Kids/ Tattoos - What Age is Acceptable

[wolf]

The Red Cross tests every single donation. They can't afford not to test everyone who donates.

[glatt]

The Red Cross won't take my blood, because I spent too much time in Western Europe. Could have mad cow disease, you know.

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by 9th Engineer

Since he's an engineer he knew he'd have to keep it small, black and white, and on a part of his body he could keep covered easily.

Let me guess: Pepe Le Pew?

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by wolf

The Red Cross tests every single donation. They can't afford not to test everyone who donates.

From what I understand, that is why they make you wait. Some diseases (i.e. HIV or Hepititis) may not show up on their tests if you just recently contracted the disease. So if they make you wait they ensure that they will know whether or not you have any diseases.

[Madman]

Tatoos... Acceptable age?

I'm an old foogie.

Both my daughters wanted tatoos while in High School. Dear old Dad said "No Way!"

Of course I went into a long, drawn-out, repertoire of rhetoric that would have made a classic American Hero scream "uncle." And, my daughters, who learned the art of verbal self-defense at an early age firmly informed me they were going to "get a tatoo" whether I liked it or not. I laughed and told them they can become a "tatoo canvas" AFTER they graduate High School. Until then... pffft...

Both my daughters waited until they were in college to get their tatoos.

Should have seen their mouths drop when I told them I was thinking about getting one.

[mrnoodle]

I'd say 18 is the magic age. You grow out of most of the tastes you had in high school, but tattoos can't be grown out of -- at least not without significant expense and pain.

Tattoos weren't cool for kids when I was in high school, but if they had been, there would be a lot of 30-somethings running around with the faces of the guys from Poison inked into their backs.

[Jaydaan]

As a mother of 4, (19yr, 17yo, 16yo and 11yo) I have to say we have had this discussion a few times in our house. However I have told each of them the same thing. Tattoos are permanent, they fade, the skin may stretch over the years (depending on where the tat is. I suggested they wait until after they are done college, before they decide they *have to have one* No tattoos until after they are adults (one is, and she is not interested)

That being said, I have allowed ear piercing (2 holes, and one cartalige limit) and hair styles/dyes. The piercings you can take out and most likely they will grow over. No body piercings again, until they are over 18. As an esthetican, I have tried to show they the bad facial piercings I have seen. I show they what something cool may look like in 20 years. They have all said, ewww. The only facial piercing I would not gripe about (after they are of age) is a nose peircing. These can be quite nice.

They can grow or cut thier hair, dye it purple with pink stripes if they want. This gives them some creative espression/control and be *cool* with no after effects. (other than the goofy pictures mom can use as embarassment later!) I make them tell me what they are planning, and go with them to have it done. I figure 3 months of neon hair is much better than an impulsive body peirce or tattoo.

[Iggy]

I had the colored hair along with the tattoo, and I loved it. I naturally stopped dying green and purple (among other colors) when I decided I wanted a job. It is difficult to find a job with green hair. My father actually was somewhat against me getting a job, mostly because he thought my grades would fail. I was always an honor student so that would have been bad. So the first semester I worked and went to school I got straight A's just to prove to him that I could do anything I set my mind to. I had never gotten straight A's before as there was usually one B (sometimes two) on there, but I still was on the honor roll.

Oh, and you can't very well tell a child that they can't get a tattoo until they are 19 or later because it is legal if they are 18. If they still live at home I guess you could threaten to kick them out, but most of the people I knew moved away from home as soon as they hit the 18th birthday so there isn't really anything you can do about it. And sometimes if you stifle them too much at a young age they will go completely crazy as soon as they are out of your sight. Moderation is the key! But that is just my humble opinion.

[lulu]

So not getting a tattoo. I'd regret any that I got within hours.

/fickle

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Jaydaan

The only facial piercing I would not gripe about (after they are of age) is a nose peircing. These can be quite nice.

We clearly have differing definitions of the word "nice."

I always think of the line from the movie, Fame, "Does that hurt, or is that ethinic?"

Of course, nose piercings were pretty much unheard of in 1980.

[Jaydaan]

I have seen many, including my 79 year old client, with tiny barely noticable nose peircings. The tiny gem hit the light about an hour after I got there... or I would not have noticed it at all. I don't like those huge nose rings and things.. I meant a tiny stud.

[Pangloss62]

Below is a pretty lame article by David Brooks from this week's NYT. He writes as if this popular culture trend is somehow more significant than those from the past.

At some point some guy wore a Derby hat; soon everyone was wearing them. Whatever.

Nonconformity Is Skin Deep
Published: August 27, 2006
We now have to work under the assumption that every American has a tattoo. Whether we are at a formal dinner, at a professional luncheon, at a sales conference or arguing before the Supreme Court, we have to assume that everyone in the room is fully tatted up — that under each suit, dress or blouse, there is at least a set of angel wings, a barbed wire armband, a Chinese character or maybe even a fully inked body suit. We have to assume that any casual antitattoo remark will cause offense, even to those we least suspect of self-marking.

Everybody who has been to the beach this summer has observed that tattoos are now everywhere. There are so many spider webs, dolphins, Celtic motifs and yin-yang images spread across the sands, it looks like a New Age symbology conference with love handles.

A study in The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology showed that about 24 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 50 have at least one tattoo, up from about 15 percent in 2003. Thirty-six percent of those between 18 and 29 have a tattoo. Pretty soon you’ll go to the beach and find that only the most hardened nonconformists will be unmarked. Everybody else will be decorated with gothic-lettered AARP logos and Katie Couric 4-EVER tributes, and Democrats will have their Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers scratched across their backs so even their morticians will know which way they voted.

The only person without one of those Pacific Northwest Indian tribal graphics scrawled across his shoulder will be a lone 13-year-old skater scoffing at all the bourgeois tattoo fogies.

Traditional religions have generally prohibited tattoos on the grounds they encourage superficial thinking (what’s on the surface is not what matters). But it turns out that tattoos are the perfect consumer items. They make people feel better about themselves. Just as Hummers make some people feel powerful, tattoo-wearers will talk (and talk and talk and talk) about how their tattoos make them feel strong, free, wild and unique.

In a forthcoming essay in The American Interest, David Kirby observes that there are essentially two types of tattoo narratives, the Record Book and the Canvas. Record Book tattoos commemorate the rites of passage in a life. Canvas tattoos are means of artistic expression.

So some people will have their kids’ faces tattooed across their backs, or the motorcycle that belonged to a now-dead friend, or a fraternity, brigade or company logo. In a world of pixelated flux, these tattoos are expressions of commitment — a way to say that as long as I live, this thing will matter to me. They don’t always work out — on the reality show “Miami Ink” a woman tried to have her “I will succeed thru Him” tattoo altered after she grew sick of religion — but the longing for permanence is admirable.

Other people are trying to unveil their wild side. They’re taking advantage of the fact that tattoos are associated with felons, bikers and gangstas. They’re trying to show that far from being the dull communications majors they appear to be, they are actually free spirits — sensual, independent, a little dangerous.

The problem is that middle-class types have been appropriating the symbols of marginalized outcasts since at least the 1830’s. This is no longer a way to express individuality; it’s a way to be part of the mob. Today, fashion trends may originate on Death Row, but it takes about a week and a half for baggy jeans, slut styles and tattoos to migrate from Death Row to Wal-Mart.

What you get is a culture of trompe l’oeil degeneracy. People adopt socially acceptable transgressions — like tattoos — to show they are edgy, but inside they are still middle class. You run into these candy-cane grunge types: people with piercings and inkings all over their bodies who look like Sid Vicious but talk like Barry Manilow. They’ve got the alienated look — just not the anger.

And that’s the most delightful thing about the whole tattoo fad. A cadre of fashion-forward types thought they were doing something to separate themselves from the vanilla middle classes but are now discovering that the signs etched into their skins are absolutely mainstream. They are at the beach looking across the acres of similar markings and learning there is nothing more conformist than displays of individuality, nothing more risk-free than rebellion, nothing more conservative than youth culture.

Another generation of hipsters, laid low by the ironies of consumerism.

[dar512]

Cartoon from the late '60s (when I was a lad) --

"Why do you have long hair?" (addressed to a guy)

"Because I want proclaim my individuality. I want to be unique."

"Shouldn't you have short hair, then?"

The 40-something librarian at the local public library has one on her shoulder. I'm guessing they're on the way out.

[wolf]

I heard a news story teased while I was waking up a day or two ago about students complaining about the school dress code (presumably in Philadlephia) which bans items such as ripped jeans and facial piercings. The girl I heard interviewed was complaining on behalf of her friend who had gotten an eyebrow piercing over the summer, "It was like $70 and they're making her take it out."

I similarly hope that the young lady (giving her the benefit of the doubt) who was interviewed can have her "like" excised before the end of the school year.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by David Brooks

We now have to work under the assumption that every American has a tattoo.

Do we really?

I mean, even if every single American did have a tattoo, how many situations are there where you actually would have to work under that assumption, rather than just not caring?

And that’s the most delightful thing about the whole tattoo fad. A cadre of fashion-forward types thought they were doing something to separate themselves from the vanilla middle classes but are now discovering that the signs etched into their skins are absolutely mainstream.

Ha, ha! Let's laugh at all those people who got tattoos before they were mainstream! Because now other people are doing it, too! Take that, wierdos.