Why are tattoos still taboo?

     I have always known that a lot of people aren't fond of tattoos. In my experience, it's been mostly older people, but some younger people are against them as well. I have one (so far). Below is a sample of the things I have heard since then, and my response to them.

1. You know that's permanent? No, really?!?! I thought that if I scrubbed really hard with alcohol, it would come off. Seriously, yes, I know that it's permanent. I put a lot of thought into it and it has meaning.

2. You're going to regret that one day. Yeah, I might. But right now, I love it. If in 50 years I'm not so fond of it, it's easily covered. Heck, I got it in August and there were some family members that didn't even know about it until after Christmas.

3. You're destroying your beautiful skin. No, I'm pretty sure that cancerous skin cells and various dermatologists destroyed my skin more than a tattoo did.

4. If God wanted that there, then he would have put it there. This is my favorite because the people that generally say this have altered their appearance in some way. Let's talk about a few of them; hair color, earrings, makeup. And here are two that people usually skip; glasses and hearing aids. Using their logic, if God wanted them to see and hear, they wouldn't need glasses or hearing aids.

     Now, according to the New York Post, the most recent Harris Poll shows that 1 in 5 American adults have at least one tattoo. You would think that at some point, people would just accept that all kinds of people are getting tattoos. Not everyone with a tattoo is a drug user, an ex-con or good for nothing.

     What are your thoughts on tattoos? If you don't like them, do you make comments like the ones above?

     Here's a picture of mine. My mom loved teddy bears. She passed away in May, so my teddy bear is an angel.