SELFIES.... and TATTOOS

You wouldn't want to see a self-taken selfie because even if I’d taken one I’m not vane enough to think it would be worth looking at. I know that’s as bad an attitude as the one adopted by selfie-takers but I’d rather be me than them. Older and wiser never seemed as pertinent as it is now. It seems to me that new fashions or fads are like a contagious disease... they spread. Everyone hops on the bandwagon and if you don’t join them they think there’s something wrong with you. Well, I have news for them, there’s nothing wrong with me except a desire to BE me and not share everything with a thousand others.

Now that I’ve grumbled about selfies I am turning my attention to tattoos.

Have you noticed how they’ve SPREAD? Once upon a time only men, particularly sailors, went in for tattoos, then girls started to have discreet ones, on an ankle or shoulder, and small enough to be almost attractive. However, I now see girls who are outdoing the men with whole arms and legs covered with hideous pictures. I prayed they wouldn’t go the whole hog and cover their bodies like a guy I saw in a hospital waiting room but I see from internet photographs that I'm a little late in catching on about this awful trend. 

The guy I saw in the waiting room was SMOTHERED with tattoos. His whole face, ears and neck, back and front, from hair line to somewhere beyond the neck of his t-shirt, showed not a scrap of pink skin. Even his legs – from the little I could see since the guy wore trousers – were covered. The arms were the same, right down to his fingernails and I just know the rest of the body was adorned in the same way. I mean, if he went to the trouble to have his entire face, arms and legs tattooed why would he stop at embellishing his body in the same ugly manner? He was literally a tattoo freak, a fact confirmed by Joe when they ended up in the same ward, on opposite beds.

Now this was a guy who obviously wanted to look different to everyone else so, although I didn’t like his appearance, at least I respect his desire for independence. It did cross my mind, however, that one day there would be many others who would copy the idea of total tattooing. Seems I was right!

I wonder if he ever bothered taking selfies?

RANT OF THE DAY

Can you comprehend the current craze of taking ‘selfies’? I can almost understand youngsters (and others) taking pictures of themselves to send to friends, or people just wanting a bit of fun, but I CANNOT understand why prominent, important or even ordinary people have succumbed to taking and sending indecent shots of their personal bits. And they wonder why their phones are being hacked. Are these people mad or degenerate? What kind of world are we living in these days when people send lewd photos of themselves to all and sundry? Take the recent case of the politician forced to resign because he sent pics of his bits to a male reporter posing as a young, sexy woman. Oh the things they do for a story. I’m not sure who is worse, perpetrator or newshound.

I used to think topless or nude bathing was indecent but it was nothing compared to the nakedness of today. Never mind the beaches, I only have to go to the shopping mall to see barely dressed young women. If we think that’s bad imagine what is ahead of us in five or ten years…. or less. I know there’s been worse in years gone by but it was usually kept under wraps for fear of possible arrest; now it seems people can’t wait to publicly expose themselves. I say ‘publicly’ since that is what it amounts to when the hackers get to work.

The example we set our children is important, heaven help those whose parents parade their wares for all to see. Okay, so I’m an old fuddy-duddy but I think my views match those of many others. These days we keep hearing the word RAPE … which is a terrible thing … but I sometimes wonder if the way females dress (Dress?) steers a man’s thoughts towards taking what is not rightfully his. The law says if a woman says No her rights must be respected… but temptation is a terrible thing and I firmly believe that women should take that into account when dressing for a night out on the tiles. Dress style nowadays is full of questions: Should I? Shall I? Or, will he? Please don’t tell me that young women on a night out don’t dress to capture a man. Of course, they have every right to dress how they like but we have to admit that today’s fashion barely covers all. Don’t you like that word ‘barely’?