SwiftVets.com

[GenrXr]

Tattoo’s the jokes on you, too bad it’s so sad.

From the south pacific Polynesian islands to the Maoris of current day New Zealand during the 18th and 19th century sailors from Europe met fascinating new peoples who decorated their bodies with ink. Often these sailors would have the indigenous people decorate their bodies as a badge of passage from the old world to the new world. All storage space on the vessels they ran was the space of King and Queen, so not being able to bring home trinkets, what better way of showing the world they had gone where no one else had then to be decorated by the indigenous peoples with their body art. The typical sailor who got tattoos was very poor and a conscript or enlisted class. Can you imagine the young sailor returning home and being from a poor class, yet the subject of attention by even the upper classes? These were the astronauts of yesteryear.

Which leads me to this past weekend and a beautiful young woman I met, we spent an hour talking and were having a great time when she stood up turned to head to the bathroom and there it was a gigantic badge of passage on the small of her back. I cringed at the sight of this, but more on her later. While she was in the bathroom I pondered how this became a norm for women today. Tattoos are the latest fashion statement among women and couldn’t help but think. What was their great passage, which lead to the inking of their bodies? Or is it just some hedonistic cultural phenomenon of our times.

I thought of Mike Tyson and his recent tattoo on the face which most likely astonished many people. I picked up on it right away as a New Zealand Maoris tattoo. It is said that every generation of the Maoris tribe from New Zealand was at war from their existence till WWII. These are definitely fighting people who Rommel himself thought of as some of his most worthy opponents ever faced on the battlefield. The Italians called them the devils and at one point after suffering a massive defeat to the Maoris, Rommel was so disgusted with the Italian divisional commanders that he removed their concubines and wine. Rommel used his Italian divisions against the Maoris and they often lost at 10 to 1 odds in their favor. Having proved themselves in ancient warfare the Maoris showed in World War II their ability to fight in a modern war and see how this would appeal to Iron Mike, but this is the problem. See Tyson’s passage the tattoo represented was his transition from the old warrior into the new, just as the Maori had accomplished in WWII going from tribal conflict to modern warfare on the deserts of Africa, but Tyson was never a warrior. A warrior must be intelligent, strong and skilled. Tyson can fight as well as anyone who can paint by number. As a matter of fact all of Tyson’s success in the early years was due to a fighting method designed by Cus D’Amato and Kevin Rooney where he didn’t have to think, but rather by rote memorization repeated the numerical combination issued to him prior to the bell sounding. 3,2,1,4,2,2,1,5,3,3,1 ok go do it Mike! Well I digress, but Tyson’s was nothing more then pining for that which he cannot reach. A return to his old self trained by the best and told by rote what to do.

Then I thought of the biker gangs of the 60’s and the 70’ and in particular the Hells Angels. I once asked my father why he never got a tattoo being from a family of navy men with great history and my grandfather who I was named after having a tattoo. My father told me “your grandfather stormed beaches and hedgerows with men who shared the same experience and this was the reason they got tattoos, whereas I spent 66’ aboard the destroyer Ticonderoga doing nothing more then sightseeing the world.” He said that knowing he was going to leave after 2 years; it would be stupid to get a tattoo of no significance which he would have to live the rest of his life with. He then told me about the Hells Angels in the 60’s and 70’s and how he detested how they had tainted the tradition of the tattoo as a warrior badge of passage. He said “these are criminals and share no bond of hardship or shared sacrifice; rather their bond is one of taking advantage of the weaker”.

Back to the young beautiful woman I was talking with and wondering, what was her passage which she was trying to convey by the tattoo on the small of her back? She just came back from the bathroom and I asked her “saw the tattoo you have on your back. Do you like it and what was the reason to get it?” She replied, “I thought it would be cool and sexy.”

I told her she actually had no clue why she got the tattoo, but rather was just following some strange trend she thought was cool, but was rather somewhat sick. My opinion of women with tattoo’s today is that without tradition and the heritage of a particular bond of brothers or sisters, these tattoos are nothing more then a mark. I told her I could never have a relationship with her because the tattoo she had was a mark given by someone other then me and as such there would never be anything meaningful between us.

I will not elaborate what the mark of the tattoo on the small of the back is because young ones read the forums, but I can guarantee you it’s not because the woman traveled the globe at the risk of scurvy and worse death. And as such most clueless women will continue to do this, but I hope the trend stops soon.
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"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy

[P. Aaron]

Regarding Tattoos:

"...gee grandma, what's that gray blob on your back?"
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A willing tool of the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" since 1981.

[GenrXr]

[Uisguex Jack]

Same thing gets me about men and earrings.

A man wears in earring to signify having sailed around the Horn, this the most dangerous waters on earth. I don't think Ed Bradley sailed around the horn.

[GenrXr]

[blue9t3]

Gen'r, I bet you dont like make-up either! what ever tickles your fancy dude. You can have your 1800's looking woman, Ill take em the way they come.
As far as your opinions about Iron Mike go you might be a little right but he was the finest example of a fighting machine I have ever seen, did you see larry holmes in round three? did you see any of his victims that said a punch in the arm could knock you out?
Get real! you dont think this guy is a warrior?

PS. I bet you think casius clay won the title 4 times
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MOPAR-BUYER

[GenrXr]

[blue9t3]

I guess pre ww2 bikers were wimps!
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MOPAR-BUYER

[GenrXr]

[blue9t3]

Just dont call me late for dinner!


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MOPAR-BUYER

[GenrXr]

[ILUVTHEUSA]

GenXr,
I just had to reply to this since this has bugged me for a while. I am a mother of a 17 yr old girl and 15 1/2 year old boy. Since they are teenagers, they are influenced by the fads around them. I have told them both how I feel about tattoos as I, too, feel that it should be meaningful. I have never had a problem with "military" tattoos like my uncle's, who served in WWII (on the USS Ticonderoga), and lost his arm due to a kamikaze hit. I felt he "earned" his tattoos. But I hate to see all these meaningless tattoos just because they are the "in" thing. Thanks for sharing your opinion--it's great to know I am not alone. I think I will show your post to them tomorrow.

And, the earrings in men's ears bother me too.
~ILuvTheUsa

[GenrXr]

[Nutso]

I once knew a girl that had a tatoo of a butterfly on her stomach when she was a teenager. After a number of years and a couple kids it now looks like a hila monster with lightning bolts.

I had a policy in my house, told my sons that the day they can afford a tatoo, they can afford rent. Worked good.

[Snipe]

[Your uncle served on the same ship my father did . The Ticonderoga destroyer. Today the Ticonderoga is a Aegis Class Cruiser, but your uncle and my father served on the old destroyer class one. And your uncles sacrifice was well known to all that served on the Ticonderoga as my father told me. Everyone who served on the Ticonderoga post WWII lived in the shadows of great men such as your Uncle.[/quote]

Excuse me folks, but the WWII USS Ticonderoga CV14 was an Essex
class aircraft carrier not a destroyer. The USS Ticonderoga CG17 is
(was) the first of the Ticonderoga class aegis cruisers which is correct.
It used to be that you could tell what a ship was by it's name alone,
but nowadays they just seem to call them any old thing that comes
to mind.
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Tin Can Sailor