{"id":1336,"date":"2019-05-09T14:57:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T19:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/?p=1336"},"modified":"2019-05-09T14:57:57","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T19:57:57","slug":"tattoo-taboo-a-personal-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/blog\/2019\/05\/09\/tattoo-taboo-a-personal-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"Tattoo Taboo: A Personal Narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Erin Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>You\u2019re going to regret those tattoos someday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid your tattoos hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll never get a job with those tattoos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do your tattoos mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahem, cue the eye roll, please.<\/p>\n

And people say there\u2019s no such thing as a stupid question.<\/p>\n

OK, OK, so maybe they aren\u2019t stupid questions, but they\u2019re annoying to me nonetheless.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just the intrusive questions and comments about my tattoos that are frustrating to me.<\/p>\n

The line was crossed this past summer when I worked in the cosmetics department at Herberger\u2019s.<\/p>\n

I was helping a woman who asked to test a makeup color on my skin, which I thought was odd considering I wasn\u2019t the one who was going to be wearing it.<\/p>\n

Before waiting for my response, she grabbed my arm rudely and applied the color to my wrist.<\/p>\n

She twisted my arm around awkwardly for a minute and finally decided against the color.<\/p>\n

Just when I thought I was done being this woman\u2019s Barbie doll, she pulled my arm back again.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour tattoos are beautiful,\u201d she said, peering closely at the seahorse on my forearm. \u201cI love them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks?\u201d I said, trying to be as polite as possible while tugging my arm out of her grip.<\/p>\n

Eventually she left, but even after she was gone I felt uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

The incident reminded me of the other times that people had asked invasive questions and made unnecessary comments about my tattoos.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just one or two of my tattoos that receive unwanted comments. It\u2019s all 20 of them, and being asked feels more like an interrogation for a crime I didn\u2019t commit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose tattoos are going to look bad when you\u2019re old.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow are you going to hide those on your wedding day?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBoys don\u2019t like girls with tattoos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you have any tattoos in hidden places?\u201d<\/p>\n

I started to wonder if there was anyone else who had the same cringy feelings I did when asked about their ink.<\/p>\n

Turns out, I was right. After getting in contact with someone with similar experiences, we were able to talk out our frustrations together.<\/p>\n

Rachel Carter, who is from La Crosse, Wisconsin, and is a Winona State University graduate, has her own collection of tattoos and talked about the uneasiness she feels when asked about her body art, particularly her Doctor Who tattoos.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of my tattoos have really deep, significant meaning to me,\u201d Carter explained. \u201cI\u2019m a military sexual trauma survivor, so there\u2019s a lot of trauma and personal history. Things that I\u2019ve accomplished and overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter also said that some people continue to ask her questions about her tattoos, even when she\u2019s expressed that she doesn\u2019t want to share their meaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had people who I don\u2019t really know, or maybe I\u2019m in a situation where I don\u2019t really want to talk about it, say, \u2018Cool, tell me about your tattoos,\u2019\u201d Carter said. \u201cI\u2019ll tell them they have really deep meaning to me, but they\u2019ll just keep wanting me to tell them more when I don\u2019t want to talk about it, but they feel like they have a right to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, Carter told me she\u2019s also had an experience like mine, when she was touched by a person she didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been at the YMCA working out and I stopped to talk to a friend and somebody passed by and was like, \u2018Oh, I really like your tattoos!\u2019 and then stroked my arm because I have a full sleeve on my arm, very caressing, like you would think a spouse or a significant other would, and then just walked away,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n

We pondered for a few minutes, but neither of us could figure out why a perfect stranger would think it\u2019s OK to touch another person without permission.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s because they think, \u2018Oh, people have tattooed your arms, so you must be fine with being touched\u2019 or \u2018Your tattoos are on display, so you must be fine with people asking,\u2019\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n

And yet, it\u2019s not fine. People still grab your arm to get a closer look or ask questions and make comments that aren\u2019t really necessary.<\/p>\n

But for me, it\u2019s not the strangers who do these things that bother me the most. It\u2019s my family\u2019s comments that get on my nerves more than anything else.<\/p>\n

For my dad, Jeff Jones, his comments mostly concern professionalism and the ability to get a job after finishing college.<\/p>\n

He added that in his career, he hasn\u2019t met any professionals who are covered head-to-toe in tattoos.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the people I work with are old white guys and ladies,\u201d my dad said. \u201cIn the corporate world, most of the people I refer to are managers, directors, vice presidents and junior vice presidents who make a lot of money and as far as I know, they don\u2019t have any tattoos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite saying this, my dad did recognize that in certain careers, tattoos don\u2019t seem to matter much.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at professional athletes. A lot of them have tattoos,\u201d my dad said. \u201cThey have a career for 10 or 15 years, so they don\u2019t have to go out with their resume and find another job. It all depends on the profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I asked if he worried about me finding a job after college, surprisingly, he said he wasn\u2019t too concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, you\u2019re smart, you\u2019ll be fine,\u201d my dad said. \u201cAs long as you don\u2019t get any on your face or your neck or your chest or wherever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucky for him, I don\u2019t have plans to get any of those places tattooed; however, I told him that the 20 I\u2019ve gotten so far aren\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n

He surprised me again by saying that he doesn\u2019t mind the ones I have now. Well, most of them.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Your tattoos are] good,\u201d my dad said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure about the gummy bear one. That one\u2019s a little weird. And the Star Wars one, that one\u2019s kind of weird too. But if you get a tattoo that means something to you, I\u2019m not going to argue with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks, dad. After hearing the tattoo lecture 20 times, I\u2019m kind of over it. And so is he. I\u2019m glad we can finally sort of agree on the tattoo thing.<\/p>\n

Now to get him on board with piercings. He is not much of a fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cTattoos are tattoos, but what I don\u2019t understand is people who put those big gauges in their ears. I definitely don\u2019t want you doing something like that,\u201d my dad said. \u201cHell no, I frickin\u2019 can\u2019t stand [gauges]. I\u2019d rather have you get tattoos than put gauges in your ears or frickin\u2019 things stickin\u2019 out of your nose \u2013 That just looks stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Erin Jones<\/strong> is the former copy editor for Winona State University\u2019s student-run newspaper, The Winonan. She expects to graduate in May 2019. Before being copy editor, she was one of The Winonan\u2019s news reporters. Jones is majoring in mass communication-journalism and minoring in criminal justice. After graduation, she hopes to find a career in which she can use both her major and minor. She is also interested in being a feature writer or an editor for a magazine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Erin Jones   \u201cYou\u2019re going to regret those tattoos someday.\u201d \u201cDid your tattoos hurt?\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ll never get a job with those tattoos.\u201d \u201cWhat do your tattoos mean?\u201d Ahem, cue the eye roll, please. And people say there\u2019s no such thing as a stupid question. OK, OK, so maybe they aren\u2019t stupid questions, but they\u2019re … Continue reading Tattoo Taboo: A Personal Narrative<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":297,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338,95,466,197],"tags":[523,524,522],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-community","category-life","category-physical-health","tag-body-modification","tag-stigma","tag-tattoo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1337,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions\/1337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}