speak for piercings, but tattoos are art, and I there's a lot of art I find very attractive.

Piercings for me are a lot like tats for Chad - as much as anything else, I like how they look. I've got three in my face because I like them, and the fact that I enjoy seeing other peoples' reactions to them is a bonus.

Girls with visible non-ear piercings are just ridiculously attractive to me, too. I like tattoos as well, but it's not on the same level.

Getting mine was initially a response to the end of a bad relationship, and there's some meaning there that makes me value them a little bit more highly than I would if they were purely aesthetic, but I don't think there's any value in pretending that I'd have them if I didn't like them to begin with.

The only thing I can't stand are the huge guage piercings.

I don't care much for piercings.

As for tats, I don't mind cute small ones. I think they are hot. The tramp stamp however? Classless.

Tats on the entire arm or shoulder? Nasty.

If there's a porn scene and the female has tats like this, I find other porn. NASTY.

Jay said:

I don't care much for piercings.

As for tats, I don't mind cute small ones. I think they are hot. The tramp stamp however? Classless.

Tats on the entire arm or shoulder? Nasty.

If there's a porn scene and the female has tats like this, I find other porn. NASTY.

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I think I recall that Janine Lindemulder said on Howard Stern that the reason she started getting so many tattoos was that eventually she'd have so many that no one would want her in their movie. Think this was around the time she first "retired". Ah, how times have changed.

fade said:

When I see a lot of tattoos on an attractive girl, I find it appealing. But not for the tattoos themselves. It's more that it represents that free spirit and fuck-the-man attitude I find really sexy.

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When pretty much everyone has tattoos and they're now a societal norm, doesn't that reduce this at all?

Bowielee said:

When pretty much everyone has tattoos and they're now a societal norm, doesn't that reduce this at all?

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Theoretically, but it's a huge exaggeration, at least around where I live, to say that "almost everyone" has lots of visible tattoos.

Bowielee said:

When pretty much everyone has tattoos and they're now a societal norm, doesn't that reduce this at all?

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There are still communities in which visible tattoos are rare and frowned upon. And judging from Jay's posts, I'm going to say that community is Canada. Or at least Quebec.

Ravenpoe said:

There are still communities in which visible tattoos are rare and frowned upon. And judging from Jay's posts, I'm going to say that community is Canada. Or at least Quebec.

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Well, it's certainly not all of Canada

I won't say that everybody has them around here, but a lot if people do for sure. We have a great selection of shops here and we even have an annual festival!

Personally, I really like well done tattoos. To me, they're art. Some of mine have very special meaning and others signify a shared event which has its own special meaning for me.

As far as piercings go, I like little nose studs but I don't have one.

I like tattoos on guys but for piercings it really depends on the guy and what he has done.

I personally can't stand the vast majority of piercings. Major turn off.

Tattoos vary wildly from well done art pieces to horrible abominations. Not overly fond of them but every once in a while I will see one that really looks great on a person.

I think it all really depends. Both "tattoos" and "piercings" are very wide groups.
An ear ring is completely normal for most girls (heck, most I know around here get their ear piercings before they're 5 years old), not really comparable to someone with 25 piercings through their eyebrow or something.
I'm not a big fan of piercings in and of themselves. Some can be usedto create nice aesthetic effects. I quite like the sort of piercing on the top of the ear, with a thin chain leading to a second piercing on the bottom of the ear (Bajorran-style, yes ). Nipple piercings can be fun to play with for once but I wouldn't want them on my girlfriend. Belly button can, again, be quite nice and can be used in combination with a top showing the belly to make some nice visuals.

Tattoos vary even more for me. My sister-in-law's husband has a large tattoo on his back, of a dragon with the names of his two children worked into the lines of the wings; the whole designed by his wife. It looks nice, and has emotional value to him, being a reminder of his family and such.
A friend of mine has a small tattoo with the names of her two living children, and a smaller one with the name of her third child who died during labor - they represent quite an emotional investment for her as well.
Besides that kind of emotional appeal, I can understand people who have a specific way of life" - who have a hobby that's really a complete part of their life - taking on some image of that hobby or lifestyle to reinforce the lifelong bond. I personally don't really go for it, but if you're just *that* much into Zelda/Mario/Madden '14, well, I'm not judging. With these, I think the aesthetic value starts to really matter as well, though. I think it's Hylian who just got a Link tattoo? Anyway, that one's clearly a way to express his personal strong bond with his gamer roots, and with Zelda/Link etc. Fine by me, but it's also just a good looking tattoo.
One step further are people who get tattoos just for the looks. The right tattoo can be sexy and/or beautiful in the right spot - flowers circling a leg, lines from the back to the breast, whatever. I've seen true pieces of art, and I certainly don't think using the human body as a canvas makes it any less artistic than painting on...err, actual canvas.
Of course there's also the "badge of honor" style tattoos - whether it's from an army deployment, a marine unit, a gang or the prison ward you were in, those are signals of who you are, who you identify with - groups or people who've become an integral part of your own individuality.
And lastly, there's dumb fucks putting ugly things on their body for no good reason - the type of "Entry here --->" above the ass and such. Those are just silly.

I have a tattoo on my shoulder, something small - the kanji symbol for fire. There's a lot of meaning behind it but the nice thing is, it's completely invisible in my work so no one ever sees it. The point wasn't for other people to see it, it's my own little thing. If and when my life finds some kind of balance, the other shoulder gets the symbol for water.

Make your own balance!

Adam said:

If and when my life finds some kind of balance, the other shoulder gets the symbol for water.

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With fire on one shoulder and water on the other, this one should be on the back of your neck.


--Patrick

I don't have any tats or piercings. I have no plans to ever get any. My wife has one tattoo, which is on the top of her foot and she waited until she has in her mid-20's before she got it. She wanted to make damn sure that she was "ready" to get it. Her reasoning for putting it on her foot: If she doesn't want to look at it anymore, she can put a sock on. On the other hand, she has had the following piercings, but has only kept one presently: ears, eyebrow, tongue, belly button, nipple.

Azurephoenix said:

I personally can't stand the vast majority of piercings. Major turn off.

Tattoos vary wildly from well done art pieces to horrible abominations. Not overly fond of them but every once in a while I will see one that really looks great on a person.

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Pretty much this. I find belly button piercings utterly vile though. They gross me out.