<p>Cosmicfish, magnetic fields don’t diverge. Oh, snap!</p>
<p>If you want to be an engineer (or lawyer or doctor or any kind of professional,) I wouldn’t advise getting a visible tattoo.</p>
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Yeah. That was the joke.</p>
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Not knowing what you wanted to get, I would think it hard to consistently conceal while still being able to reveal it when desired. Especially if you fidget with your hair like I tend to.</p>
<p>Would white ink be more acceptable? It’s very subtle and I would be the one seeing it everyday. It would look more like a scar and is less noticeable?</p>
<p>@cosmic Ah, that is true…</p>
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It depends - white ink tats are still visible, and if it is somewhere that draws the eye then you still have the same issue. If the white ink tattoo is somewhere less noticeable (on the leg, for example, or behind the ear) you might get away with it. This is something to talk to the artist about.</p>
<p>I say go for it! The economy is tough, and I need as little competition as I can get when I graduate and go looking for work. Muahaha…</p>
<p>Nice try, GatorNuke. I’m still going to get a job. ;)</p>
<p>They won’t be able to see my tattoo. I have nothing to worry about, especially if my research and internships go as planned.</p>
<p>Cartilage piercings are HOT, and foot tattoos are even hotter. I say go for it!
Don’t let your professional life dictate your personal life. I understand what the more “older” (sorry :p) people on this forum are saying, but you got to have fun once in a while. Oh, and did I mention cartilage piercings and foot tattoos are hot? :)</p>
<p>" I’m leaving for college and that means freedom. Freedom to get whatever tattoo or piercing I want."</p>
<p>Wrong. Just patently wrong. </p>
<p>Put aside the opinions on whether or not it will hinder you professionally. If your parents are still supporting you, you are not actually “free” to do whatever you want. Freedom comes with independence and that includes financial independence. So, until you achieve financial independence, it would be wise to respect your parents’ opinions on these matters. Based on your assessment of what freedom means, I can only assume that said tattoo and/or piercing would be done without your parents’ approval.</p>
<p>The tattoo and/or piercing can keep - you can do it in the future if you still feel as strongly at that point. However, consider that the things that were important to you as a freshman in high school seem irrelevant compared to what is important to you as a rising freshman in college. If you are like most people, you changed a lot in four years. Consider that you will undergo a similar change as you complete your college years. Don’t make any decisions that are of such a permanent nature until you graduate college. The person that you will be is yet to be determined and so are the things that will be important to you at that point in your life.</p>
<p>Seriously, it’s not worth making waves with your parents so early on in your college career. Choose your battles wisely and time them in a way to reduce the number of casualties.</p>
<p>Just my two cents…as a mom…best of luck in whatever you decide.</p>
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<p>If she notices it when you are back for the summer, and then cuts off the college money, what will you do? Please remember that she has absolute veto on your college through finances, unless you have a full ride merit scholarship. Note that if you consider military service or ROTC an option, the various branches of the military have limitations on tattoos and piercings; what you describe may be prohibited by most of the branches of the military.</p>
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I think that depends a lot on the relationship. And first year grades.</p>
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Military regs say it cannot be obscene or offensive, and must be covered in uniform. So on the off chance that she is considering military, the behind-the-ear thing would be verboten.</p>
<p>You may want to rethink your freedom of expression through permanent body modifications. What kind of signals, for example, will you send out with them twenty years from now? Things change. Bodies change. Case in point: when I was young, wearing frayed jeans and artfully torn oversized t-shirts and having “beachy” hair was considered “gamine”. On my present day self, the same look screams “bag lady”. The upside to this, however, is that today I can wear different clothes to correct my image. Changing your skin back to what it was before can be both painful and expensive, and not always 100% successful. If you really want to do something edgy you could get some usually unexposed body part pierced; only you and those whom you wish to know would see it, or go wild with hair modifications: dye jobs or an “interesting” haircut. Hair, thankfully, grows out.</p>
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At the end of the day, there are three kinds of people with regards to body modification:</p>
<p>The first and most common type will never get any, for any of a wide variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fear of either physical alteration of the tattoo or of regretting getting it in the first place.</p>
<p>The second most common type are those who feel more or less like the first type, but see romance in such things. This type will probably get one some day. One. And they will probably regret it most days.</p>
<p>The third type doesn’t care that their bodies or priorities may change, or that fashions may change. If I gain a hundred pounds or a ton of wrinkles, will a distorted tattoo really be my big concern? If the person whose name is on my arm (metaphorically) leaves my life, I don’t have a problem carrying a reminder on my skin as well as my soul. If fashions change… well, I don’t care about fashion anyway, so who cares?</p>
<p>If you are the first type, you will not understand the third type, because you are talking to people without the fears you possess. I am afraid of heights. I do not expect to convince daredevils that mine is the right way.</p>
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College money wise, I wouldn’t be in that much trouble. My expenses are paid for through college funds and scholarships. She’d be able to take away my car and phone which she pays for. But to be honest I don’t think she would. </p>
<p>She is dead set against tattoos, but she warned me of the health risks with an additional piercing. </p>
<p>I’m not running to the parlor. 
I’m just looking into things that I wouldn’t be opposed to getting. If I get a tattoo, I’m leaning towards white ink and it wouldn’t be in an entirely visible location. This tattoo isn’t in the near future. I’m thinking about two years from now. This will give me time to research designs, care, artists, etc. </p>
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Er…it isn’t worth it but at the same time I think she will get over it. I’m a good kid. If I’m doing what I should be doing: getting good grades, participating in school, having healthy relationships, and responsible…a simple ear piercing should not cause a large rift.</p>
<p>Re: #34</p>
<p>However, what people’s attitudes are with respect to getting tattoos themselves are not really relevant to this discussion. The question, based on the first post, is whether tattoos (presumably visible ones when wearing normal clothing) will significantly reduce the chances of the OP getting a job. For this, people’s attitudes toward other people with visible tattoos are what matters.</p>
<p>I have no objection to co-workers having visible tattoos. But I doubt my viewpoint on this subject is universal, or an overwhelming enough majority to say that visible tattoos’ effect on job hiring would not be a concern.</p>
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<p>Ah, freedom from Mom’s and Dad’s rules! </p>
<p>Just keep in mind that when you are 40, you may regret that you have stuff on your body that was put there by an 18 year old kid who was celebrating his freedom from Mom and Dad.</p>
<p>Tattoos suggest impulsiveness and lack of foresight, and probably will not help your chance of getting a job.</p>
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It is not relevant to the original post, but the discussion has certainly meandered!</p>
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<p>Extremely true. Until you are paying for your rent, groceries, and bills with money that you earned entirely at a job you got, you don’t really know what it means to be an independent adult. This is one of those lessons you just won’t “get”, even if you understand it intellectually, until you’ve actually lived it.</p>
<p>I get the impression that you simply want to do something bold and brash that will stick it to your parents but without being too self-destructive. Am I wrong?</p>
<p>“College money wise, I wouldn’t be in that much trouble. My expenses are paid for through college funds and scholarships. She’d be able to take away my car and phone which she pays for. But to be honest I don’t think she would.”</p>
<p>Nothing in life is a sure thing. People lose scholarships all the time - sometimes for not maintaining required gpa (college level work IS different than high school, much to the surprise of a lot of kids) and sometimes because there is an unexpected lack of funding. </p>
<p>Are ALL of your expenses indeed paid? Do you even know what all of your expenses are?Your clothes? Your health insurance? Your doctor visits? Your medication? Your dental visits? Your hair and makeup products? Your entertainment expenses (meals not on dining plan, concerts, etc)? Transportation to/from school? The roof over your head and meals when you are not in school? </p>
<p>You don’t think your mom would take things away from you or you wouldn’t be in “that much trouble”… <em>sigh</em>… Your mother being civil to you is NOT the same as having a good relationship. You really don’t know how she will feel on the inside. She may not take away material things, but how she relates to you CAN change.</p>
<p>“If I’m doing what I should be doing: getting good grades, participating in school, having healthy relationships, and responsible…a simple ear piercing should not cause a large rift.”</p>
<p>Make no mistake that “doing what you should be doing” is not for HER benefit - it is for YOURS. She is your guidepost and trying to help keep you on a path that has the most options open to you. Getting bad grades may disappoint her, sure, but she will not suffer the consequences - you will. Participating in school benefits you by opening doors - it doesn’t open any doors for her. Having healthy relationships benefits you by keeping you out of situations that risk your health (mental and physical) - only you would earn the scars of not having a healthy relationship, not her. So, don’t say that because you are a “good kid” you are doing everything else “she” wants. At the end of the day, it’s what you want as well.</p>
<p>You said you wanted the tattoo to remind you of a saying that has become very important to you. Is the only way you can be reminded of it through a tattoo? What about engraving a piece of jewelry or a watch you wear every day? It will still be there to remind you, but in a way that is not risking anything.</p>
<p>It’s good to hear that you are not rushing to do this - your original post gave the impression that as soon as you got to college, you were going to do it right away…</p>
<p>Think about it…if it’s something you have to hide, or do in a way that won’t be as noticeable (white ink), what’s the point of doing it at all?</p>