Tattoos seem absolutely insane to me. How a person can ever decide on an image they want to see on their body for the rest of their life is an idea that I will never be able to grasp. Which is, I guess, one of the two feelings you can have about tattoos. I can barely commit to buying clothes that I like. And then when I do buy clothes that I like, I almost always realize that I don’t actually like them and that I just didn’t want to go home empty-handed because I had been shopping all day. And then I wear them and feel terrible. Is that what tattoos are like for everybody? More importantly, is that what clothes are like for everybody? Is this what life is like for anybody?

A cool thing, I think, and this is a thing that would make the world a completely better place, would be tattoos that last for three years or so. So you get a tattoo when you’re a handsome young man and then when you are an older, still very handsome I’m sure, just older, man, your stupid tattoo goes away. I’m sure other people have thought of this, what I’m not sure of is why other people have not INVENTED it. It’s 2011!

In any case, even if it were just a three-year tattoo, I would still not suggest getting a tattoo of 152 of your Facebook friends, because why would you ever.

To be honest, though, it doesn’t look that bad. I mean, it’s terrible. That’s a fact. It’s a Facebook-inspired tattoo that this person will have forever. But at least it’s symmetrical and the colors are nice! Do you have a tattoo? What is it? Why do you have it? Do you regret it? Did it hurt a lot? What happens when you get a sunburn? Please tell me. (Via SayOMG.)

Comments (112)
  1. I’d something something my needle something THAT tattoo artist, amirite?

  2. Good job, now you can’t unfriend anyone ever again.

  3. Kelly I agree with you, in addition to the commitment issues needles are also really scary, I don’t want a needle in me when I need one at the doctor, why would I voluntarily have someone put a needle full of ink in my skin?

    • I’m 17 and though LITERALLY all my friends have tattoos/want to have tattoos as soon as they get out of the house (MOOOOOOM) I feel the exact same way as Kelly. There isn’t one thing I can think of that I want permanently on my body forever. Even when I give myself Sharpie tattoos by the second morning I am already so sick of it and I hate it.

      Like what even is this shit


      “Hurh hurh I have a paint color on my wrist WHY DID I DO THIS WHY DOESN’T SHARPIE WASH OFF.”

  4. I am taking you at face value. So: Yes, I have several tattoos. My most recent is Link, from the Legend of Zelda, on my calf. I do not regret it, although I will admit to a panicky few days afterward when I wondered what the hell did I just do. It did hurt, but I knew that going in. As for sunburn, I have not had that happen (fun fact, even though I have many tattoos, they never see the light of day, since I dress like a 1950s spinster librarian.)

    tl:dr – IT IS LIKE PERMANENT STICKERS ON MY SKIN. yay!

    • Also, my first tattoo is a little dot from my hand when my sister stabbed me with a pencil when I was five. She hates when I tell that story, so of course I need to share it with everyone, all the time.

      • I have one of these pencil stab tattoos as well! True story: I sat on a pencil that was sticking upwards in between the wooden slats of a bench in the gym change room in 7th grade, stood up, realized there was a pencil sticking out of my left hip.

        I’m cool huh?!?!?!?!?!?!

        I now have 3 actual tattoos and love them all.

    • I just don’t feel that putting a tattoo on a baby cow is ethical, even if it IS as awesome as Link.

  5. “12 of your friends changed their profile pictures.”

    “Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Where did I put the sandpaper and hydrogen peroxide?”

  6. You know the party’s over when you tattoo your friend’s Mom’s Facebook photo on your arm. Gonna party like it’s 19-HOLD UP, IT IS.

    • it is two whole days later and i do not expect anybody to see this but i do not see anyone else acknowledging that incredible will smith reference so here are your just propers sir, well done. !

  7. Does anyone have a Videogum tattoo yet?

  8. I don’t have a tattoo, but I wanted one in college. I think I remember my mother’s exact response: “If you get a tattoo, you better get it in the crack of your ass, because if I ever see it, you’re never getting another dime out of me.” It scared me enough to not get one at that time, and once I got a little older, I didn’t even want one anymore. At this point, I can’t think of anything I’d want embedded in my skin for the rest of my life.

    • Your mother sounds awesome. That is hilarious!

    • My dad did the same thing. He threatened that he would not pay for college if I got a tattoo or any body piercing. I never did and now I think I’m over the attraction to both (plus no 25 year olds wear belly button rings, do they?)

    • i’m irish and we’re a clannish people, so i tend to have a lot of irish friends. not only are we clannish, but we’re also fairly obnoxious, drink a lot, and are easily challenged into doing stupid things. this is basically just the longer version of me saying “a lot of my friends have what is referred to as a ‘hidden shamrock’ which is 1) a tattoo of a shamrock on one’s ass and 2) something to aim at when throwing darts at it every st. patrick’s day

      i dont have a tattoo. but i want one. and until a time comes when i come across something i want to put on my body permantently, i won’t get one….it maybe never.

  9. Wow. That’s just really solid work. Maybe a little silly, but I can understand what it might mean to her.

    It’s tough to discuss tattoos with someone who isn’t into body art. Of course so many people get ridiculous tattoos and that’s almost always because the idea of having the tattoo is more enticing than what the image or design will be. Essentially if it’s truly an extension of yourself, however specific, it can be beautiful in so many ways. I saw a woman the other day with a large scar down the middle of her spine and some very elegant wings emerging from it. It was fantastic.

    This seems very tasteful and I hope the person can look at her arm twenty years from now and be reminded of all these people.

    • What I find silly is not the having a tattoo of one’s friends pictures on your arm, but the fact that it so clearly looks like a tattoo of Facebook photos in particular. (excellent sentence, gobbles, very good, very easy to follow)
      So while having friends on your arm won’t become dated (until you get wrinkly or the girl by your elbow breaks your heart by cheating on you with your brother), Facebook will.
      A friend of mine has a beautiful and elaborate tattoo of Tank Girl on her arm, but since that’s the point of the image it doesn’t matter that that movie is really old. But it’s not the Facebook part of this tattoo that’s supposed to be meaningful, so why arrange it like this?

      tl;dr – my point is, Imma judge if I want to

      • It’s not supposed to be a museum of relevant technology. It’s a perfect snapshot of who she is and how she chooses to express herself at this moment.

        “But she wouldn’t choose to express herself through Facebook 20 years from now!”

        You’re right, probably not, but if you wait to express who you are and do what brings you pleasure until you’re 40, you’re going to live kind of a depressing life.

        • I get that. But I’m entitled to the opinion that who she is and how she chooses to express herself at this moment is sort of silly. ;) Not worthless, not brainless, and I’m not saying I’m better than her really. (And if it came across that way in the first comment, then that’s my fault and I apologize). I just think this is silly.
          I hope she loves her tattoo forever, and that the colour doesn’t go funny in 20 years. Sincerely.

  10. I got a tattoo of this http://www.zeloot.nl/pages/st17.html when I was 18. Regretted it soon afterwords. Now I have to explain this tattoo to everyone even though it has no real meaning. I hate tattoos so much. Wish I could afford to get it removed

  11. The greatest idea for tattoo is Keith Buckley’s. He has Spock dreaming of what he would look like sporting a moustache, and shedding a single tear, because he cannot grow one. Sadly in my opinion the execution does not match the idea.

  12. Personally, I just made sure I got something that would always be very relevant to me.

  13. I have always wanted an HRC tramp stamp. Never drunk enough to follow through.

  14. I feel bad for the facebook friends in these tattoos. What if they lose weight? No street gawker will ever know that they look better now… what if someone got tattooed over a mole?

  15. I have commitment issues even with books I read, so for me it’s a no: I have no tattoos. If I were to get one, it would probably be of Paul Revere warning the British that he was personally going to kick their ass, because that’s just a great moment in American history.

  16. I know somebody who got a tattoo of the Kool-Aid guy bursting out of his chest, saying “Oh yeah!”

    That’s pretty much the only tattoo I can endorse.

  17. I always talk about tatoos like im going to get one when i turn an a year older than whatever age i currently am but that probably wont ever happen.

    The single worst tatoo i’ve seen on anyone was sported by one my housemates a couple years ago. She got a tatoo of a turtle on her foot because she went to Hawaii this one time and turtles remind her of Hawaii. I kid you not that was the actual explanation. The tatoo was off to the left and sort of looked like a rock because it was done by a shit artist. Just thought i’d share that because this girl and i grew to hate each other and this is my way of getting revenge.

  18. Yup. I’m so with you on this, Kelly. I fussed for ten minutes last night over what to get from the Indian restaurant for fear that I might regret my choice. I will never understand how someone who’s old enough to know that one’s tastes and priorities change over time can just have such certitude about a tattoo.

  19. You don’t get to 152 friends without making a few dumb decisions regarding body art.

  20. I have one tattoo. It’s in elvish and it says “Not all who wander are lost”. I got it about a month before I graduated from college. I was about to embark on that transition from school to the “real world” (even though I worked full time during college but you know) and it was a great way to mark a moment in my life where I wasn’t sure where I was headed, but I knew it was the right direction. Oh and I got to release my inner nerd.

    Of course this lead to a woman ten years my elder getting my personal info from Jiffy Lube and semi-stalking me because she also had an elvish tattoo and evidently that meant we were soul mates, but who doesn’t that happen to?

    • I have an elvish tattoo, too, although I promise not to stalk you. Or I promise to not stalk you, which ever is your semantic preference.

      Mine is ‘soylent’ transcribed (most likely poorly, but who the hell will know, really) into Elvish. In green.

      • Yeah, I translated mine on my own using some tools I found on the internet at the time so I’m sure I probably screwed it up somehow, but like you said who would know? Also, depending on who is asking me, I’ll make things up and change what it says. That being said, I’ve been surprised by how many people actually recognize that it is elvish these days.

    • People seriously use Jiffy Lube as a stalking source? Why not just use trusty old Facebook?

      Whoa, coming full circle there.

  21. I can completely understand why this person has so few facebook friends. Also, really? Really? Facebook friends? You forget the guy who got all the MySpace tattoos? No one even uses that anymore and he looks like the asshole at every party.

  22. The worst tattoo I saw was a pair of lips on some girl’s ass cheek (we were in the gym locker room). I have to wonder where she was spring breaking when she came up with that idea. My money is on PCB.

  23. Years ago, after too much drinking, some friends and I had an idea. We would all get tattoos but each one of us got to choose the tattoo of another. My friend decided I should get the image of “a tired man eating pancakes” on my arm. We walked to a tattoo parlor and they immediately asked us to leave. I still have no tattoos and think I’ll keep it that way.

  24. I’ve kept a copy of the sketch as a warning to myself not to be stupid:

  25. This is exactly how I feel about tattoos (um, and shopping, which is why I have become an awesome bargain shopper because there is less remorse).

    I have wanted a To Kill A Mockingbird tattoo for a little while (specifically, “delete the adjectives”). But for a while I also wanted a Taking Back Sunday lyric tattoo and THANK BABY JESUS I did not follow through on that one.

  26. No need to always sound so smug, Gabe. I understand that you and a good portion of my friends cannot understand the allure of a tattoo, but I have several and although there’s one I occasionally regret (because when asked to explain it I have to delved into a dark part of my past every fucking time) I love the idea of being able to manually alter yourself if you’d like. I’m the least decisive human being alive, which is why I love my tattoos: they force me to be firm in my convictions and stand by a decision. What I’m trying to say is that some people have something important to say to the entire world, like this girl does:

  27. i was always set on getting a radiohead tattoo, but my parents did the same thing where they said we arent paying for anything if you get a tattoo/piercing. Soooo glad i dont have anything and now i always rip on my roommate because he has a pixies “V” tattoo and looks like an idiot

  28. This is only half-pandering, but I watched Blue Valentine the other day and thought The Baby Goose’s tattoo of The Giving Tree was pretty awesome. I have one tattoo myself, an Old English “S” on my back right shoulder. Got it in college and it remains, to this day, the most rebellious thing I’ve ever done.

  29. I have tattoos– a lot of them in fact, two full sleeves plus some and I don’t regret any of them. To quickly answer questions: Yes they hurt sort of. I mean its not like your arm is getting cut off, its like a bee sting or someone slapping a sun burn. But I also don’t get sun burns, because sun burns are bad for tattoos they make them fade.

    Why I get tattoos; some people are religious, some people are passionate about gifs vs. no gifs, I’m passionate about art I suppose..So I’m of the opinion that I only have one chance to do to this whole life thing, and when something meaningful happens or I learn a particular lesson, or something is my definition of truly beautiful, well I tattoo an image on my body. So the real question is: is it lame I sort of respect this girl? I mean she might hate 151 of these people later in life, but that’s not really the point right? She’s got a history living on her of who she was and who she knew on her forever. I think that takes a lot of balls.

  30. I have 2 Sylvia Plath tattoos. They were sort of spontaneous, but I love them both. I like to think I don’t look like an asshole, but it’s hard to say sometimes.

  31. I got this on my shoulder blade back in college:
    http://markfreem.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/calvin-balloon1.jpg?w=138&h=184

    I wasn’t sure how my parents were going to react, so I figured I’d bite the bullet & just show them when they came to pick me up at the end of the semester, because they’ll find out soon enough, right? I’m all, “umm, I…got…a…tattoo…?”. My mom was, “oh, neat.” Totally cool with it.

  32. I have a tattoo, it’s pretty big and I like it a lot. It doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a squid. I am ready for #2 but it’s the old ball and chain’s turn and she’s taking her sweet time.

  33. I just left this on another site regarding this same story: “There are two types of people in the world, those who understand tattoo culture, and those who think every tattoo is, for some reason, an enormous mistake the wearer will someday regret, and each side is equally baffling to the other.”

    I have a few tattoos, a full sleeve of robots having the shit exploded out of them by UFOs, some Portal icons, and another that will remain nameless. I regret none and can’t imagine I ever would. Yes, they all hurt. It’s a needle stabbing your skin hundreds of times a second; anyone who says that doesn’t hurt is a liar.

    Sunburns have a very high probability of scarring and fading a tattoo. If you get a tat, you’re making a pact with yourself that you will always wear sunscreen if you’re spending more than an hour outside.

    The idea that a tattoo needs to be some iconic, totemic image that conjures the very essence of a person’s soul and personality is something that non-tattoo people get wrong a lot. A LOT. Sometimes (most times, I would think) they’re just fun. It’s your body. Why not have fun with it while it lasts?

    • Yes! I have three tattoos, one I got while in my teens, one in my twenties, and one just before I turned 30. I don’t hate any of them, but even though I probably wouldn’t get the first two again if I had it do over again now, I also don’t regret them. They are a part of me, and they remind me of who I was at some very important points in my life. It’s a humbling reminder that “who I am” is not this one monolithic thing, it’s always evolving. So I do think the people who are freaked out by the permanence of it and changing your mind later are missing the point–for me, that IS the point.

  34. When my childhood dog was sick and dying, I got a tattoo for him… and he got better almost overnight and lived 6 more months. His name was Sailor and now I have a little anchor in his honor. I was very iffy on tattoos, but it seemed like a nice tribute to my best friend.

    Now that I have a dog named Oliver, I can’t think of what I can get for him wg. It has been suggested a small singing orphan would be nice, but he was actually named after Cousin Oliver and I’m not getting that face on my body… And I hate olives, so that wouldn’t work either.

  35. When my childhood dog was sick and dying, I got a tattoo for him… and he got better almost overnight and lived 6 more months. His name was Sailor and now I have a little anchor in his honor. I was very iffy on tattoos, but it seemed like a nice tribute to my best friend. I went to a very nice, very clean shop run by feminists. I told them why I was getting it and showed them pics of my dog and they all said it was the nicest reason they had ever heard to get a tattoo. (I’m sure they say that to all the girls, though…)

    Now that I have a dog named Oliver, I can’t think of what I can get for him some day a billion years from now (as Ollie promised to never die). It has been suggested I get a small singing orphan, but my guy was actually named after Cousin Oliver and I’m not getting that face on my body… And I hate olives, so that wouldn’t work either. Actually, if anyone has suggestions…

    But I consider it a way to honor my pups.

  36. I have a Watchmen smiley-face tattoo on my chest, which now links me in other people’s minds to that horrible, horrible movie. Still, no regrets.

  37. I have a cool one on my stomach that says I am a sadistic pig, a pervert, and a rapist. It’s from my dad.

  38. I just got my first a few weeks ago, and it’s fantastic. I am annoyed with myself that I didn’t do it sooner.

  39. I have one on my wrist that says “So it goes.” At first it didn’t hurt at all but when it got to the middle of my wrist it hurt. A lot! But it was still amazing.

    For the next two weeks every time I washed my hands I would think something was on my wrist (because there was! A tattoo! Stupid!) And I worried every time if I would regret it. It’s easily covered by a watch if I ever can’t have a tattoo (hello, teaching!) but I mostly forget it’s there.

    Between my literary referenced tattoo and my literary referenced cats’ names I feel pretty confident in saying I’m the coolest person ever.

  40. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” I screamed at your first paragraph. …. so. yes. Life is like polo i wore to work today.

    but i don’t know. I don’t like most things? But when i do find something “me” i love it hard and forever…I say while wearing clothes that are all over ten years old. SO, i guess I COULD get a tattoo if I could find the one that really spoke to me. OH SHIT! I forgot that I’m cheap. nevermind. #2frugal4tats

  41. nerd alert! i have the symbol of the deathly hallows on my left wrist and the symbol of the VFD on my right wrist. i’ve never regretted them for a second because they don’t just represent the books, they’re the only things that stuck with me from when i was a kid through adulthood, and the first books of each series were given to me by my nana.

    in general, all of my tattoos have been things that just feel like unquestionable things that should have been part of me to begin with.

  42. Man, folks take tattoos too seriously. Yes, they’re permanent – and yes, a lot of people’s tattoos are really dumb and that’s hilarious.

    But I think we put way too much emphasis on how permanent tattoos are. Lots of choices people make are permanent and alter their lives in ways you can’t ever expect–getting married for example – or buying a house, or having kids, or committing to a career or a lifestyle, etc. etc….

    With that perspective, tattoos are just surface… they’re just on your skin. They start to blend into the background of the rest of you. They’re like milestones. They mark the passage of time. They help me remember where I’ve been and help to remind me of what I believe is really important.

    Anyway. I have 5 tattoos and I love them all.

  43. Jeez, I am surprised at how many people in Videogum are afraid of tattoo commitment? I dunno… live without regrets, I suppose!

    http://frostypeaches.tumblr.com/post/4851335980/okay-so-my-league-has-new-team-pictures-and-bios

  44. my footy team last won the league way back in 2001 and i feel i didn’t celebrate enough so i promised myself the next time they won, i’d get a tattoo of the team symbol (my vg icon) and of course, i have jinxed them and they haven’t won since then…. which is ok because i am kinda scared of needles.

  45. 129 on the inside of my wrist. It’s my favorite section of Alfred Tennyson’s poem “In Memoriam A.H.H.”

  46. The first one I got was on my back. I was 18 and was like, “Time to start getting tattoos!” I was on a road trip my senior year of high school, going to CA to check out colleges and watch my friend graduate from Marine Corps boot camp. One night I picked a tattoo parlor, picked a tribal thing out of a book that had a circle space in the center, then picked a Japanese Kanji labeled “True, Genuine, Sincere,” slapped that in the circle and had it tattooed between my shoulder blades. It scarred over horribly, I don’t know nor have I ever bothered to check if it means what it’s supposed to be mean.

    Then when my friend was apprenticing in a tattoo shop in NJ he was giving out free tattoos to get practice, with the added incentive that he will touch up any tattoos once he moves up, and free tattoos for life to boot on top of that for all his tattooed guinea pigs. I picked the word “Satyagraha”, which means “Hold fast to the truth,” and had it tattooed high up around my right bicep. Satyagraha was coined by Ghandi and was later adapted by MLK Jr. during the civil rights movement, and my grandfather was a civil rights attorney.

    This is the last tattoo I have. I got it right before Christmas Break 2005.


    It’s Rorschach’s signature from the Watchmen comic book. Once again, I was following the “Truth” theme of my other tattoos, because Rorschach’s whole deal was being an inflexible, “it’s black or it’s white” asshole of a crazy person who even in the face of nuclear war was determined to bring to light the true origins of the giant psionic squid monster that Ozymandias manufactured and used to stop the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. from killing each other. Then Dr. Manhattan blew Rorschach to smithereens but his journal was left in the newspaper’s drop box. Anyway, Dave Gibbons is a really good artist and I like Watchmen.

    I could take or leave all my tattoos. I don’t mind looking at them, particularly the Rorschach signature, which most people interpret as fallopian tubes.

  47. The best thing? It will probably never fade and look more like diseased skin.

  48. you dont get to choose your ugly face or your left-leaning dong or what have you
    at least you get to choose your tattoo

  49. I knew a guy who worked with a guy who had a tattoo on his arm of a dagger with the word “beer” written on it. That is the best/worst tattoo ever.

  50. There are lots of things I can imagine having on my body. Not forever of course. Because one day, I’ll die. That’s why I don’t really understand all the “But it might look weird later!” and “TATTOOS ARE FOREVER” comments. Unless you get yourself rubberized (and how fun would THAT be?) your body won’t exist forever. So why not put what you want on it while you can?

    For me, tattoos are kind of a reward. Every time I reach an important goal in my life, I put some money away and say “Fuck yeah! Soon, you’re gonna finish that half sleeve of the solar system that winds its way onto your shoulder blades across your back until it meets the space tattoos on the other shoulder and it’s going to be awesome because you’ve always wanted it!” One of my goals is, of course, to continue working out in order to get awesome guns so my tattoo looks amazeballs on my sculpted fucking arm.

  51. Do you idiots even realize that this is a fake tattoo? The first hit on Google for “Facebook Sleeve Tattoo” will give you all the information you need, but for those of you who were stupid enough to believe this in the first place, here’s the link
    http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-tattoo-hoax-video-woman-friends-pictures-tattooed/story?id=13795834
    The Internets are always real life, and any cursory examination of something you want to label as a “fact” should definitely not be done. You guys are all morons. And morons are awesome.

Leave a Reply

Login

You must be logged in to post, reply to, or rate a comment.