A Permanent Reminder of a Temporary Feeling
There’s no dumb ass vaccine.
Good to Know: Body Art will sag.
Today was the day I had enough of the freak parade.
What is it with people altering themselves permanently?
While at the grocery store, I counted 45 people who had altered themselves in some way or another.
Why?
Above collage: The professional alterers.
What’s the deal with extreme alterations and why do I have to see the wannabes at the grocery store?
It’s the tattooed wannabes that astound me.
What’s the point?
Dear Subscriber, I am going to be adding a section/tab called “Good to Know”. This is the first in that series. It will house advice that is hopefully useful to someone younger than me. It’s 2024 and I’ll be 64 this year.
Body art will sag.
Gravity, Mother Nature, loss of young skin will cause it.
When you’re under age 50, you think you’re never going to get old.
Then it happens and unless you embrace all the changes, you’re going to say “yuck”.
And they’re not your golden years, they are the years you give all your gold to doctors.
There is a comedian, my age, I can’t remember his name but he tells a joke about tattoos:
“In my day, if you saw a guy with a tattoo you knew he was a bad-ass who served in the Navy and saw war action. Now you see a guy with a tattoo, you’re sure he’s lactose intolerant.”
Have you ever looked at an old person?
I mean a really old person?
You know that eventually your skin is going to get old and sag too, right?
There’s not enough Botox in the world to stop it.
Did you know that Botox injections introduces Botulinum toxin (Botulism) into your body?
Body Art is a symptom of vanity.
Vanity and Pride are related.
Vanity deals with appearance where pride deals with circumstance.
If someone compliments your body art, your pride may make you feel awkward, but your vanity will make you feel happy.
I wrote once about personal behavior that diminishes character.
Vanity and Pride diminish character.
Body art calls attention to you and invites judgment; if you’re not a badass then you’re, lactose intolerant.
Body Art is also expensive.
According to an AI-generated answer:
The cost of a tattoo can range from $50 to $500 or more per hour, with the average cost of a small tattoo being around $100 to $200. A full-body tattoo can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 or more, depending on the size and complexity of the design.
The funny thing about this AI-generated answer was that there was more after the simple answer.
It began to describe sculptures and famous renaissance paintings as body art.
AI has a long way to go.
Good thing I know what renaissance master sculptures and paintings are.
And now, apparently, body art has been linked to cancer:
Possible link between tattoos and lymphoma revealed in new study
A new study out of Sweden finds that people with tattoos have a 21% higher risk of developing lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
Body Art, is a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling.
PERMANENT REMINDER OF A TEMPORARY FEELING
Jimmy Buffett, 1999.
LYRICS
She was no marine back from the Philippines
She was their pride and joy, their incarnation
Her parents viewed the chief
With shock and disbelief
Looking for some other explanation
The Indian on her back was poised for an attack
She said ‘a tattoo is a badge of validation’
But the truth of the matter is far more revealing
It’s a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling
Chorus
Permanent reminder of a temporary feeling
Amnesic episodes that never go away
It’s no complex memento, it’s no subtle revealing
Just a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling
Vegas in the rain, drunk on cheap champagne
He hears out of tune synthesized chapel bells
Painfully ringing
Where’s his limo ride? Who’s this foreign bride?
Is this really Elvis spinning round the ceiling?
Chorus
Permanent reminder of a temporary feeling
Forgotten fabrications in the chapels of love
What is this ring on his finger? Why is he kneeling?
She’s just a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling
Chromosomes and genes, spawn these fateful scenes
Evolution can be mean, there’s no dumb ass vaccine.
Blame your DNA, you’re a victim of your fate
It’s human nature to miscalculate
To make up for the fight they go out for the night
Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll seems like the easiest answer
But a short nine months later, there’s no way of concealing
That permanent reminder of a temporary feeling
Chorus
Permanent reminder of a temporary feeling
Amnesic episodes that never go away
Complex mementos, not subtle revealings
Just a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling
Unless of course you are going to invent a new game for when you’re at “The Home” (Guess what this once was?).
Body Art is expensive and dumb.
Spend your money other places.
Buy a piece of Art or Photography.
Save for your kid’s college.
Pay off your student debt.
My thoughts on that topic.
I do have pierced ears.
That said.... looking at these pictures, and I DO see a lot of this around, in person.
These people will not live long enough to see 50, or sagging or illness.
What they did to their bodies when young, they will carry it along with them (obviously)
The one thing that bothers me the most are the nose rings.
A cousin of mine, he was adopted so I do not know his history, died from bone cancer.
He was covered in tattoooos. He was maybe ... 48 years old
These people do not get old and saggy
I am totally in your camp! I can not believe how common tattoos which cover large areas of the body have become.