Thread: Slept through 55 tattoos???? - The plot thickens

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

I said it wasn't right because it's his daughter. I think it's wrong for any man to let his daughter get something like a tattoo on her own (or his son for that matter) if he can avoid it.

guess I still don't understand. if she's a legal adult, he doesn't have to LET her do anything... she's free to make her own choices, and it's none of his damn business.

It's not about allowing...


It's about being there for your kids. You're reading too much into my "letting" wording.

I'd just want to be there for my kids because I think it's important that I'm there whenever possible when they're taking big stept in their lives.

Originally Posted by jockeys

guess I still don't understand. if she's a legal adult, he doesn't have to LET her do anything... she's free to make her own choices, and it's none of his damn business.

In some (but not all) cases with age comes wisdom. A responsible parent will try to guide their child, even after they have reached the age of legal consent, through the shoals and reefs of life. This girls parent failed in that duty whether from a lack of wisdom or sense of responsibility. All of the moral relativism and high highfalutin talk aside the kid now has a hard road to hoe and will for the rest of her life because of her night out. Those who defend the "artist" for doing it and her "right" to disfigure her face know that or they ought to.

OTOH, maybe it is that much of a different world and my twenty years of working in street tattoo shops in No Jersey, South Beach, Daytona, and West Palm don't mean squat. You guys who defend the "artist" and the girl's right to be wrong would know better than I do about tattoos and being heavily tattooed and what goes with that socially so I defer to your surperior intellect.

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

It's not about allowing...


It's about being there for your kids. You're reading too much into my "letting" wording.

I'd just want to be there for my kids because I think it's important that I'm there whenever possible when they're taking big stept in their lives.

I believe you are in a similar boat as me-- a father of young children (mine 2&4). In that regard, they are now totally dependant on the choices WE make for them.

When they get to be 18 years old (and I assume for quite some time before that), I think we are in for a rude surprise that they will be quite clearly making decisions for themselves by that point, and we will not be able to do much about it, except perhaps to blow our cork, like the father in this story did after the fact.

The only recourse is how we spend the first 17 years caring and teaching our children so that when the time comes for them to make decisions for themselves, they will be the decisions that THEY will truly take full responsibility for.

You might be close but no.

Getting a tattoo is a big deal. I'd just want to be there for my child when they do it. Whether I agree or not is irrelevant.

I'd just want to be there. Even if the man doesn't agree with his daughter getting one. It's her choice in the end and there's nothing he can do about that.

However he can decide to have a good relationship with her and at least be there when she gets it.


It's not about whether he could have stopped her. He should have just been there as her father and a friend.

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

Actually....it does.

Standing outside of the norm makes you abNORMal.

Meaning you're an outsider at least in some aspects.

I specifically said outside society, not outside the society norm, which you refer to.

Choosing to look different from this norm shouldn't automatically bring negative consequences. This is the only point I've made.

Originally Posted by jcd

I specifically said outside society, not outside the society norm, which you refer to.

Choosing to look different from this norm shouldn't automatically bring negative consequences. This is the only point I've made.

Choosing to look different is choosing to take the consequences as well. Isn't that the whole idea of choosing to be different in the first place?

Originally Posted by jcd

Choosing to look different from this norm shouldn't automatically bring negative consequences. This is the only point I've made.

In Utopia maybe but down here on the ground it really does bring those consequences.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

I believe you are in a similar boat as me-- a father of young children (mine 2&4). In that regard, they are now totally dependant on the choices WE make for them.

When they get to be 18 years old (and I assume for quite some time before that), I think we are in for a rude surprise that they will be quite clearly making decisions for themselves by that point, and we will not be able to do much about it, except perhaps to blow our cork, like the father in this story did after the fact.

The only recourse is how we spend the first 17 years caring and teaching our children so that when the time comes for them to make decisions for themselves, they will be the decisions that THEY will truly take full responsibility for.

I don't think that deciding everything until they are 17 and then hoisting responsibility over the side when they turn 18 is a good idea.

In this case the father could have stayed and and help her choose the design, asking if a facefull of starts is the right idea. Or he could have argued to go forward with the initial 3, and then think about the rest some more, or whatever.

That is what a responsible father would do. Give advice. Dropping her off for her first tattoo and then leaving her on her own while having a couple of beers is -not- what a responsible father would do.

Thanks Bruno, that's the point I was trying to make.