men with tattoos... on the small of their back.... (Page 3)

That happens to me like every other day

What's your phone # again? 

A woman wearing a low cut shirt is comparable to a man wearing a revealing swimsuit in a public place not designed for swimming? Wow that's the StretchArmstrong of logical fallacies. I would bet that mall security might not agree with that opinion.

No, we aren't asking for it. Any victim of verbal hostiliity is not to blame for the stupidity of the offender. It's not that we are overly sensitive to stupid people; it's just that we generally expect people to restrain their verbal farting. The fact that the verbal fart offends our sensibilities is not a poor reflection of our sensiibilities. It's a reflection of the poor impulse control of the stupid person.

Let's place a very large, well defined and easy-not-to-cross line between thoughts and actions, shall we?  It's a leap of logic to go from someone "thinking" something to someone "doing" something

somehow, this CoJ thread has gotten horribly off track

and runningwoof, if I ever decide to switch hit, I know how to find you

Absolutely.

Dan said: "Yes, that is akin to that.  If you wear a low cut shirt and you get offended by someone saying something about them..."

If someone says "nice " to a person wearing a low-cut shirt, they deserve their @ss handed to them. If they think "nice ", well, nothing wrong with that as far as I can see.

Apparently not...

OK, a tad out of context.  Lara was talking more about the random ignorant comment vs. the curious questioning hangloose describes.

I'll be honest, I'm not a tatoo guy, though I don't care if someone else is.  I don't know what women are going for with the back tatoos, but maybe they're not going for anything besides liking it for all I know.  Seems odd placement to me, but again, what do I know?  I know I've never commented on anyone's tatoo, and this thread confirms that's probably the safest social strategy.

I like when people ask about mine...

Of course, I am a tat guy when it comes to IM tats.  And I'll ask every time about that, especially if it's a hippie IM tat  . 

OK, is that true, people want to talk about their tats?  I always feel a bit awkward so I stay quiet as I mentioned.   OK, I'm a total spazz  so bear with me.  If a female has a back tat and it's half covered by a shirt, but I'm curious about it, can I freakin' ask about it?  That seems crude on some level to ask, though I'm not sure why.  Yes I'm old but not THAT old.

So there ya go...  oh, wait a minute.  OK, here's the rules:   you can ask Jim.   You shouldn't ask Kim.  Hangloose will allow the sincere question.  I'll post the rest as they are written

At any rate, I've learned from this thread that you shouldn't think anything about anyone, no matter what they are wearing, what they say, how they act, etc etc....  apparently.  Blank slate.  That's me from now on.  the thought police are watching

In fact, I am creating a questionnaire to submit to everyone I meet, first question is "what is your sexual preference."  Second question, "can I ask you about your body adornment?"  I'm taking suggestions for furrher questions.    "Favorite position," comes to mind.  "Chipotle or La Salsa?" will be in there somewhere.  Oh, and can't forget "do you know how to change a flat?"

Disclaimer:   All in good fun

No. Just like not everyone wants to talk about their scars. Sometimes people get tattoos for themselves for very sensitive reasons and they don't want to share those reasons with everyone. Just because the public can see it doesn't mean the public needs to know the story behind it.

People at the pool ask me all the time what my tattoo means. Most of the time I just give them the short answer of "it's Celtic knotwork." Honestly, I don't know these people and I don't really want to share why I got the artwork that I got. Most of the time the short answer suffices, and then they follow with the "how much did it cost", "how long did it take", "did it hurt" questions. Which is fine since most people are just generally curious, so I give them the general answers. But I'm not going to go into a long speech about the meaning of my tattoos with a general person on the street.

I guess the general rule of thumb I'd put out there is if you are already talking to someone/know someone, it's totally fine to talk to them about their tats. I really don't mind talking about what they mean to me, how much they hurt or cost, and so forth. It's also fine to say "Nice tat," or something of the like to someone you don't know in passing. It's when the people announce something to you about your tattoo randomly, use it as an opener to hit on you, interrupt you in the middle of your workout to ask you to explain its meaning, etc, that it gets annoying.

For the record, you can feel free to think any ol' thing you like about me based on them! Have yourself a ball! You can think they're ugly, you can think they make me ugly, you can think they mean I'm a wh*re or gay or a devil worshipper or a stockbroker or whatever. Just don't let me in on it unless it follows that greatest of rules of ettiquette: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

I should start an ettiquette column, dontcha think?!

Touching is also annoying (similar to pregnant women getting their stomachs grabbed by strangers). My mom has her hands and arms tattooed so random people come up and grab her arms and start rubbing them as they ask about her tattoos, as if they are textured differently or something. Her face is also tattooed, so she also gets pointed fingers and "What's THAT?!" in her face. Some people are so rude.

Ugh, that would drive me nuts... But, exactly, just because one has tattoos, doesn't remove your obligation to be polite to them (or simply not be rude)!

The phrase is actually, "If you don't have anything nice to say, come sit by me."