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[LuvTooGolf]

Morning, muchachos.

Hola, StillUndefeatedBret.

The first four days with new ink are a pain in the ass.

Never done it and it's not looking probable. I think I'm one of the very few without and I'm ok with it.

Once upon a time, tattoos were for warriors. Then white sailors on tall ships came across them south of the equator, and adopted them as badges of hardened seamen who'd seen the Southern Cross. Then the ethic of the rebel loner took hold in American culture, after WWII, and bikers and soldiers sported tattoos. Now? I haven't tried to verify, but I suspect that if we haven't crossed 50% of the human population, it's getting close.

Deep down in the human soul, it's still about seeking a universal truth. Relativism has become the dominant view of ethics in the world, but that conflicts with primeval instinct in the human psyche. If everything is relative, then nothing - and no one - really means anything or has any value.

A tattoo is very difficult, painful, and expensive to erase, and really can't be completely. It leaves scars. So it becomes a fixed reference point in a person's life. Everything else can erode into entropy, but the tattoo leaves a permanent mark even if its vibrancy and definition fade into unrecognizability. It sticks with you. It represents a decision you made that you had to live with. Cogito ergo sum.

Merely having a tattoo now means little. The only way for them to be meaningfully symbolic is to choose carefully what they commemorate. Then you have to live with it.

I agree with everything you wrote. The reason I will likely never have one is that I could never make a decision on what I would want to wear for the rest of my life. I'm certain that I would immediately have buyer's remorse. And so I'm content to remain without.

Maybe just go with a nipple piercing.

Another one? Maybe this time I'll get a chain from one to the other and then to the Prince Albert.

Now THERE'S a family story!

[LuvTooGolf]

They are "cautiously optimistic" the game will start in a couple hours. I think we'll all be getting the results in the morning.

No sir. It'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Womp womp

[Travellin Dave]

had dreams of a 2...

Wordle 485 3/6

⬛⬛🟩⬛🟩
🟩⬛🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

[Travellin Dave]

Morning, muchachos.

Hola, StillUndefeatedBret.

The first four days with new ink are a pain in the ass.

Never done it and it's not looking probable. I think I'm one of the very few without and I'm ok with it.

Once upon a time, tattoos were for warriors. Then white sailors on tall ships came across them south of the equator, and adopted them as badges of hardened seamen who'd seen the Southern Cross. Then the ethic of the rebel loner took hold in American culture, after WWII, and bikers and soldiers sported tattoos. Now? I haven't tried to verify, but I suspect that if we haven't crossed 50% of the human population, it's getting close.

Deep down in the human soul, it's still about seeking a universal truth. Relativism has become the dominant view of ethics in the world, but that conflicts with primeval instinct in the human psyche. If everything is relative, then nothing - and no one - really means anything or has any value.

A tattoo is very difficult, painful, and expensive to erase, and really can't be completely. It leaves scars. So it becomes a fixed reference point in a person's life. Everything else can erode into entropy, but the tattoo leaves a permanent mark even if its vibrancy and definition fade into unrecognizability. It sticks with you. It represents a decision you made that you had to live with. Cogito ergo sum.

Merely having a tattoo now means little. The only way for them to be meaningfully symbolic is to choose carefully what they commemorate. Then you have to live with it.

I agree with everything you wrote. The reason I will likely never have one is that I could never make a decision on what I would want to wear for the rest of my life. I'm certain that I would immediately have buyer's remorse. And so I'm content to remain without.

There is a great science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury called "The Blue Bottle." In the story two astronauts are searching Mars for a mythical blue bottle. One of the astronauts is obsessed with finding it and the legends of the enlightenment that surround it. The other is skeptical of such legends, and suggests he just hopes it contains some decent whiskey.

Without completely spoiling the story, which I highly recommend, suffice to say each of the astronauts locates the bottle, and each drinks from it, but for each there is a different outcome that is somehow tied to their expectations.

I won't bore y'all with details of my upbringing. Suffice to say I am very close to my dad, and very devoted to my clan, and that my dad and I share two of my three tattoos. My dad chose our clan motto almost 20 years ago, but it was based on a Winston Churchill quote that he'd taught me since I was in kindergarten. The tattoo we now both wear of the motto was designed by the middle of my three nieces on a sailing trip two years ago.  This would all probably make more sense to you if you knew the whole story, from 1910 to the present. But you don't want to read a memoir here. Hell, maybe I should write it. To me it's a hell of a story, of struggle, survival, triumph and failure. But maybe that's just me.

Anyway, the point of all this is that my tattoos have a very important meaning to me, one that others won't necessarily understand.

My previous comment still stands. I love that you have a great family story. Unfortunately, I don't. At least not one worth getting tattooed for.

With all that said, I don't think everyone is as thoughtful as you about it and some will sport just about anything.

Shame we don't have Dean to weigh in.