Saturday, August 30, 2008

Speaking of etiquette... Is there such a thing as tattoo etiquette?



Last night Bert and I went to the viewing of his friend Chuck's mother. Chuck has a big family and they are all SUPER nice people (I didn't know his mom, but I think that speaks volumes about her), so you can imagine there were a lot of people there. We were in the middle of a fairly large line when a girl (probably in her early 20's) joined in with her family. Right away I noticed that she had scissors tattooed on her feet. I totally wanted to know why - is that so weird of me? If it had been butterflies, flowers or even skulls and crossbones, I don't think I would have even given them a second look. But the fact that each foot had a tattoo of an open pair of scissors - that really got me curious.
So my question is, is there such a thing as tattoo etiquette? If you see a tattoo that is quite interesting to you, is it okay to ask the person about it? I didn't think that a viewing for someone's dear mother was really the proper place to bring up the subject with a complete stranger, but if I ever run into her again (or someone else with something interesting going on) I want to know if it is okay to ask about it. Just curious!

2 comments:

Zombette said...

As you (may or may not) know, my dearest sister has several tattoos. I don't have any, so I can only tell you what she would say...and what some of my tattooed (former) employees would say/have said. They would say, "Ask away!" Most people have a meaning/reason/story behind their ink. I only ever once met a person with a 'random' tattoo (a co-worker) and that was one she got because she lost a bet -- even that's a pretty good story. She wanted a tattoo anyway, but the 'bet' was over who got to pick *what* the tattoo was and *where* the tattoo was. My co-worker won the 'where' bet but lost the 'what' bet. She now has a ladybug on her foot. :-) I wouldn't ask at a viewing, but you already had that part figured, so...yeah, go for it.

hugs,
Holly

Ms. Karlyn said...

yes...ask!

Now, I am curious about the scissors.