Seems like every time some chick shows a picture of her new tattoo, I end up hearing the same damn comment from somebody: "Yeah. That's gonna look just great when she's 50." This cheeses me off to no end, people. Why? It assumes a number of things that I find just fucking ridiculous.
"That's gonna look great when she's 50." Yeah, because when talking about people who decide to get tattoos or other body mods, you just know that the first thing they consider when deciding to alter their body is whether it's going to conform to conventional beauty standards. Particularly at some arbitrary age someone else has decided equals "old and gross and un-fuckable." Yepper. First thing on the checklist.
"That shit is permanent. It's going to age!" HOLY SHITBALLS, YOU GUYS! You mean something decorating my body is going to sag, wrinkle, fade, and discolor? Well that sounds a whole lot like something else I'm quite familiar with...what is it called...right on the tip of my tongue...oh yeah, THE HUMAN BODY. None of us are going to look 19 forever. None of us. We will gain weight, lose weight, get sick, sunburned, dehydrated, sprout hair in weird places, lose hair in weird places, and be subject to gravity like the piles of oily goo suspended from a rigid bone structure that we all are. WERE YOU AWARE? People age. All the time. Big fuckin' whoop.
"That's gonna look great when she's 50." To whom? To you? Maybe she doesn't give a flying fuck. Maybe what she does with her body is her business, not yours. Maybe her ink is her way of claiming her body as her own, signing it as her property, letting other people know that she's in charge of it and loves it enough to decorate it with things that are meaningful to her, or commemorate experiences that made her the woman she is. Or maybe she's the trashy skank you think she is, Officer Body Police, but that probably means she still doesn't give a flying fuck. Even if she's "just doing it for attention," who gives a shit? It's still her body and her choice. If you don't think she should get attention for her tattoos, don't give her any. Problem solved.
Or...you could disparage people's body choices when they don't align with your idea of what they should look like. Some people really respond to that. And you know what happens then? They get tons of plastic surgery to keep their bodies and faces taut, tight, and un-aged. I wonder how the Body Police feel about those mods, eh?
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