After watching Alpha Dog, an excellent movie IMO (Justin Timberlake is actually becoming cool), I was reminded of my desire for tattoos. I think they look really cool and plan to eventually have my arms and upper torso covered with tattoos. I want them to all blend together and hopefully be full of depth and shading. The closer you look the more you'll notice in the tattoo.

Anyway, I just made the first step by stopping by a local tattoo shop, Anipeg Tattoo (the only one in the area alleged to be approved by the health industry), and asked about pricing. Apparently it's approximately $150/hr. Canadian, depending on complexity, etc. I can probably afford a pretty nice one at the moment (hurray for living with parents) so I'm thinking about getting my first tattoo soon. The only problem is that I'm currently blocked as far as what I should get. I'm also no artist so I'll need to rely on the tattoo artist (or perhaps another artist) to draw what I'm thinking...

Anybody here have tattoos (particularly many tattoos like I'm planning)? Also, does anybody know what it's called to have many images blending together to form one big image? I know that on the west coast of America (California, for example) it's popular to have similar concepts painted on low-riders where the images all blend together, etc... I don't want to get a boring tattoo. I want to get really beautiful tattoos with lots of depth and such...

You're free to use my avatar.

Anyway, I couldn't imagine myself getting a tattoo. First of all I'm too old. I also don't think I could decide on the image. I should be able to imagine myself after 30 years with that same tattoo. And I couldn't give blood after that. Not for a long time, I think, if ever. Since I've given blood at least ten times, it would now feel as a very selfish thing to choose a tattoo instead of continuing giving blood.

Get a Pac-Man tattoo. Chicks dig Pac-Man.

This is pretty cool:
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I'd respect any person (and indeed offer to buy them lunch/dinner or beer) that had that tattooed on their arm, or ankle as the case may be.

I don't see why people would have a reason for messing with me to begin with so I don't feel the need to have a tattoo to alert others not to mess with me. Plus, if someone had a reason to mess with you I don't think a measly tattoo would scare them off.

Maybe if you bulked up, got a fancy scimitar and shaved your head in addition to getting a tattoo people would be scared of you.

Edit:

Way to edit, cheater;)

In the past tattoos were cool; nowadays, if you want to really stand out from the crowd, Don't get a tattoo. I think I saw a program called Miami Ink once, where people would get tattoos of dead relatives, stuff that happened to them and shit like that. I don't get that at all. One guy tattooed a big needle which would remind of his tough times suffering through diabetes. Like that would give it more meaning or something. Nah, I will never get a tattoo. I was more into it when I was younger. But when I couldn't decide on a motive, I decided to stay nice and clean. My body is a sanctuary

So why ask a bunch of complete strangers for suggestions?

Interestingly, my grandfather got quite a few tattoos during his time in the navy. He later had most of them removed. This was before fancy laser technology. They just stripped the skin off. He went into shock and briefly died on the operating table before being resuscitated.

http://www.allegro.cc/files/attachment/592385

I wasn't really asking members for tattoo suggestions for myself. I'm curious how many members have tattoos and what their experiences have been with them. I'm also interested in what your ideas are for tattoos (because I've seen some other members express interest in them).

How bad can a tattoo be that you would have your skin stripped off!? I acknowledge that tattoos are serious and don't go away easily. That's why I'm taking my time choosing them. I won't get them until I'm very satisfied with the designs and the artists.

The great thing about art is that even though you know what it is most people won't have a clue. If you get the art done well enough most people will just see a beautiful woman, or a crazy guy in a black cloak with a long sword. These are things that never really get old. I saw a tattoo of an angel the size of a man's back (on Miami Ink, actually :: awesome show and amazing artists) that was just so well done it was unbelievable. Tattoos get a bad reputation from poor artists and foolish people. The others love it.

You may or may not know, but Vin Diesel* is supposed to have a tattoo on his abs of a Dungeons and Dragons character that he created.

That is a very good and justified question. I wasn't completely sure what to call the thread (unfortunately, the word tattoo alone is negative to me) and I was in the process of figuring it out as I wrote the OP. After some revision, both of the OP and the title, I became satisfied with the OP and instinctively submitted it. As it sent it occurred to me that I was unsure about the state of the title. I was dissatisfied with Metaphoric Tattoo, but acknowledged that it could have been worse (missing half of one of the words, for example). In short, the title was never finalized. It's not completely inaccurate though, so I'm not concerned about it at all.

As for the inspiration of the word Metaphoric, the tattoos I plan to get are intended to be somewhat metaphoric, to me at least. I want people to see them, ask about them, and admire them the way I feel about some of the tattoos I've seen.

_{* The star of Pitch Black, The Fast and the Furious, Knockaround Guys, A Man Apart, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Pacifier, and Find Me Guilty (among others).}

I am comfortable in my geekiness so thats not really a problem. I wouldn't want to fork out the cash for a tattoo anyways.

What would be really cool is some form of LCD skin...

Tattoos is for pussies. Branding is for men. And I'm talking livestock branding here

They oppose it because they dislike FF. I'm taking my time with it so no worries. I won't get it done until I'm sure about it.

I discovered that one of the things I'm looking for is a sleeve tattoo (or 2 ), as Wikipedia calls it, where you have a very large tattoo, or a collection of smaller tattoos, that cover, or almost covers, a person's entire arm, usually from shoulder to wrist.

Yeah, I usually wear long sleeved shirts anyway... You could probably theoretically cover the tattoo temporarily with a lot of make-up if you HAD to. I think a lot of positions wouldn't mind tattoos either as long as you present yourself appropriately. Hopefully I end up at a game company that doesn't mind tattoos. Even still, I'm hesitant to get a tattoo on my neck because it's more difficult to cover up (for formal occasions). It's also some of the best canvas space so I want to save it for the perfect tattoo.