SOC Sunday- You don't need to pet me, mmmkay?

This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post hosted by all.things.fadra. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

    •    Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
    •    Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
    •    Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.

Five minutes. Got it. Ready, set, go.

So, I'm pretty excited about today. I'm getting my arm tattooed by an artist I've been wanting to work on me for a long time. But he's usually booked up months at a time. But a couple of weeks ago, I checked and he had today available. And of course, I snagged that appointment slot. Booyah! I already have a big day of the dead skull on my arm, with flowers. I know I want more flowers on it, but honestly I'll take his advice and opinion and go from there. 

Unless you have visible tattoos (and I don't mean that little kanji on your ankle), you don't realize how flippin weird some people are about tattoos. I have a number of them, I'd say I'm moderately tattooed? And I have a number of piercings. Nose, two barbells in my tongue, and about a million in my ears in all the weird places (not just the lobes).

What is it about modifications that make people act so damn weird? I've had strangers come up and without even saying a word to me, start rubbing my tattooed arm. And when I look at them with a "what the hell are you doing" look on my face, they tell me "Oh, I just wanted to see what your tattoo felt like." I mean, excuse me? How did a tattoo magically make you forget socially accepted "personal space"? I mean, if you're wearing a faux fur vest or something, you don't see me walking up and "petting" you.

A few years ago, I took my oldest daughter to a new doctor for a check up. I don't know what nationality/religion he was, or if that even pertains to the story, but I know he was Middle Eastern. But he looks at my tattoo, and asks "Why don't you believe in God?" So because I have a skull on my arm, I now have "I hate God" stamped on my forehead? My husband works at a church, and while a t-shirt covers up most of my tattoo, you can still see part of it, and I've never had anyone at church give me a hard time about it. So now I need to explain myself to a pediatrician, who should be checking out my daughter's allergies instead of lecturing me about my religious preferences? Oh, and the conversation ended with him telling me that worshipping the devil isn't a good idea. WTH, dude? And yeah, we don't go there anymore.

Hubby says that even though tattoos are becoming more mainstream and socially accepted (and heck, even Animal Planet had a commercial with a heavily tattooed guy holding a frou-frou dog), choosing to put something like that on display is asking to be judged. But, if I'm not going to walk up to you and ask why you're wearing mom jeans, or rockin' a comb over, I feel like that should be a two way street.

I mean, most people, if they say anything, it's just "Oh, I love your tattoo!". That's cool, and I appreciate it.

But, the strangers who walk up, and say with an accusatory tone, stupid stuff like "Why would you do that to yourself?" How am I supposed to answer that? Or for that matter, since when was I required to explain myself to a perfect stranger? Want to ask me if it hurt? That's cool. You want to ask me if it means anything? Go right ahead, I love talking about myself :)

But there is a HUGE difference between asking questions and confronting a stranger about their personal choices.

So why would I do that to myself? I did it because I'm awesome and I felt like it, that's why. :)