Hmm…

Everlasting Job Stoppers…well, depends on what you do for a living.

As far as American Punks tattooing black crosses on their faces, ive never seen one, and im close enough to Los Angeles to see some crazy shit.

In fact, I know and associate with many, many people who are against the grain if you will, and they have the “everlasting job stopper” tattoos…not as an “anti-establishment” statement, but as a statement of their own love for the art of tattoo and their personal choice to be tattooed, as well as to be tattooed in places that “society” may or may not deem as acceptable…

but really, where is an acceptable place for a tattoo? Honestly? Do you own yourself, are you self aware, is your body your temple? If not, where do you worship, where is your mind, and who owns you…? Are you a slave to the system, are you a slave to a paycheck? If you answered yes to the first set of questions, you’ll be alright, I promise.

Thing is…what we do to ourselves does not by any means dictate who we are, these are merely preconcieved notions put in place by what a greater sense of society deems decent and moral. These notions are bull shit. In the 1800’s, People living in the upper classes of society were tattooing their faces as a fashion trend, in the same manner as the Polynesian peoples. They weren’t worried about jobs or their livlihoods, they were more concerned with looking good. So, after that example, if a major celebrity or political superstar were to tattoo their knuckles or their hands or their faces (other than musicians, its expected of them), it would become immediately acceptable in society as a whole and entire groups of people who once deemed it unacceptable would then turn tail and deem it acceptable. There is a double standard here that no one seems to recognize about what we do and are into. On one hand there are the hip people who are tattooed, then there is everyone else. Today, right now, people pay more attention to the “hip” tattooed individual rather than the grimey gritty tattooed individual.
And here we come to the split…
there was no right of passage for the “hip” tattoed individual, only sitting in a chair, getting tattooed so he can have more friends who, supposedly, are just like him.
the street kid/punk/thug/con/et al, wears his tattoos as a badge of pride…he got them, earned them, and will stand up for whatever he believes in…
then there is the combination of the two. the inbetweens. a combo of both artistic appreciation and deep deep roots.

What im saying is this…if you love who you are, what you are, what you have CHOSEN to mark your body with, then you will let absolutely nothing hold back from becomming what you want to become.

Oh…and just for the record, after my wedding in may im planning on tattooing my chin. Not a giant black cross…This is an urban myth.