Tattoos are often argued about over being either an irresponsible and permanent choice or as a personal expression of self. I personally find that tattoos are and can be very beautiful, yet I know others who think they can be frightening and intimidating. While there may never really be one constant opinion on whether they're good or bad, my real question is why is it that so many people care what other people put on their bodies? Why is the decision to get a tattoo seen as any more or less permanent than the career paths that we're told that we have to decide on at such a young age? We as people have a tendency to not mind our business about other people's life choices, but the obsession with a person's choice to get body art seems a bit excessive.
Before I got my first tattoo everyone kept telling me how very permanent it would be (because apparently that wasn't something I would have thought of at all) and I had been asked questions like "What if you can't get a job because of it?" This lead me to ask, and to continue asking, why shouldn't a person be able to get a job because they have a tattoo? Or many tattoos? What scares the older generation that employs us that so much about a person with a little extra decor? The answer is that there is no reason, it's just closed-mindedness. When people don't like something then they tend not to look at it and, well, this is just another way to not look at it. That being said they still exist, they're still there, and they don't really directly affect anyone's life other than the person with tattoos.
That being considered, as the millennials get older there are new people closer to our own age beginning to take on higher positions at jobs who are probably more accepting of tattoos. I know that I've taken on a number of jobs where my tattoo has never come into question or compromised my position and, interestingly enough, I was by far not the only one with a tattoo. The thing that people my age often fear, especially in the world we live in today, is whether they're going to be able to get a job. No one wants to do anything that could compromise that, but there's no reason that this should. If we can be pushed into deciding what we want to do with the rest of our lives at this age, then we can decide what we want to look like at this age.
I'm not saying that you should go ahead and tattoo the crap out of your face. In my own opinion, tattoos should be something that you really think about before you get. I don't think they should be done on a whim and I don't agree with every tattoo choice that I see. What I am saying is that it's nobody's business except for your own.
