Why People Get Tattoos?

Every time I see someone’s tattoos my curious side wakes up. I stare at that person’s tattoos until I figure out what they mean. Usually I do not have enough time to get the meaning of them but the design of the tattoos I see stayed in my mind more than I expected them to stay.  Even though I have been raised in a culture where tattoos are not approving, I love to pay attention to such unique art. I know that one tattoo says more than one thousand words.

Tattoos are an authentic art that come from the Polynesian culture and it represents sacrificed and braveness (“Skin”). People suffer the pain of getting a tattoo in honor of something (“Skin”). In this country, everybody can get a tattoo without being critique. Here tattoos do not say that someone was in prison or was part of a criminal movement. Here I see that tattoos are a channel that people used to express what they feel and think. Moreover, they show what they like and what is special to them.

 When People from culture that disproof tattoos move to New York, they get a tattoo right way because almost everybody here has a tattoo and they get influenced by that. My fiancé never got a tattoo when he was living with his parents in the Dominican Republic, but once he moved here he got four tattoos and he wants more. It seems that New York culture has a strong influence on people from other cultures and it helps them to be themselves, to do what they like despite their parents’ beliefs.

 Many People get tattoos because their culture tradition, others because they are influenced by someone else. In addition, a lot people get tattoos because they like it and they become addicted to the ink. A lot of people have the same tattoo styles. The “armband” or band tattoo style is very common because American people brought it as a reminder from their trip to Polynesia (“Skin”).

There are many different tattoos style and people get them for many different reasons. I will follow my family’s culture and I will not get a tattoo, but I will never stop loving that passionate art.

Work Cited

“Skin Stories: The Art and Culture of Polynesian Tattoo”. PBS.org. ND. Web. 26 Aug. 2017.