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Posted on 01/05/2012 4:57:07 AM PST by Kaslin
Last semester, I was giving a lecture on the history of the Supreme Court from 1953 to present. Toward the end of the lecture, I asked my students if they could name the current Chief Justice. None were able to do so. There were thirty students in the class. This was in a college classroom, mind you.
I was annoyed by the failure of a single student to know the name of one of the three most powerful men in America. But, whenever annoyed, I have a tendency to make jokes to lighten the atmosphere. So I told my students to go to the SCOTUS website next time they were in the tattoo parlor and had a couple of spare hours to surf the internet on their iPhone. They laughed and then I casually asked “How many of you have tattoos?” About twenty students raised their hands, which was far more than I expected.
Asking that question was a big mistake. The next time I walked into class, a young man was asking a sorority girl where her tattoo was located. She lifted up the back of her shirt and showed him a giant tramp stamp across her lower back. It was as sad as it was surprising. Apparently blond hair, blue eyes, and natural beauty aren’t enough to attract college boys these days. She needs a tattoo to let him know that his chances of getting sex on the first date are close to 100%.
Over the last few years, tattoo parlors have been popping up like weeds here in Wilmington. I have always assumed that their popularity was easily explained: Young people just want to draw attention and tattoos give them something to show off. They are just another way of helping young people feel different. Even if most kids have them, theirs can be unique. They can even tell a story.
But the narcissistic and short-sighted component of tattoo accumulation is just half the story. I had an epiphany about the other half of the story as I was talking to a woman we will call Brooke. We’re going to call her Brooke because that really is her name. Brooke was complaining to two of her friends (who are also my friends). She was complaining about the thing single women complain about most often: the boyfriend who won’t respect her even though (maybe because?) she is sleeping with him regularly.
Brooke’s complaint with her boyfriend was that he desired to stay in her bed after they were finished having “fun.” This TMI moment was topped off by a deep philosophical argument: “My bed is an intimate place. Until we’re married, he’s not welcomed there overnight. That’s just too presumptuous. It’s too intrusive.”
Translation: You can have my body but not my bed. The former is of less value to me. Some will say it’s just one anecdote. Of course, it is. But it is part of a larger pattern I am seeing among younger adults. Like virtually all other unhealthy aspects of our culture, it is being nurtured in the university setting. Thinking about these three campus cultural trends will add some perspective:
*Sexual experimentation is encouraged by the administration. Free condoms are available, free birth control is often available. Students are taught to give themselves away and that the only concern is that they remain physically healthy enough to continue to do so.
*Abortion is strongly encouraged on campuses - often to the unconstitutional exclusion of competing ideas. Use of RU 486, which is a dangerous toxin causing the death (and then expulsion) of the unborn, is encouraged. Rarely is there an intelligent discussion of the drug’s harmful side effects.
*Genital mutilation is promoted as a means of increasing diversity. College students – even as young as 18 - are encouraged to resolve sexual confusion with the blade of a knife. This permanent disfigurement of their genitalia is simply another form of sexual expression. It’s no longer stigmatized. It’s celebrated!
There is a dangerous undercurrent here. It is obvious that immediate gratification appeals to young people. But it is compounded by something that is lacking. And what is lacking here is any sense that we as humans are made in the image of God – and that our bodies, therefore, have some intrinsic value. If we were still willing to nurture that idea in our culture – and allowed to do so by the Supreme Court - these trends would not be engulfing us and destroying our children.
Tattoos are a lot like guns. Soon after you get one, you want another. But unlike guns the tattoo always leaves a permanent mark. Whenever the desire to cover one’s body with ink sets in, one thing is clear: there is a void in one’s soul that desperately needs filling. Like all such voids it is of a spiritual nature and cannot be filled by physical things. At its core, every desire we experience is really a longing for God.
I should not be surprised that so many of our children are covering themselves with ink. They have been separated from transcendent meaning. Now they must create meaning for themselves in order to fill that void. Too often, they try to recreate themselves altogether. And they mask their God-given beauty in the process.
Well, it doesn't explain it perfectly because right after that he said College students – even as young as 18 - are encouraged to resolve sexual confusion with the blade of a knife. This would seem to indicate transgender surgery. However, I'm not so sure that much of the genital mutilation discussed in my earlier post also doesn't have something to do with 'sexual confusion'.
thank her for her service to our country. If I had it to do all over again I would go CG instead of Army. Our Nephew came home for Christmas. He is stationed in Japan and is a Helicopter Maintance Mechanis. He walked in the door with Several Tats and I thought his mother was going to faint.
They asked my opinion, and seh almost fainted again when i told her about my plans to get one after my half Iron Man.
I think he is referring to sex change operations among the young. Just a guess, though.
My mother is still trying to pretend Anoreth’s tattoos are temporary ;-).
She spent the year before she turned 18 researching all the services, and the Coast Guard was the one that guaranteed she wouldn’t end up behind a desk in the Midwest. She was a general seaman, “Deck Force,” on the cutter in the Pacific for two years, and then was one of two women in the Gunner’s Mate class. More excitement by age 20 than I’ve seen at 45!
Just about every sailor I work with has at least one tatoo, and most of them have two or more. Sailorettes too.
Tattoo - The Who
Me and my brother were talking to each other
‘Bout what makes a man a man
Was it brain or brawn, or the month you were born,
We just couldn’t understand
Our old man didn’t like our appearance
He said that only women wear long hair
So me and my brother borrowed money from Mother
We knew what we had to do
We went downstairs, past the barber and gymnasium
And got our arms tattooed
Welcome to my life, tattoo
I’m a man now, thanks to you
I expect I’ll regret you
But the skin graft man won’t get you
You’ll be there when I die
Tattoo
My dad beat me ‘cause mine said “Mother”
But my mother naturally liked it and beat my brother
‘Cause his tattoo was of a lady in the nude
And my mother thought that was extremely rude
Welcome to my life, tattoo
We’ve a long time together, me and you
I expect I’ll regret you
But the skin graft man won’t get you
You’ll be there when I die
Tattoo
Now I’m older, I’m tattooed all over
My wife is tattooed too
A rooty-toot-toot, A rooty-tooty-toot-toot
Rooty-toot-toot tattoo too
To you
Just about every sailor I work with has at least one tatoo, and most of them have two or more. Sailorettes too.
Just about every sailor I work with has at least one tatoo, and most of them have two or more. Sailorettes too.
The “internetainers” Rhett & Link have an anti-tatoo vid where several grossly overtatted & overpierced humanoids warn against the folly of integument inking.
One of them observes, “After all, doesn’t your body already have enough holes?”
FWIW, the first body tatooing I ever heard of was an opera diva who had her name and SSN tatooed on her abdomen, declaring, “Nobody will see it except my husband and my doctor.” She had a fear of flying and an acute fear of transatlantic flight. Final ID, you know.
BINGO!
God bless her and keep her safe.
Thanks!
I heard you the first time.
Yeah, I get that way too when I OD on caffine [grin].
The human soul longs for union with God, but is bound by our corporeal nature and our fallen state and can't achieve it, at least not easily or for lengthy periods of time. We are destined for mortal death and the separation (albeit temporary) of our souls from our bodies - which is an unnatural state of being (again from an eternal and divine perspective).
This is where our carnal passions enter in. The soul seeks the joy of reunion with God and our fallen bodies seek to fill the void of longing in the soul. So what do we do? We do things...one thing after another...that offer us short-lived pleasure...
We eat too much. Eating's not bad in and of itself, in fact it's necessary to sustain our bodies. But WE do it for pleasure and to excess.
We drink too much. Alcohol in moderate doses is actually good for your digestion and your circulatory system. But you drink too much of it you get drunk. You get drunk too often and you become dependent, among other things.
We overindulge our sexuality. We have to have sex to procreate...I won't go too far here because I know young people probably read this.
We overindulge, PERIOD, on whatever it is that brings us fleeting pleasure. ALL OF THESE THINGS TAKE THE PLACE OF GOD. Not good. And we tell lies to hide it from others. And we lie to ourselves to say it's alright.
In short, we sin. The Greek word for sin, ἁμαρτία, means to miss the mark. What mark? God. Union with God. And we miss because so many of us don't even know what we're aiming for. Nearly all of us, I'd say. Very few have gotten a taste of the uncreated eternal. And most (if not all) of them are ascetics who have dedicated their lives to constant prayer.
Christ assumed humanity, was crucified, suffered, died, was buried, and arose to conquer death for us. By this he released us from mortality's hold on us and offered us the hope of eternal reunion with God and an alternative to our fleeting, sinful, mortal passions
I do understand the visual aspect of tattooing, which is why mine are hidden. Why people get visible, un-coverable tattoos is beyond me. Mine have private significance, and as such, I do not regret any of them.
I went the other road for an “audience” in college: piercing. I’ve since removed every last one, but at the time, I got more attention from metal than I did from ink.
A tramp-stamp means “this side up”
I understand what you’re sayin. Completely.
Sorry about that - slow computer and network response.
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