To think some people are going to regret some of these ridiculous tattoos.

[riverwalk]

What is it with tattoos lately. They're just getting ridiculous and some of them look plain stupid. Rita Ora has some just under her armpits, the part of the arm that gets dangly as you age. Just what is the point, they don't look good at all. I don't think they define you as a person (as lots of them say) at all. How does it.

"I only have about four pairs of judgey pants and I save them for best" Best line of the night

I'm 64, recently retired from a highly respectable profession, and have just had my first tattoo. My choice. No one is forcing the OP to have one and I can't imagine many people care what she thinks about them.

On the permanent issue, I was reading this month's Focus magazine and it says someone has worked out a cheap way to remove tattoos by developing a cream that uses your own body's immune system to get rid of them.

Don't have any myself simply because I'm indecisive. Maybe if the cream was developed and it left no mark, I'd be more likely to get one as I could get rid of it if I changed my mind. As it is I'll stick to piercings.

Their body, their choice.

I work for the NHS and thankfully they are now fine about tattoos in my trust.

As long as they aren't offensive they don't care. The patients love looking at mine.

I plan to have lots more.

I've got one small tattoo (so far); ill planned and probably ill executed, when I was 17, but at least the placement means it's very very easily covered.

Each to their own I think. I have some friends with beautiful pieces of artwork. IMO, if they reach their 80s and are saggy and their biggest worry is how their tattoos look, I would consider them to be doing pretty well!

(Quite interesting to google image search 'old people' and then 'tattoed old people'. I know which group I think I'd rather be a part of)

Some tattoos are good, a lot are crap. I think the problem I have is so many are just badly done. There are some amazing beautiful tattoos out there, which probably cost a fortune.

I have a tattoo in a place which isn't on show unless I'm wearing a bikini.
I kind of wish I hadn't got it, or got it done by a really good artist because it wasn't exactly what I wanted.
But I'm not bothered about other peoples tattoos, I won't judge them for it. Unless it has swear words in it!
And anyway all of your skin is going to look shit when you're 90, so I'm not bothered about that.

Oh yes Lighthouse women should get small tattoos of flowers and fairies and princesses whilst men can get big ones of lions and football and bits of steel.

IME - and I'm pretty old (mid 40s), and know a lot of people that had tattoos in their early 20's - most people do regret them, because fashions change, and what seems cutting edge now, becomes old hat and cliched in time.

One of my dsis had a couple - eg. a butterfly on her ankle, and a couple of other subtle ones- I reckon hers will probably stand the test of time. But most 'in your face' tattoos follow fashion just like everything else, so will be regretted.

Of course each to their own, some really do look ok, just wonder what it is that people think it makes them look good. Some of them look bloody stupid. Well who am I? just my opinion.

Oyster - smacks a bit of 'women, know your place and remember to be pretty and girly at all times', doesn't it?

I don't like full sleeves.

Recently I've see an Increase in slogan tattoos, bizzarely tattooed wonky or slightly sloping and not straight.
Perhaps there's a market for some sort of body spirit level.

Fashions change- and that absolutely includes tattoos as well.

Sadly, these full rockabilly sleeves will date as horribly as everyone else's, but are gonna prove a lot harder to hide or cover than the tribal dragons on the shoulder we all got back in the 90s. Ah well. Their funeral.

I was indirectly asked my opinion as we all were, so I expressed it. No I don't like it when women are covered in tattoos and I'm not obliged to either, oh and yes I do like pretty and flowery and glittery things, is that so terrible.

It's a wee bit sexist and old fashioned lighthouse.

Plus it was not just me who said I didn't like them. Don't know why I've been bloody chewed up and spat out.

I think Cheryl whatshername might regret that enormous tattoo covering her entire lower back. Bonkers.

You haven't been chewed up and spat out. Slight over-reaction there.

We were picking up on your attitude of women should only have girly tats and certainly not full sleeves. Which is sexist nonsense tbh.

I didn't get my tattoos for other people to look at and decide whether they are 'beautiful' or not.

My favourite one is my 'cut along the dotted line' symbol, next to a surgical scar across my stomach. It's a huge scar and I used to be very self-conscious of it, as it shows under any close-fitting clothes, and bikinis are a nightmare, but since getting the tattoo, I feel confident again. Everyone who's seen it has admired it - I've recently had a load of doctors admiring it and saying they think it's a great idea

It's not beautiful, it's not elegant, it's not intricate, but it's bloody awesome

jorah I love that.

Witty and meaningful.

I don't like it when anybody, male or female, is absolutely covered in tattoos - too many looks ugly, even if the artwork itself is of good quality. But I got my second tattoo yesterday. The first is on my back/ shoulder and is a yin-yang. I got it about 16 years ago at uni. I don't regret it because it says something about my beliefs. My second is my son's date of birth in a spiralling band around my wrist with the italic inscription "Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow" and a picture of an oak leaf. Again, it means something to me and looks feminine - I've also been thinking about it for several months and knew the wording was exactly right for me. I don't really understand the people who are seemingly addicted to getting more and more done where there's little or no meaning involved, but it's their choice after all. I know I've made the right decision and don't give a flying feck what others think about tattoos, providing they are not forming a discriminatory judgement of me or my ability to do my job or whatever else.

Facial tattoos and piercings are really useful. If your hiring it cuts down the interview process.

A friends daughter wanted to get a tattoo of a lovebird on her abdomen, until I suggested that after a couple of kids it would look like a vulture, 10 years later - no tattoo.

oh wow great, another mumsnet thread moaning about other people's tattoos. It must be a whole two weeks since the last one.

I'll never understand why people get their knickers in a twist about what some other people choose to do with their own bodies. Tattoos seem to bring this out more than other stuff, like clothes and shoes or hairstyles. It's rare to see someone getting all cross about someone else's handbag, but for some reason tattoos really bring it out.

Jorah! That is not the same as getting a 'fashionable' tattoo - and all power to you. That is a wonderful use of tattoing - same as mastectomy patients getting tattoos on their scars.

You know, I believe that everybody is free to do whatever they like to their own body - but just that ime people do live to regret these very visible tattoos that are in prominent places - because they don't stay fashionable forever. I've lot count of the women I meet that won't wear sleeveless tops because they have the barb wire tattoo around their upper arm, got during rebellious years at uni, and are now teachers, lawyers or whatever, and just feel it is totally ridiculous.

And yet, I work in a school and there are plenty of tats on show.

As if someone having tats or piercings is less capable of doing a job just because of that.