by Arianddu » Thu Dec 16, 2010 12:02 pm
I've had this conversation with quite a few people over the years, discussing why to get tattoos, and if you get them, why have them in a place that is usually covered up. While jobs and first impressions are reasons, the one that I got from most people is that simply, people get tattoos for themselves, not the general public, so there is no issue with them being somewhere not usually seen. For many people, a tattoo is a reflection of something deeply important to them, something that symbolises an idea or a tradition that is indelibly tied up with how that person views themselves, or the world.
As for professional, succesful people having them? Well, let me think... amongst those I know:
a midwife (flowers on her calf and foot)
a chemical engineer (angel on his bicep)
two surgeons (one has a flaming sword on his bicep, the other has a tattoo of runes on his chest)
a very successful sales man (name of his deceased son over his heart)
a computing engineer (butterfly done in a stained glass window style on his shoulder blade)
high ranking naval chaplain (anchors with the ropes circling each forarm, a crucifix on his left shoulder)
a lawyer (a chained leopard on his thigh)
a senior Australian federal police seargent (heraldic arms on his chest)
a registered nurse (the logo of the motor cycle he used to ride, on his bicept)
a mathematics professor (that I know of, a mathematical equation that was part of his PhD work, an ankh, and he has two more but not anywhere I'm going to look.)
a theoretical physics professor (the initials of his wife over his heart)
a paramedic (marine corp tattoo and the American flag on his biceps)
I suspect there are more people out there with tattoos than you'd think, but they choose to keep them generally private. And I wouldn't make too much of people covering up their tats for professional reasons - I don't see many of the professionals I know going to work wearing the same clothes they'd wear at a bbq or to go clubbing, and for much the same reasons.
Why treat life as a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving in an attractive & well-preserved body? Get there by skidding in sideways, a glass of wine in one hand, chocolate in the other, body totally worn out, screaming WOOHOO! What a ride!