Beauty Controversy: Future Tattooed Leaders of Tomorrow

Okay I admit: as soon as I turned 18, (I thought I was a mature woman at the time), I ran out of the house and got a tattoo. I recall the free tattoo stickers available when you buy a Bazooka bubblegum and putting it on my arm. The feeling of having this temporary art piece on my hand, arm, wherever my little body displayed Bazooka Joe made me so content. I knew then I was excited to grow up and get a real tattoo: a symbolic to freedom, maturity and liberation. Throughout my life, I have received a small number of tattoos in remembrance of a memory, belief, or “phase” I had been living.

As I grew older I have seen the popularity of tattooed adolescents and even on some senior citizens. Society has become widely acceptable to permanent tattoos. Tattoos are an expression of ourselves and a reflection of our creative minds drawn into our flesh. It has even become popular amongst children, a very cute gesture that has replaced putting stickers on our shirts during recess. Now kids are feeling the need to get “tatted up”: temporary or not. Is the temporary tattoo craze on little kids preparing them for ink in the future?

It has become apparent that tattoos are considered “cool”. To be like mom or dad, or simply the idolized tattooed characters in the media, our kids aspire to be or look like them. Is it necessary to train our kids that getting inked is the “in” thing to do by adding them onto their bodies? Or does the tattoo being temporary send a message that things are interchangeable and options are available? For those that have a tattoo, we all know that they are decisions that last a lifetime (if not considering laser treatments and bleach creams). And some of us can agree they are a mistake or regret we must live with. Should we reconsider instilling the tattoo persuasion, or this type of inked behavior in the future leaders of tomorrow?

A tattoo must be a learning process for us all at any age. What do you think?

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/gemsling/2152976934

Bazooka bubblegum, permanent tattoos, should I get a tattoo?, temporary tattoos