Letter of Recommendation: B.F.F. Tattoos

Random thoughts...
According to the Red Cross, getting a tattoo means not being able to donate blood (depending on the state in which you donate) for 12 months. That is 6.5 blood donations that will not be acquired to help someone who needs it. Gauging by the amount of skin ink I witness, that statistic is staggering.

Most tattoos in my view are not very interesting and have turned into visual cliches. So much for individuality. Skin without tattoos is unique in our culture.

BFF? Best friends help each other move that solid wood desk or old stinky mattress up 3 flights of stairs on a humid day in August, or drive their friend to LAX in rush hour, or stay up all night when their boy/girlfriend (who was a piece of work to start with) breaks up because they has to "find" themselves.

Goodness, some of these comments are rather harsh. I personally love tattoos, and will get a few myself when the time is right and I can decide on what I want.

However, the author sounds like she really thought this through. And she doesn't regret her choices. Why? They represent something to her, even if they are of memories past.

Just because something isn't to your personal taste doesn't mean you have to insult the author, her choices, or people with tattoos. Just a thought.

Sometimes I forget how old the average NYT reader is - then I read comments sections like these.

Thank you for the perspective.

If you find pleasure in making your body a canvas, why not. Me, I'm a minimalist. During the Vietnam War, I was one of the few Marines in my unit without one. Somebody told me it was bad luck but it wasn't.

While I'm not interesting in getting a tattoo for myself, I found the idea of two friends getting tats that express their affection for one another, a poignant and lovely ritual. Nor does it have to be tats, anything that acknowledges and celebrates the deepness of the friendship has an eternal quality, even if the friends drift apart.

" I choose to paint a time capsule onto my body that represents the ferocity of a feeling"

Let our ephemeral feelings dictate our actions and life will be an eternal soap opera. Which, if you think about it, it is...

Good lord, people. I don't have a tattoo, but how does it harm you if she does or--gasp!--she has six "best" friends? (If she does, she's lucky, right?)

You can get laser removal if you want to change things, but it's going to be pretty common to see old people with tatts soon, since every second 30-something is tattooed (and maybe half the forty-somethings).

I wish the article had covered the reasons why NYC banned tattoos and then lifted the ban.

I think the philosopher Jimmy Buffett sung it best "A permanent reminder of a temporary feeling".

They are not for me and perhaps more people look worse than look better with them; but, I must admit, on some people, those with an eye for style and good taste a well placed, well planned and executed tattoo can be like that one stroke of a painter's brush that makes all the difference.

I have several tattoos that I got when I was younger. Now in my mid-30s, I am planning to get all of them removed because as it turns out, you don't want the same things when you're older as you did when you were young. But there is one I will keep - a small one that could be described as a "best friend" tattoo. I will keep it though I am no longer "best friends" or even friends at all with my partner in that particular. We haven't spoken in ten years, but still I'd like it to remain.

I am baffled by the aggressively judgmental comments on this article. The author is communicating her OWN perspective on the tattoos she loves and has chosen to adorn her OWN body. Her point is that SHE not only does not regret her tattoos, she loves them. Others may feel differently. These judgmental comments about tattoos being stupid and ugly are truly unwarranted and uncalled for by this article, the whole point of which is the author sharing an alternative perspective on a controversial form of body art. I am a 19-year-old who got a matching tattoo last year with someone I love very much and I am sick of hearing that I will regret it someday. Obviously this is a point I considered before forever marking my body. Even if twenty years from now, it is not the tattoo I would choose again, it will be a symbol of a time in my life in which an idea and a friendship felt so important to me that I had to immortalize it on my skin, and I will cherish it for that. Please remember everyone's body is their own to modify or not.

I find the negativity in the comments section of this piece both towards the content and the subject matter to be astounding. The piece is very well written and speaks to emotions that are so rare. I have a five tattoos myself and I understand the drive and excitement and momentary insanity that leads one to this choice. My most recent piece was one I got at age 30 with two close friends and every line of this article rang true to me specifically: "Instead, I choose to paint a time capsule onto my body that represents the ferocity of a feeling — one too rare to go unacknowledged." As we grow older, white hot emotions like the ones discussed here are far too rare to come by. I view each piece on my body as a memory that I carry with me. They speak to who I was at the time and act as a reminder of what I felt and who I was with. The readers claiming that the tattoos look ugly to them after the passage of time miss the meaning of both the article and of tattoos in general - these experiences, memories, and tributes are not for the anybody else but ourselves. They act as a machine we carry with us that transports us back to a moment in time reminding us who we used to be and who we hoped we might become.

I don't know why I am surprised by the negativity of some of the comments. I don't have a tattoo and wouldn't get one. But I don't understand the point of casting judgement on a stranger's character based on decisions that impacts no one but the author.

Beautiful. My favorite tattoo says, "Nothing is permanent."

(Know that your audience is a bit conservative in action, often liberal in thought.)

Ah yes, the inevitable wave of comments advising Ms. Wortham of what she should or shouldn't do or have done with her own skin. And all the poor little girls who might read this and then decide, solely based on this piece, to alter the course of their lives forever!

Thank you for this interesting article. This idea of friendship tattoo sounds to me, quite literally, like a superficial way to force a bond, avoiding the real work of interrelating that friendship requires. I wonder if is alluring to people who look for support and meaning in community, but don't really know how to make it happen.

Sadly she got herself tattooed just as the trend is waning.

This is such a sweet story. Thank you for sharing it.

Indelibly desecrating the body you were born with goes beyond bad judgement. I lost you at the part where you say you have no regret about what you have done.

I always wonder.........where is ALL the research and sturdies that show that tatoos and the inks used in them........are SAFE?
What does the leaching of those chemicals, over the years, actually cause or not cause??
I know quite a few middle age friends who had their kids die of different types of cancer.....and they ALL had tatoos.
Well, given the current state of affairs in foods and additives........maybe we need a label on the tattoo ink bottle saying.........NON GMO, or NATURAL PIGMENTS or APPROVED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH OF SWAZILAND..........or........well, you get the idea.
I have been a Dentist for 40 years and have seen that SOME long term, general Medical issues in patients HAVE been resolved via Mercury filling removal. Real? Imagined? Coincidental?......or maybe REAL ( ck out IAOMT.ORG.......if you dare!!! )
As tatoos get MORE popular and common........keep your eyes open for
" blistering exposes " about tatoos.....the topic is RIPE for some PhD's to make their bones.

I hope this article does not come to the attention of too many impressionable young girls who might be motivated by it to get tattoos. Aside from the potential health risk due to infection, if the process is not pursued properly, tattoos are something many get in haste and repent in leisure. For some, they are a barbaric custom. For others, they become embarrassing when circumstances change, For young girls, they are very permanent and often very difficult to get rid of when they are no longer appropriate or wanted.

Jenna,
How is it possible for one to have six "best friends?" Isn't that a conflicted usage of the superlative, "best?"

"I choose to paint a time capsule onto my body"
No, you don't. You had, as you yourself described a bunch of ink injected deep into your skin and the tissue under it by someone else.
As you age your skin is going to stretch and these images are going to go out of focus. That will mean whatever it ends up meaning to you.
What it looks like to many of us right now is just stupid.

Nothing uglier than tattoos IMO. Nothing (except nose rings, maybe.) Would never hire a person with a visible tattoo. Would never date one. What can I say? We all have our non-negotiable items.

tats look great at 50 plus

"Getting a tattoo is arguably one of the most insane decisions a sensible human can make."

Not much of an argument really.