Thoma's and Isabella's 'negative' perception by society

Hello everyone, this is a summary of the most interesting of my conversation with Thomas and Isabella about their sometimes neagtive perceptions by Society because of their Tattoos. I hope you enjoy it! :)


Thomas  told me that he kind of got used to people walking by and weirdly looking at him. Sometimes people even turn around again to give him a scrutinizing look. Other times, children stare at him and start to giggle and point at him. Once in the subway a grandmother even started talking to him in the sense of asking him what this new trend is of the new generation drawing on their skin. He sometimes even gets unfriendly comments or phrases from other people especially when he says if he is sometimes surrounded by people his age he feel that they downplay his work and make him feel like he is not doing something ‘real’. Such as a decent job at a bank or something. He once had a talk with a friend of his friends at a party who asked him how he came to limiting his life. This he did according to the man by wearing so many tattoos and piercings and thereby losing his ability to switch carreers. He felt like he was perceived as an immature adult who is stuck in the life of tattoo and could have done somehting better.

Isabella got her first  self designed tattoo at the age of 18 and is since then fascinated by the art of doing tattoos. Isabella has a couple of tattoos which are on her back, ribs and neck  and simply some earings. Since her tattoos are not that visible to the public she does not get many attention drawn to it except when in occasions when she has to be partially naked, such as on vacation at the beach or in public swimming pool. Then she also experienced a lot of attention such as  people glanzing at her. Further, she once encountered a party of family friends where she was wearing an elegant dress which revealed her tattoos. A women in the age of her mother came up to her to complement her on her dress to then tell her that her tattoos ruin her look entirely. It is not considered as nice for a women to decrease her attractiveness with ugly drawings.  However, she was always really talented and interest in arts and drawing and considered tattoing as her future career path. Since she also wanted to study at a university after highschool which lead her to the decision to study arts. After her Bachelor degree she was confroted by her parents because they wanted her to use her talent and degree to get a more respected and profitable job. They did not disgrace her having having tattoos but they wanted a better career path for her. Fellow students and professors also shared her parent’s view that she is wasting her talent and should rather do her Masters or an internship.

Both Isabella’s and Thomas’s tattoos draw attention, however Thomas’s are much more visible therefore considered more disturbing for a large part of the society. Even though on the other side some, especially those close to the couple admired them, they both though that it drew judgment upon their personas.

 

Does anybody ever have similar expperiences and wants to share them?:)