Tattoos have become in recent years a fashion item, the latest trend. Styles are coming out that are new and exciting from true artists, but that is far less common than the complete opposite. People who simply own a tattoo machine who'll do anything they're asked to do, and people going into tattoo shops thinking that's the normal thing.

The Authent/ink section of Australian Ink magazine written by Kian Forreal (he works out of Inner Vision Sydney) had the whole section dedicated to this topic. He talks about stealing tattooers exact designs as being plagiarism and hurting the industry by “diluting it with crappy art”. My thinking on this is a little conflicted. I get what he's saying about ripping off tattoo artists, and personally I would never get a tattoo because somebody else had it.

Something like people getting imagery from films or artwork isn't so different though really. An Ed Hardy style dragon not done by Ed Hardy is a little bullshit, but that art was taken from Horiyoshi III and other tattoo artists, and there art was taken from centuries of old tradition. You can't exactly get a tattoo from Sailor Jerry, but you can get the art done on you in most shops. That art in particular is often just taken and copied to the body.

Kian is pretty true to his statement with what he is doing though, and he has taken the time to study within his style. When there's tradition though, nothing is really original.

For me, I would never get anything that I know has been put on someone else's body, but I can see the appeal of knowing it will turn out right. I'm wouldn't be as conflicted for myself or someone else to take art from another source and put it on their body though. There are so many people with tattoos from Nightmare Before Christmas, or of Mario, or from a graphic artist outside of tattooing like Simone Legno (Tokidoki). I don't think it's that bad a thing if you've made a connection to something so get it tattooed, or even if you just like the art. But if you're going to a “tattoo artist” you want to use their artistic skills hopefully and not just their technical ability. Most cases though it's just the fact they're the guy with the tattoo machine.

My ideas draw on things I've come across in and out of tattooing. I certainly don't want a copy of a tattoo that I've already seen though, even if I may like the tattoo. I have considered getting direct references to things I really like and don't have an issue with others doing that. I will stop here though because my tattoo idea/ideas (won't give that away either) is something I don't intend to ever show off(or get any time soon because I have no money and other priorities).

This is the P.S type section where I just want to say something on the meaning of tattoos. If you like the look of a fairy get a fairy. There doesn't need to be more to it than that. All the TV shows have hyped the meaning aspect so much. In an interview with Ami was saying how fake the show was and how often the meanings were totally fabricated to fit the flow of a show, but how he himself just liked the artwork and so got himself a dragon when he was young.

Tattoo for your own reasons, and “it's fucking sweet” is a good enough reason. But the rest of the blog is about if you actually give a shit about tattooing as a subject, which if you are getting tattooed, maybe you should think a little about.

I get inside my own head and struggle to come out the other side in one piece. Not sometimes, often. I'm analytical of everything, even things I don't fully understand I make harsh judgments on. You can then imagine how hard I can be on myself when I know myself as well as I do.

I re read a lot of old entries (while deleting many) in my blog and was beating myself up for a few days. I relaxed a little though when I put it into not a day by day analysis of what I've done but viewing it from the major transitions in my life. They seem to go in two year shifts, if not four year. From a baby to two you learn a whole shit load, there's no comparison at any point in life for how much information is taken on in those years. From two to six you're a kid developing quirks, and the people around you like your parents will tell you stories from this time. I won't be too harsh on myself for those years. Then from six to ten you're in school learning more social skills and the very basic skills to set you up to go on with. The only thing in these years that will really shape a kid is trauma, nothing else in those years will necessarily stick with them. I think then there's the progressive transition to high school, and I still remember snippets from the time. While social networks and the type of person you are still mean nothing, I think the same kids who were smart then were smart when they finished with a few exceptions, and the dumb kids generally ended up as dumb. As a parent (very hypothetically) I'd be pushing my kids into serious study habits around now, although I also realise kids with that kind of pressure are later (in my experience) a little more socially awkward a lot of the time. Then in the middle of high school you're developing actual knowledge for exams and setting tastes and ideas that may go on with you for years to come. By the end of high school a lot of who you are should be set in terms of interests, personality and so on.

Looking at these common two-ish year intervals, I can see what was done in those years. I then had over a year at college, then a year a year and a half here. In the time I was at college I did learn a lot and met a lot of people, realised a whole lot. Even if at the same time my mind somewhat caved in.

While I've been extremely angry at myself recently for the past chunk of my life, and not getting anything at all done some days, I'm a little better with it now. Whenever I get myself together, or maybe if I collapse further, I'll look back at this part of my life as having taken on more information about myself than any other time in my life. Having had a shit load of ideas but never achieved any of them. A slow progress forward, but I have moved forward.

So the next time someone asks what I've been up to and I have to say pretty much nothing I'm not going to really care, because I know what I've done. I may have a little smirk on my face to then think I've changed the person I am, while most people my age have just been drinking, maybe going to college for a career they're unsure about, or at best moving forward with who they already were.