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?