Things that make you go "WTF?"

[Nina]

Similar to the "tattoo ignorance" thread, but on a lighter note: what are the things people have said about your tattoos that made you laugh, or wonder if they were a) serious, b) aliens from a distant planet or c) just plain stupid?

I get the "is that real?" question a lot. Occasionally I have to rub my arm so that people believe it's really real. I'd say that's your run of the mill a).

But what was between b) and c) was this: "I didn't know tattoos could be done in color!" from a girl younger than me. WTF? Where have you been in the last decade?

A clear c): "That one didn't come from [name of German youth magazine], did it?". I guess he was trying to be clever. I said "Actually, I draw this on every day." :D

Most times though, I am surprisingly patient with people asking me these questions, touching my arm with or without asking, or, as it happened to me while I was passing a butcher shop in Old Town Nice (France) just recently, literally getting dragged inside the shop and shown around to coworkers and customers. That was actually pretty funny :D.

[Sarah]

A good WTF? story - was in my local library when a voice suddenly yelled "YOU HAVE A MOOMIN!" at which point I was accosted by a youngish librarian who not only admired my tattoo, but we had a vey nice chat about the Moomin stories written by Tove Jansson.

This is the same library where a different librarian has chats with me about the tattoo she wants done when her cousin visits from Vegas.

It's a classy joint!

[M.]

Sitting in the train yesterday, across to the right of me there are these 2 old people. All of a sudden I start noticing these glares coming from their direction and i'm wondering what iv done to slight them or maybe that iv got something on my face until I notice the old lady's look go down to my wrist which happened to be my tattoo, I keep looking at the old lady until she looks at me again and I just smile at her to which she turned to her husband and started saying these really nasty things about me in dutch (she heard me speaking english on my phone about 10 min earlier so i'm assuming she thought I wouldnt understand her) after hearing this I promptly unbuttoned my shirt and sat there with 2 halfsleeves watching her turn grey, after even more banter towards her husband and saying even nastier things, I just replied with "Mevrouw, het is redelijk onbeleefd om zo over iemand te praten, al helemaal als je denkt dat ze geen nederlands kunnen, en voor uw informatie , studeer ik op op het universiteit en verdien ik waarschijnlijk op het ogenblijk meer in 1 maand dan uw in 5 jaar zou verdienen" which roughly translates to " Madame, its quite rude to talk about someone in such a manner, even more so when you think that person doesnt understand you and for you information i'm actually a university student and probably already make more in 1 month than you would (have) in 5 years time.) the look on her face was priceless, without a word she got up dragging her husband and left the train compartment. I cant really say I was offended by it since I guess this is just a situation where zeitgeist is a culprit.

[Inktman]

Kankahwef!

[Canny]

Heerlijk!

[Black is the new Black]

Priceless.

I was shocked at how judgmental older dutch people would be when I was living in Amsterdam. I would regularly be lectured by older dutch women while I waited for the tram about pretty much anything - my clothes, my hair, even my choice of food. Food was strangely the most common - I loved grabbing a muffin from Gary's Muffin on the way to my tram stop and for some reason this seemed to offend many a cute old lady who felt obliged to tell me it was crap and that I'd be better off eating cheese, meat, and bread like they do every day.

The beautiful thing though was that while they might have not approved of me, they were completely tolerant. In America conservatives tend to want to change everyone to be like them - the Dutch conservatives seemed instead to have a bit of a "I hate you but you go ahead and do your stupid thing" attitude which is much more preferable in my opinion.

[Rowan]

One recent warm evening as I was riding the subway en route to my favourite dim sum restaurant, I found myself seated next to a pair of obviously lost older tourists women who were staring in utter incomprehension at a map of New York City's notoriously illogical subway system. I asked them where they were trying to go, and gave them directions. They thanked me...then one of them added "You must have been very pretty before you you ruined yourself with them tattoos."

I instantly regretted not giving them directions to one of the worst neighbourhoods in town.

[José Jesús Gil Juscamaita]

that people is sick... the worst of all is nothing that we do, can change they tiny mind...

As one friend mine used to say: "si no tienes nada bueno que decir de alguien, mejor no digas nada" (if you can't tell nothing good about somebody, better don't say nothing)

[SweetAttrition]

I was recently in a communal (women's) changing room. I'm used to people covertly looking over (because I'm obviously gay and it makes some women nervous) but 2 young(ish) women started a (loud) conversation along the lines of :
"OMG, have you seen her tattoos",
"Why would you get that done? She must want to be a man" (!)
"If I did that, my boyfriend would kill me".
I replied by telling them I was tattooed, not f*cking deaf and at least I had the option of wearing a shirt, but they'd always be ugly on the outside and the inside. I finished by asking how much money would her boyfriend want to kill her and pulled out some change...
Why do we use the phrase "ignorance is bliss"? I've met a lot of ignorance... it's never been a blissful experience...

[Carbine]

Beautiful, truly beautiful. x

[JD LaRish]

where do people get the idea that tattooed folks are hard of hearing?

[José Jesús Gil Juscamaita]

ha ha ha ha that was a GREAT, just GREAT answer... why the people can't understand that we don't do this because we're criminals, we do just because, we don't like a scar, or we don't like THAT part of our body or just because we love the art o want to remember something special in our lives????

[SweetAttrition]

I don't know JD, it's almost as if because we're still seen (by some) as 'different', we must also be deficient in some way!

Jose, I also don't know that either! Fear, envy and ignorance are my best guesses :) Though I have to say that, for me, 1 positive, appreciative reaction outweighs the negative ones ten-fold.