Tattoos on The Show

[Trees]

Why do so many of the 600-pounders have tattoos?

What about their family and friends? They all do too - men, women, young, old...

Any guess on what % of people on the show are loaded with them?

Don't a lot of the tattooed people also have piercings, including tongue?

I can't figure it out.  

[AZChristian]

Maybe because it's like everything else in their lives - they get a result without any effort on their part.  Apparently, there are lots of mobile tattoo artists available, so these people who can't leave their homes don't have to.

[kj4ever]

Tattoos are kind of the norm now, no matter what your size.  

[Elizzikra]

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Apparently, there are lots of mobile tattoo artists available, so these people who can't leave their homes don't have to.

Or they get them before they are bedridden. I'd be curious to see before and after photos of the tattoos (before and after weight gain and also before and after skin surgery). I'm guessing whole tattoos are lost due to skin surgery.

[Trees]

My dad got a tattoo of an eagle on his shoulder when he was in the Navy during WWII. He got it way up top so that his t-shirt would cover it when he came home on leave.  His grandmother would have had a fit.

So, by the time he was dying at age 80, that eagle had fallen all the way down to just above his elbow!   He was half-conscious in the hospice home and I saw the gal sweeping his floor staring at it.  I told her that it had started out on his shoulder.  She was shocked and said, "That's it! I'm not going to get that tattoo on my butt now!"

[bettylou]

I also noticed the tattoo's on like every patient.  They are really nasty.  I guess gluttony and tattoo's go together.  These people obviously don't care about how they are perceived by other people, hence the tattoo's and body fat.

[Colleenna]

It may be related to impulse control..... can't control the impulse to eat (and eat, and eat...) / can't control the impulse to get a tattoo. Eat a lot / tattoo a lot. Failure to consider the consequences of a choice. 

 

That's my theory.

[MutualCore]

On 5/15/2018 at 4:55 PM, bettylou said:

I also noticed the tattoo's on like every patient.  They are really nasty.  I guess gluttony and tattoo's go together.  These people obviously don't care about how they are perceived by other people, hence the tattoo's and body fat.

Tattoos are cool on yakuza.

[Hellga]

There are tattoos and there are tattoos.  A small tattoo or two is one thing and doesn't necessarily say anything about a person.  But when half someone's skin (or more) is covered by many multi-colored images - that's a totally different deal, and I think it goes hand in hand with psychological issues I would rather not have to deal with.  The people on the show are generally messed up in the head in more ways than one, no wonder they choose to tattoo themselves, probably some way to either escape the reality of their body not looking the way they would want it to look or to escape the reality of their life not being the way they want or dealing with some other dissatisfaction.  Or even an expression of another addiction, to body modification.

Edited January 5, 2019 by Hellga

[kj4ever]

18 hours ago, Hellga said:

There are tattoos and there are tattoos.  A small tattoo or two is one thing and doesn't necessarily say anything about a person.  But when half someone's skin (or more) is covered by many multi-colored images - that's a totally different deal, and I think it goes hand in hand with psychological issues I would rather not have to deal with.  The people on the show are generally messed up in the head in more ways than one, no wonder they choose to tattoo themselves, probably some way to either escape the reality of their body not looking the way they would want it to look or to escape the reality of their life not being the way they want or dealing with some other dissatisfaction.  Or even an expression of another addiction, to body modification.

You mean like this?  I have a very happy life :)

 

 

[Hellga]

Good for you. :)

[QuinnInND]

On 1/6/2019 at 11:06 AM, kj4ever said:

You mean like this?  I have a very happy life :)

 

 

Wow! I love those! 

[Minivanessa]

On 5/7/2018 at 8:27 AM, kj4ever said:

Tattoos are kind of the norm now, no matter what your size.  

^^^ True. I'm a Boomer with no tattoos. The next gen down in my local extended family (aged 30 - 43) all have them. 

On 5/8/2018 at 5:36 PM, Trees said:

My dad got a tattoo of an eagle on his shoulder when he was in the Navy during WWII. He got it way up top so that his t-shirt would cover it when he came home on leave.  His grandmother would have had a fit.

So, by the time he was dying at age 80, that eagle had fallen all the way down to just above his elbow!   He was half-conscious in the hospice home and I saw the gal sweeping his floor staring at it.  I told her that it had started out on his shoulder.  She was shocked and said, "That's it! I'm not going to get that tattoo on my butt now!"

Wise woman!!

A few decades ago, when I was a senior in college, there was a little mini-fad among my classmates (women) of getting tattoos. Not a lot of ink, just like a butterfly on the shoulder or something. I thought about it. Then looked at my body and wondered what gravity would do to a tattoo over the years. I passed on the tattoos. I just didn't want one all that much anyway. These days I'm really happy with that decision. :-)

[AZChristian]

I'm a 72-year-old boomer who just got my fourth tattoo.  The nice thing about not starting with getting tattoos until you're in your 60s . . . gravity doesn't have as much time to start distorting them.  When I had one of the tats done about 4 years ago, our artist said that a large percentage of his clients are 60 and above.

[Minivanessa]

13 hours ago, AZChristian said:

I'm a 72-year-old boomer who just got my fourth tattoo.  The nice thing about not starting with getting tattoos until you're in your 60s . . . gravity doesn't have as much time to start distorting them.  When I had one of the tats done about 4 years ago, our artist said that a large percentage of his clients are 60 and above.

Good for you! I'm a couple of years behind you, still not personally drawn to the idea of tattoos, but I think it's wonderful that you're getting 'em if you want to! Maybe TMI, but your post perked me up this morning. This week I'm dealing with some aches and pains and general bullsh*t that comes with age, nothing horrific but just enough nonsense to bring me down. I'm trying to stay positive, and your comment really helped. Bless you!

[Momster64]

Speaking as someone who has been overweight most of my life (not 600+ but still…) and has several tattoos, I think some of it is in hoping people will notice the tattoos over the weight, a potential distraction maybe.

[Elizzikra]

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But when half someone's skin (or more) is covered by many multi-colored images - that's a totally different deal, and I think it goes hand in hand with psychological issues I would rather not have to deal with. 

I think that's a pretty sweeping generalization, especially with tattoos and multiple piercings being fairly common now. I think that our society's view on them has just changed and more people have them. There's (hopefully) not as much judgment about them as there used to be.

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Speaking as someone who has been overweight most of my life (not 600+ but still…) and has several tattoos, I think some of it is in hoping people will notice the tattoos over the weight, a potential distraction maybe.

I have a fair amount of knowledge of the world of eating disorders (mainly anorexia, not me personally though). It's really common for kids who are active in their ED and/or recovering to have tattoos, piercings, striking hair colors/styles, etc. More than one of them have said that it's because they always feel like people are looking at them, so this way they can choose to believe that people are looking at their piercings, tattoos, "wild hair" instead of their bodies (which often feel fat and uncomfortable to them even when they are not). For many of them, too, they view them as a form of self expression.