We all know that celebrities are becoming increasingly fond of getting tattoos, but when was the last time you heard a celebrity openly diss getting a tattoo? What about when a celebrity who already has tattoos turns around and knocks them?
That’s the route that R&B singer Brandy decided to take when her six-year-old daughter revealed that she too wanted a tattoo. In an interview with Sister 2 Sister magazine, Brandy spoke about her response to her young daughter’s interest in tattoos:
“I told her, ‘Guess what? When mama gets 80 or 90 years old, these tattoos are going to look terrible. They’re going to be wrinkled, they’re going to look ugly. Mama wishes I never got a tattoo because I didn”t think about when I turn 80, how they’re going to be.’”
Now before I really get my feathers ruffled over this idiotic statement, I want to clarify something: Brandy’s justification for not getting a tattoo is hardly a new one. Everyone has heard someone use this tired line of reasoning about how when you’re old and grey, your tattoos will look like crap on saggy skin and blah, blah, blah, blah. And you know what? If someone who doesn’t have a tattoo feels that’s a good enough reason for them not to get a tattoo, then fine. That’s their choice. But when someone already has gone through the tattoo procedure and they turn around and whine about how their tattoo will look when they get old, well that to me just shows great stupidity in their lack of foresight. If Brandy wanted to set a good example for her child, she could have simply told her to wait until she turns 18, seeing as how no tattoo artist in their right mind would ever tattoo a six-year-old anyway.
But I digress. My point in all this isn’t necessarily that Brandy was foolish to get a tattoo without thinking about how it would look in the future (though she was). My point is actually to debunk this ridiculous notion of how we’ll look with tattoos when we’re 80 or 90.
First, there is no guarantee that any of us will even live to see 80 or 90, so it’s pretty much irrelevant to live your life based on something that quite possibly might never happen.
Second, who the hell is that vain when they’re 80 or 90 years old? Seriously – is that really going to be your major concern at that age? That your tattoo is faded and your skin has sagged, causing it to blur? Is your blurry, saggy tattoo preventing you from hooking up and getting your freak on with all the honeys when you hit the clubs? Will your tattoo just be too much to look at when you go topless at the beach in fucking 2069? Give me a break. If I make it to 80, I’ll be thinking about how lucky I am that my heart hasn’t exploded or that my innards haven’t been devoured by cancer, not about the tattoos on my skin and how they make me look to everyone else. Screw everyone else! I’ll be 80!
Oh man…the stupid crap that goes on in this world. And incidentally, if I were Brandy I’d be more worried about how my shitty movies and TV shows like that god-awful “Moesha” will make me look than any amount of ink on my skin, blurry or not, ever will.