Here’s a story as amusing as it is probably apocryphal, that also nicely illustrates the dangers of tattoos.

This guy, heavily into the gay scene, decides to get a tat. He opts for some type of oriental pictograph and carefully researches what symbol would adequately describe him. Being a hedonist he asks the tattooist for the symbol for “pleasure”. The tattooist obliges and once the blood and scabs clear up he proudly displays it while wandering around soho.
We have discovered, from someone who knows, that the symbol actually means “pleasuring the clitoris”. Let’s hope he’s not into oriental men because his pulling power will suddenly tail-off…

Now if he’d mistakenly bought a t-shirt with that design on, he’d feel a bit of a fool and would probably give it away. But this is a tatoo. When he’s being helped out of the bed by the nurse so she can clean up his shit when he’s 83, that symbol will still be there.
Would you ever make a fashion decision for an item of clothing that you had to wear for the rest of your life ? What if you were asked in the 80s ? You’d still be wearing those Farrahs, that Gabbicci jumper and that waffle tie today….how much of a prat would you feel ?

And as for Chinese or Japanese symbols…what sort of lame cheese-brain opts for that ? OK – if you’re chinese or Japanese then ok – you know what you’re doing. But the sort of nob-ends that go for this are usually westerners with absolutely no clue, to whom the idea of tattooing “love”, “hate”, “mum”, “pleasure” or “ACAB” would be abhorrent….if it was written in English. But in Japanese or Chinese it looks exotic dunnit. Yes well guess what – to the Chinese and Japanese, it just looks like words, and you look like a right tit. You’ve made a decision about a longer proportion of your life than you’ve lived for already…and none of this “I want to die young” bullshit either. What sort of person wants to live to 80 ? Ask someone who’s 79.