From the start, Ephemeral’s waiver included warnings that “the exact amount of time that the tattoo will last may be shorter or longer” than nine to 15 months, and that the tattooing process “might leave individuals with permanent marks.”
There's still something of a problem of false advertising. The company has in the past included language like "gone in a year." The head of the company had the nerve to assert that "some customers will just take the initial tag line at face value." But the company was roping in customers who were timid about getting tattoos. Another tag line was "Regret nothing."
Imagine if a company could sell freedom from regret. What naifs are allowed to snuggle up into a tattoo chair? Anyone over 18, I suppose. And yet there's a distinct dearth of lawsuits against tattooers. But this company lures more timid group. Should they have more of a remedy than the random idiot that gets a bad tattoo? But they crossed the line. They got the tattoo. They should have been even more timid.
Consider Eden Bekele, owner of the chili-pepper arm seen above. Why didn't her boyfriend who "won" the prize get the tattoo? He seems less naive. He took the glow of beneficence in the eyes of his girlfriend and distanced himself from the regret about the tattoo.
Did their relationship last 9 to 15 month or shorter or longer? Was it hot, like a chili pepper, or was it always, like that tattooed outline of a chili pepper, not so hot?
Posts
42 comments:
This is a ridiculous concept that reflects aggressive marketing and/or wishful thinking. I hope the business goes away because all tattoos fade to a fuzzy smear over time and are therefore 'ephemeral' on a longer timescale. It's thereby mostly setting people up for a cover-up tattoo to hide the first one.
Whenever you damage the skin, the skin stays a bit damaged. I still have very old scars from scrapes and bumps as a small child. Any tattoo with needles and ink damages the skin and injects a foreign substance into the skin. If the needle damage turns into a keloidal scar then who cares about the fading residual ink? You've got a keloid for life! People also get accidental 'ink pen tattoos' from writing accidents and 'dirt tattoos' from falling and scraping a knee too. They can last for life.
The hedge that doesn’t work.
What an oxymoron.
Buyers of this deserve what they get.
Forty years ago in college, right before bedding this woman, she informed me I was going to see something she deeply regretted when we undressed. There on her inner thigh next to her vagina were tattooed the words Property Of Michael
Fortunately my name is Michael so felt I had the right to be there ;-)
Ann, all tats are bad. “Bad tattoos” is redundant.
The point of ink is to find a design with meaning, a placement that's well-considered, and an artist with skill. We know it's there forever and are careful.
My God, that chili pepper is ugly.
You can always recover from a bad haircut. Bad tats,* not so much.
* IMO there is no such thing as a good tat.
I feels like something I should have thought about a bit more."
Doh!
Minimum age for a tattoo should be at the point where brain development is complete, 27. This is also true for voting.
Could be worse.
Moth. Ow! Quitit…
I don't know if it's still the case, but once upon a time, the permanence of the tattoo was a big barrier to getting one. A service that removes that barrier could reach a large audience that otherwise would not get a tattoo. Non-permanence is THE killer app for the Ephemeral customer.
Remember the old joke, the purpose of the small print is to take away everything the large print purports to give you? Ephemeral seems to be taking that joke a little too literally. If they promise a year, they should be culpable at least by 2 years, no matter what paragraph 4 says.
Be careful what you wish for. Don't believe everything you're told.
Anything else, Dad?
Nope.
"Tattoo was the mother of Pinkle Purr,
A little black nothing of feet and fur;
And by-and-by, when his eyes came through,
He saw his mother, the big Tattoo.
And all that he learned he learned from her.
"I'll ask my mother," says Pinkle Purr."
Not bad advice!
I am only interested in subset of Tattoees from Tatooine
Some tattoos are well-designed and beautifully done and appropriately sited. These are not bad tattoos. It may nevertheless be wiser not to have the tattoo done and thus a bad choice of something over nothing. To me, better than nothing is a high standard, and I would always choose nothing, at least not until some brilliant artist shows me some design and guarantees the skill and I am somehow smitten by the proposal, but some people have a lower threshold. And so many of them have bad judgment that you may want to propound the general rule that all tattoos are bad. But the people you hope to reach will not listen to you, so what's the value of a flat rule?
Tattoo parlors =/= Deep pockets
That's why no lawsuits.
"He seems less naive."
You couldn't find a phrase that captures historical subtext more if you tried, except maybe the Bible. Tattoos and apples...or in this case a chili pepper.
I got my first tattoo at 50 and my second and third (and last) at 51. All three are Celtic knots, as I've always identified most strongly with the Irish fraction of my heritage. Two are on my upper arms, one on my upper back. One commemorates my motherhood and my three kids (which kid is the top dot on this tattoo rotates throughout the year), one my love of travel but also of returning home, and one my marriage. Now, five years later, I often forget they exist. Occasionally at a dressy event when the two biceps tattoos are on display because I'm wearing something sleeveless, I'm struck by the incongruity, but in these latter days no one else seems to care.
I cover my arms for solemn occasions.
I got the first when a relative asked me to; she, also 50, got one to commemorate the stillborn child she had had many years before, and didn't want to make the leap alone. I'd never contemplated it before, but kind of shrugged to myself and thought, hey, if you can't permanently mark or embellish yourself without regret at this age, when can you? I knew I wasn't going to get sleeves or anything.
I've never had any "work" done, in contrast to many in my circle. Who knows - maybe when I'm 70 and some friend wants to have permanent eyeliner or lip fillers or something done and wants a buddy, I'll do that too. What the heck.
@Althouse: "some people have a lower threshold. And so many of them have bad judgment"
This is science. Tattoos were historically correlated with impulsive and risk-taking behavior (i.e., criminals, gangs, sexual promiscuity, drugs). Yes. Factual. The Russians have a long history of prison tattoos with symbolic meanings. The Japanese Yakuza (Mafia) made secretive under-shirt tattoos into an artform. Tattoos remain banned in public baths because of the Yakuza association, leading to distress/exclusion among western visitors.
To some extent the impulsiveness changed in the 1980s with the rise of high-art tattoos. IMO this is a first-world elite indulgence and those who pay $5K or $50K to a famous tattoo artist for 3 year body coverage plan are nothing like the drunken sailors and gangsters who paid $50 and spent 1 hour getting some random memento.
My plan--when I get my first tattoo--is for one saying "No Regerts". Or, just save the money for a hobby or vacation and get a stick-on tattoo from a candy box.
That is one ugly tattoo. She should have had the ephemeral placed somewhere she couldn't see it.
“Regrets? I’ve had a few
but that tattoo’s worth special mention”
12 Better Ways to Say “I Regret to Inform You”
My deepest apologies
Unfortunately
This May Disappoint You
My Sincerest Apologies
My Humblest Apologies
Please Forgive Me For Saying This
I Regret To Be The One To Say This
I’m Sorry To Tell You
I Am Sorry To Inform You
I’m Afraid I Do Not Have Good News
Regrettably
I’m Sorry
12 Better Ways
Pretty ugly tat there. Somewhat penile in appearance. IMHO sends an unfortunate message: “my bad judgment will follow me always.”
Ann:
I'd consider getting a tat if it was one of your rats/mice of a few years back.
Because most people have bad judgment it is best not to get a tat. But this is a free country and people are free to be stupid.
Tats are useful as I use them to rule out women who I might date. For me, tats are the sign of a dope and I don't want to be associated with dopes.
This is certainly controversial, but Begley has never avoided controversy.
American prison tattoos are no small thing either, and many are the Ukrainian POWs who regret their swastika tat.
My girlfriend has four. Three are pretty awesome, one not so much. I’m not into tattoos, but they don’t bother me at all.
She is crazy gorgeous and needs to be with some rich guy, but we got that whole common interests thing going on so what the hell.
So she did have regerts?
Tattoos are idiotic, almost as much so as body piercings. Nose rings make you look like a moronic cow. But it's no surprise they and tattoos are popular, given our societies proclivity for child mutilation.
Mayflies. In the order 'ephemerata'.
Do we need to go over "Rusty's Rules for Lycra, Piercings and Tattoos"?
Get the chili tattoo, you will regret it. Don't get the chili tattoo, you will regret that too...
Scratch that, no regerts on not having the chili tattoo.
I told my granddaughter that if two people equally qualified were in my office seeking a job, the one with tattoo(s) would lose.
A few months later I noticed she had a tattoo on her wrist.
Years ago my instinctive reaction on seeing a tattoo was, “Eww, skin disease, avoid!” Now that I’ve gotten more used to them my reaction is, “Eww, idiot, avoid!”
Are you still looking at me? #FadingRebel
It's more like a law. Because it's true.
I can totally understand why beautiful women get tattoos though. When Raquel Welch died,and they showed that poster of her in 10^6 BC, I thought, “ Wow... just think how much better she would have looked with a tattoo!”
Normalize, tolerate, or reject.
I tend to think that tattoos are a marker for stupidity. But there are beautiful examples. I once dated a woman who was a tattoo artist, and artist was a fair description. She was also a very talented (and made her living for years as) oil painter. Her tattoos were undeniably very well done and artistic, unlike the van mural style that is so common. She refused to do tough guy tattoos like skulls, because as she said, her skulls always had a bit of a smirk or some other inappropriately not tough look to them. She had great and hilarious stories about the tattoo business.
I live in an area of the country where not having a tattoo puts me in a very, distinct minority. I understood tattoos on guys in the past, or maybe a small one in a discreet area on a female. But seeing one spread all over the shoulders, back, up and down both arms, legs .... etc.
I don't get it. It's hideous.
Many years ago at TaeKwonDo, me and my son, then four, were changing into our gi. A new student, a man in his late 30's came in and started to change. When he took off his shirt my son noticed his large and colorful US Eagle tattoo on his arm. My son, his eyes widening, pointed at it and asked what it was. I told him it was a tattoo. He asked, "What does that mean?" Looking at the guy, I said, "It means he was either in the Navy, or got really drunk one night." The guy frowned and said, "Drunk. Really, really, drunk."
There's no one with a tattoo who wouldn't look better without it.
Ann Althouse said...
Some tattoos are well-designed and beautifully done and appropriately sited.
Solely an opinion.
Tattoos were used to mark slaves. That's their origin.
Tatoo art was used to cover up slave marks. Decorative in order to say they weren't doing so.
So anyone with a tatoo has marked themselves as a former slave.
Post a Comment