The hypomania of early sobriety and getting dumb tattoos
Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Ireland
Posts: 1,641
I am definitely getting a big shamrock on my forehead for Christmas.
I worked in San Francisco years ago.
A guy, completely covered in tattoos was getting a major surgery with a skinflap/graft done. I spent a long time with him and a mirror picking the correct spot to take the graft from to match the area removed.
One of many strange experiences.
I worked in San Francisco years ago.
A guy, completely covered in tattoos was getting a major surgery with a skinflap/graft done. I spent a long time with him and a mirror picking the correct spot to take the graft from to match the area removed.
One of many strange experiences.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Ohio
Posts: 3,785
Originally Posted by Sbforever 
Ask your sponsor I guess. That's what I was told is suggested before major life choices.
Clever Yak
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: ---
Posts: 4,360
This post makes me laugh. I am of the younger generation where tattoos are not taboo and are rather widely accepted. Let the guy make mistakes. Asking your sponsor whether or not you should get a tattoo is ridiculous. When will you ever learn to make your own decisions and trust yourself if you keep running to someone for guidance over silly choices such as getting a tat? Should I run to my sponsor if I need to know if eating chicken for dinner is a good choice (which is hypothetical, considering I do not do an NA program)? I realize you said "major life choices" but when did a tattoo become a major life choice? If you're smart about it, you'd get it in a spot where it can be concealed as not to affect your job... then it doesn't matter. Tattoos are generally personal. I do not believe anyone should have a say over the choices I make with my body except myself...which really, when you think about it, is why we as addicts or alcoholics continue to drink or drug until we make the biggest mistakes of our entire lives and LEARN other behaviors instead of drinking or drugging. Nobody else has any control over our body. If I want to kill it with drugs, then I will. If I have a true resolve not to do such a thing, then I won't.
I am of the theory that mistakes must be made in order to learn and early sobriety is all about learning a new way of living... if his mistake is a permanent fixture on his body, so be it. It is better than returning to alcohol or drugs because he is still breathing and is not in a jail or institution. It will remind him what not to do later. Might be something he actually needs for all you know.
I am of the theory that mistakes must be made in order to learn and early sobriety is all about learning a new way of living... if his mistake is a permanent fixture on his body, so be it. It is better than returning to alcohol or drugs because he is still breathing and is not in a jail or institution. It will remind him what not to do later. Might be something he actually needs for all you know.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 124
Originally Posted by JustAYak
This post makes me laugh. I am of the younger generation where tattoos are not taboo and are rather widely accepted.
This is what happened when I typed "tattoos are" into google and let auto suggest take over. Widely accepted did not come up.
A better name for many of the tattoos I see the newly sober getting would be:
"Opportunity removers"
"Low class indicators"
This is societies view.
Plus this is the mental health forum and the discussion is whether or not good decisions about tattoos are made when the frontal lobe is still fried during post acute withdrawals with hypomania and all that.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: London
Posts: 1,384
Some tattoos look pretty cool some so not so cool , definitely not a low class indicator as the above states. Tattoos have come on a long way , here in uk there is a massive tattoo culture , Live and let live , save your judgmental rantings to when sitting on the toilet.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 51
Tattoos are art, and art is up to the individual. My dad was an artist and I didn't always like all of his creations. That doesn't mean they aren't good, or have less value, it just means they aren't my style. Tattoos are subjective and often continue to have meaning to the owner, even if that meaning changes over the years. I like tattoos because they offer insight into the person behind the tattoo. To me, they are less about the look of the tattoo itself and more about who the person is, how they think, what they believe.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 124
Originally Posted by islandgrrl
I like tattoos because they offer insight into the person behind the tattoo. To me, they are less about the look of the tattoo itself and more about who the person is, how they think, what they believe.
What do you think of this ?
You put that on your neck ? No I won't hire you and stay away from my daughter.
Guest
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 1,476
I used to be quite the naive idealist in my younger years.
"who are you to judge? " and stuff like that.
My Dad always said "I'd love to be your age again Hawks, but I'd love to be that age and know then what i know now"
I always took that to be the strange rantings of a man who had approached middle age and gained a bunch of rather useless wisdom.
Turns out I was just a "deaf know all" in my twenties.
Hard to tell a "deaf know all" anything.
"who are you to judge? " and stuff like that.
My Dad always said "I'd love to be your age again Hawks, but I'd love to be that age and know then what i know now"
I always took that to be the strange rantings of a man who had approached middle age and gained a bunch of rather useless wisdom.
Turns out I was just a "deaf know all" in my twenties.
Hard to tell a "deaf know all" anything.
Guest
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 1,476
Originally Posted by silentrun
They are expensive. My husband wants a "sleeve" but it is going to cost a couple of thousand. He isn't a loser. He is a non smoking, non drinking 50 year old married man with a 810 FICO.
There is a world of difference between high quality artwork in the form of a tattoo and getting some kind of "peer signifying stamp" wacked on by a friend who has a tattoo machine or finding a shop and just getting the cheapest job possible to signify to your friends that you're one of the "cool kids" too.
"cheap tattoos aren't good.... , good tattoos aren't cheap"
Is an old saying in the tattoo world.
All the high quality artists won't do some thing like what is in post #53.... That's not to say no one else will.
Money involved... There are always unprincipled people who go money above all else.
painless
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: somerset
Posts: 138
I am a tattoo artist with 25 years behind the machine... I have respect and only tattoo 18 and above. NO MINORS... I try to talk clients away from anything drug related... especially on the face and hands...
Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Baton Rouge, La.
Posts: 15,238
When I turned 50, a few yrs. ago, with
a number of yrs. sobriety, I took a motorcycle
course and got my endorsement, a my very
first tattoo. Today, I have many lovely, vibrant,
tasteful tattoos that I enjoy with a new one
ready to be inked on Halloween.
As long as Im comfortable with them,
appreciate them, and have an excellent
Tattoo Artist doing all my work, I don't
see anything negative about it.
a number of yrs. sobriety, I took a motorcycle
course and got my endorsement, a my very
first tattoo. Today, I have many lovely, vibrant,
tasteful tattoos that I enjoy with a new one
ready to be inked on Halloween.
As long as Im comfortable with them,
appreciate them, and have an excellent
Tattoo Artist doing all my work, I don't
see anything negative about it.
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: "I'm not lost for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost ..."
Posts: 5,273
If you are really concerned about newly sober people and their inability to make choices due to their mania and not-quite -right -yet brain functioning, it hardly seems that posting pics of bad tats and laughing at them is the way to reach out to the vulnerable newcomer.
Making poor choices because you are not in a solid and healthy frame of mind is not funny. I feel sorry for you that you don't have something more constructive to post.
Making poor choices because you are not in a solid and healthy frame of mind is not funny. I feel sorry for you that you don't have something more constructive to post.
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
