h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tattoos and piercings can give you an insight to a persons character. For example, the people that give all true tattooees a bad name, i.e. those that think a tattoo of their favorite team would be a good idea when they are pissed, you can see that the character of this person is seriously flawed.
They have no individuallity or imagination.

How true it is that too many people view those of us who have taken the time to pursue our chosen path of decorating our bodies with disdain and in some cases amusement. I am nearly 40 years old at the time of writing and currently sport 27 tattoos (although it is a case of 25 plus 2 cover-ups) and I was described recently by a member of the Social Services here in England as looking rather like a comic book character rather than a father approaching middle-age. When will people learn that we have the right to choose our own individual path and that being tattooed does not make us comical nor does it make us aggressive - it is always the odd one or two who will give the majority a bad name.

I am in fact off to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on 29 April 2000 to participate in the event being held in which a series of discussions etc will be held with tattooists and tattooees as well as our body decoration being photographed for the museums archives. I can only hope that if the V&A can have an enlightened approach to tattooing then more people will see it for its creativity rathre than the negatiuve view that still prevails.