I am dismayed (too strong a word, I don't think so) by the advent of easily removed tattoos. It speaks volumes on our society (can you tell which view I take?). The concept smacks of the "I Love you but I'm not in Love with you" trend we have. If you think you might not want a tattoo for life, you shouldn't get one (sorry fence sitters). Or get one of those nice airbrushed ones, or try Henna. My point is, there have long been options for the permanence-phobes.

It is a case of having one's cake, and eating it too [side note, if anyone could explain where that turn of phrase came from, I'd love to know!]. Folks, a tattoo is supposed to be permanent (although my heart goes out to you kids who arrive home from Spring Break with Tinkerbell on their right butt cheek). We are rapidly becoming a disposable culture - sometimes you need to make a decision and stick by it!

I think the original phrase was eat your cake and have it too. Once you've eaten it, you no longer have it - its gone. So you can either have a beautiful cake, which you can look at, or you can eat that cake, but then no longer have it. It doesn't help when we say 'would you like to have some cake?' but really mean "here, eat some cake".

I'll shut my cakehole now.

Celebith

Oddly, I find tattoos and removable tattoos ridiculous for opposite reasons. The notion of permanently embedding some sentiment or other in your flesh makes my, er, skin crawl. When you no longer love roses, Sally, or the Celtics the same way, you're still walking around advertising the brand. On the other hand, removable tattoos? Why not skip the self-delusion and just use the stick-on kind, like my four-year-old daughter does?

Removable tattoos? Hmm....can color changing tattoos be too far behind? Hyper-Tattoos? When you jazzercise they turn hot pink.

First the disclaimer...I am the proud owner of a very nice tattoo that I got for my 34th birthday. Since I will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of that birthday this year, I am contemplating adding another. However. There are rules that everyone should follow when getting a tattoo.

1. Never put anyone's name on your body. Ever. Period. Angelina Jolie learned this the hard way.

2. Never put a sports team, brand name, fraternity or any other lettering on your body. Addendum - don't count on a tattoo artists' ability to spell. Witness the poor guy that had "CHI-TONW" tattooed on his neck in three inch high Gothic script last fall.

3. Never put a tattoo anywhere where it will be visible when you are wearing a suit. Ladies, this includes your ankles.

4. Never choose a design that's hanging on the wall in the tattoo parlour. Everyone else has already done that.

5. Never go to a tattoo parlour that is willing to do the art as soon as you walk in the door. This is almost a guarantee of shoddy, hurried work.

6. Never put anything on your body in a language other than your own. I recently read a magazine article wherein the author had nifty Chinese characters inscribed on his bicep. It's apparently very trendy right now. When he questioned a friend as to the apparent hilarity his tattoo caused when he was in Chinatown, he was told that what the thing REALLY said was a snotty comment regarding his idiocy in getting a tattoo in a language he doesn't speak. This is not a rare occurence. He was lucky. Some people walk around for years with obscenities on their bodies.

7. Never put a tattoo on a part of your body that is guaranteed to sag, droop, or stretch. Ladies - a belly button tattoo is a BAD idea if you plan on having children afterward. Likewise something cute on your breast. A friend recounted the transformation of a hummingbird to a pterodactyl just because of a ten pound weight gain. Like wise tattoos on bums, thighs, hips, etc.

8. Men. Never tattoo your scalp. You aren't going to be able to let hair grow there forever, even if Old Grampa Higgins died at the age of 95 with a full head of hair.

9. Never go to a place that doesn't have a health certificate on the wall. Likewise never go unless they are willing to show you recent photographs of their clients - not just a picture of the design.

10. I don't know if I should even have to say this, but if an artist reuses needles or "finishes up" already-opened ink, run in the other direction. You chould ALWAYS have new needles and new ink, and I don't care if there's an autoclave in the room. Watch them open the sealed packages.

There are a bunch of other things to consider (colored tattoos fade unless you put sunscreen over them, go for black if you want low maintenance), but if you follow the above rules you should be all right.

I have 4 tattoos. One on each of my upper arms, and one each on my forearms. I have had the first for 11 years, and the latest for 10 years. And I am beginning to think about removal. Why this is anyones business to judge my 19-year-old self against the standards of my 30-year-old self is beyond me. I have loved my tattoos, and still love 2 of them, but am researching removal. The downside - currently the two options are:

1. Laser removal: can leave a scar, hurts more than getting the tattoo. Tends to remove blues and blacks completely, but not reds, greens, and yellows. Mine include red, and I am very pale; thus, mostly likely I will always have a faint red infinity on my arm.

2. Surgical Extraction: This is actually cutting the tattoo'ed skin out of the body. Absolutely leaves a scar, and I have had a plastic surgeon refuse to do this because forearm scars make people think of suicide attempts.

I would lvoe to have had some of mine done in ink that only takes one laser treatment to remove.

Good guidelines. I'm smart/lucky enough that I followed them all on my first time.

I think it's entirely a good thing. It's still a real tattoo, after all, the only difference is that it's less of an affair to get it painfully removed than with the old-fashioned way. It's still a chore, though. The purpose is the promotion of body art. I think a lot more people who would consider getting a tattoo---but who don't because they're worried about the sky falling and them being stuck with something they hate---will decide in favor of body art when they can rest assured that if they hate it 20 years later, they can get rid of it. More people getting them translates into a greater social acceptance of tattooing, to the point where maybe one day lawyers and businessman can get visible tats and no one is even bothered by it. That will be the day.

Piercings are sexy and easily changeable-- even removable.

And trust me, if you need to "feel like you're alive," a hollow-tipped needle pushing through your nipples will do it!

Having it both ways is, after all, The American Dream, no? I often wonder what people who get tattoos, especially those huge, scary, really nasty-looking ones, in their 20s or late teens planned to DO with them as they age and their skin ages along with them. Removable ones seem the perfect solution, to me. Btw, did you know that the US Marines recently banned their men (and women, I assume) from getting those really large nasty ones, on their forearms? As a former Navy (officer's) wife, I'll admit to some longheld distaste about them.

to MOMA? I like your Rules of Tattoo Conduct here but must admit to being grossed out by them; have been, for years. Your best piece of advice is to the ladies, do not let them be visible, esp'y. when wearing a suit. (They are just SO UNprofessional-looking, to me.) Do you suppose Richard SERRA has one? Also, have you read/viewed the Slide Show on the Arch. Fray yet -- about Governor's Island? Fascinating stuff, imho. Auntie P.

Well, the new one will be a cat design that I found on an old watercolor. It's truly lovely, no hard lines, just a lot of shading. It's also going to be just above the small of my back. Since we moved, though, I haven't yet found an artist that's up to it - it's pretty complicated to do things like that.

As for wearing it to MOMA...it's not like I have a lot of choice, is it? LOL! Will anyone see it? I've never been brave enough to wear a gown cut that low in the back. I live in mortal terror of bending over and having the whole thing fall off entirely. If I'm ever fool enough to wear a swimsuit in public, the whole world will get to see both of them.

Gotta read the Arch. article. I don't know a lot about Governor's Island....

Well, yes, I meant will you wear it VISIBLY to MOMA, of course! :-) ... The Governor's Island piece is fascinating; I remember the Island growing up as a little kid in and then around NYC, but we never went to it that I can remember. When that amount of land becomes available in such a congested metro. area as NYC metro, it's a real landmark day. Especially a forty-acre free-standing island surrounded by a major body of water (New York Harbor) so close to a huge open body of water, The Atlantic Ocean with a gorgeous, unobstructed view of The Statue of Libery.

(The inter-governmental squabbling has gone on over a period of years, so it's wonderful to learn that they are finally moving ahead.) I think you'll enjoy the visuals of the slide show. Good luck finding just the RIGHT tattoo artist for your new cat.

The world is safe from my tattoos, I promise. At my age, it's unseemly to show off my belly button as well - lest you think ill - I have no children. It still looks wonderful. As for an artist, well, I'm seriously considering flying to Toronto to have that done.

Why is a tattoo supposed to be permanent? I see no reason why it should be one way or the other. Tattoos are frivolous to begin with, so why should it matter whether they are permenant or not. After all, we can dye our hair, change our eye color with contact lenses and fix our jiggly bits if we want. I fail to see why tattoos should be a different sort of cosmetic fluff.