Journal #4

Most tattoos may show significance or none at all but in the three articles I have read that different types of tattoos could have meanings. In one of the articles, Tattoos Tell My Real Story, the author David Paul Strohecker has many tattoos which his body is covered in. He talks about how he is seen as a stereotype by others because of the way he looks. Although he has tattoos they are a large part of his identity and they tell a story. He says, “My body is a billboard of my life, and my tattoos tell the story of my identity”. Deep down before being judged he is not what you expect him to be, he is earning his PH.D., he has bible descriptions along his arms to signify that he is Christian, he supports LGBT struggles and woman respect and so that’s why he has symbols of that behind his ear. He hopes to teach people that appearance shouldn’t matter and that it is important to see past appearances.  

In the second article, 25 Most Ridiculous Tattoos Ever, most tattoos does not mean anything at all unlike David’s. Many people get tattoos for amusement and humor. The tattoos that were shown were made on their skin for humor either potential depression and/ or loss of hope in humanity. What I have seen were some tragedies from people’s bodies that reflect from their tattoos.  Others would be pictures of irritant and funny like tats. The picture shown in this article shows a picture of a man who loss his toe. Another tattoo of is a picture of a tattoo where you could connect the dots for a giraffe picture. I feel that that’s very unique.  

For the third article, Looking at the Worlds Tattoos, a photographer Chris Rainier who specializes in portraits, documents stories of different cultures around the world to tell about peoples tattoos. Not only can tattoos be for fun they can be created to reflect towards peoples cultural identities. “Today people are appropriating these ancient practices, Rainier believes, because they want to carve out an identity in a chaotic postindustrial age by inscribing shoulders and shins with symbols of love death and belongings”. Rainier has been fascinated by a tattoo craze and has learned that 40% of Americans today between the ages 26 and 40 have been tattooed.

I feel as though our body could reflect our identity but we shouldn’t be judged by how we appear to be. As in the first article David is intelligent kind and loving. His tattoos have meaning towards that but not everyone sees it. They might think he’s punk rock, rude, or uncaring. People have their own significance to what they do to their body, whether it’s doing it apart of culture, identity or just amusement. In my opinion it’s all about how you approach yourself to others. People judge us from the way we look all the time but that should not to you as long as you know who you are. I don’t think these judgments are fair but it will never stop and it’s just something everyone in life will keep going through, you don’t have to change yourself for the acceptance from others to get people to understand you because they never will.