Had dinner with Sunil at the Hari Krishna temple. Noticed that the woman behind the cash register had a Hari Krishna related tattoo. When I commented to her about never having seen one she told me that they were common. It struck me as unusual but given time to reflect I imagine that it is common to get a religous tattoo.

About an hour later I was sitting at a bus stop next to some teenage boys. As they got on the bus in front of me I noticed that one of them had a tattoo inspired by the rap group "Insane Clown Posse". I commented on it and asked him if he had heard the song "Mad Professor". ICP is one of the few rap groups I can hang with lately--the other one being J5 if anybody cares...

Both incidents struck me as a little surreal, and caused me to wonder what they will think of their tattoos later in life.All of us know (or know of) people that got tattoos as a symbol of everlasting devotion [and later found that devotion to not be so everlasting.]

I got a taste of this several years ago when my daughter got her first tattoos. I printed out the Tattoo FAQ and gave her a copy. My position was--if she wanted to get a tattoo fine but the time to understand all the in's and out's of tattoos is before you do it, not after. She didn't seem to see the logic in this viewpoint, insisting that I was against her getting a tattoo. Actually I think this can be one of the elements behind the psychology of getting a tattoo. The need to rebel and define yourself as in charge of your body. And in some sense getting a tattoo can help to define yourself to yourself. At least, that's the intention. As a devotee of Krishna or Insane Clown Posse in these cases.

Sunil showed me that he is listed in "Who's Who in America". Very cool. I wonder, probably the only guy I know that can say that. Another interesting way of having one's self defined. Sunil who? Hang on, let's look in the book and see. I asked him to scan it and give me a copy. name url comment
sunil Eastern philosophy says that the skin is like a clothing. You could look at it in two ways---skin doesn't matter and you can do anything with it including tattoing, or don't worry about you skin so much as to want to "dress it up" with tattoes.

Did you'll know that in ancient times in India, woman had to get their left hand, just above the wrist on the palm side, tattooed with their husband's name. Of course, in those days the tattoo would be justified to be on the person's hand for ever since the concept of divorce did not exist.

The Tattoo FAQ was amazing!