Althouse: "When i was 20 years old, i went through some serious mental health issues and decided i wanted a face tattoo."

August 19, 2025

"When i was 20 years old, i went through some serious mental health issues and decided i wanted a face tattoo."

"My local artist noticed i was in mental distress and told me that he would put semi permenant ink on my face of the tattoo i wanted. Wear it for a week without rubbing it off, then come back to him and decide if i still wanted it. I agreed and he stenciled it for me on my face. I came back shaking his hand a week later and decided to get a tattoo on my wrist instead. I will never forget what he did for me. Im 30 now, have a kid, wife, i work in IT for cybersecurity, and have no criminal history. I was setting myself up for failure. That artist saved me from a huge mistake i couldnt come back from"

Writes a commenter at r/shittytattoos, in a post with a photograph of someone's face tattoo (which seems to be what that person wanted to gift himself on the occasion of his 18th birthday).

61 comments:

FormerLawClerk said...: Batman is just a comic book, ya'll. Don't know who needs to be told this but here we are.; 8/19/25, 7:52 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Naturally I thought of doctors who start young people on gender reassignment because they say they that's what they want.; 8/19/25, 8:09 AM
MarkCh said...: Applies to "gender affirming care" as well. Except that's not reversible. And the tattoo artist in this story was more ethical than most doctors.; 8/19/25, 8:10 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: Confucious say all tattoos permanent proof of temporary insanity.; 8/19/25, 8:11 AM
rehajm said...: Lucky guy. Some are not so lucky but their pain is our entertainment. Tattoo Fixers is for the rest of us. Not for hate watching, it’s rather light hearted and constructive…and very entertaining. Magaluf plus home tattoo kit plus alcohol spells diz- ahsther…🏴‍☠️; 8/19/25, 8:12 AM
gilbar said...: he SHOULD have gone to a DOCTOR!
they would have pumped him full of drugs, and lopped off his dick.
Tattoos are permanent.. Castration is just a fling; 8/19/25, 8:19 AM
tim maguire said...: In that picture, it's hard to tell what's tattoo and what's horrible scar. Is all of it tattoo? If the scar is real, then the tattoo doesn't do much harm.; 8/19/25, 8:19 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Mid last century a tat was considered to be resulting from a drunken weekend spent by a military man on leave.
I first saw them on guys rigging the midway at the State Fair.; 8/19/25, 8:20 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Naturally I thought of doctors who start young people on gender reassignment..."/"Applies to "gender affirming care" as well. Except that's not reversible...."

If that is the analogy, what is the semi-permanent ink and what is "wearing it without rubbing it off"? Dress and style yourself like your idea of the sex you wish you were and keep doing it, never stopping, no breaks (for X amount of time).; 8/19/25, 8:22 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "If that is the analogy, what is the semi-permanent ink and what is "wearing it without rubbing it off"? Dress and style yourself like your idea of the sex you wish you were and keep doing it, never stopping, no breaks (for X amount of time)."

One difference is, you never need to get the tattoo. Just keep dressing and styling and presenting yourself as what you want to be and never get any medical treatments — or be precise and analytical about what you are still missing and make an informed choice that you do want that.; 8/19/25, 8:24 AM
Magilla Gorilla said...: I'm pretty much a Second Amendment absolutist, but I would make an exception to ban gun sales to anyone with a facial tattoo. Exception to the exception: Maoris or others from a culture where such things are traditional.; 8/19/25, 8:24 AM
Dogma and Pony Show said...: OK, let's all get behind enacting a law that would impose a 30-day cooling off period for any face tattoos. Before you can get it done with permanent ink, you have to try it with semi-permanent for a month. The tattoo industry would probably support it because they can charge for both visits.; 8/19/25, 8:26 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Is all of it tattoo?"

Yes. It's a pretty skillfully done trompe l'oeil.; 8/19/25, 8:26 AM
Quaestor said...: Have 18 year olds always been this impulsive? I ask because they are so many traditional cultures honor a younger age as the commencement of adulthood. Being an adult means one must accept complete responsibility , both legal, practical, and moral for one's actions and choices -- no mulligans, no take-backs, no whining. Something tells me that Joker-face will resent being permanently barred from many lucrative career opportunities by reason of his evident foolhardiness and lack of foresight.; 8/19/25, 8:26 AM
rehajm said...: …on Tattoo Fixers Alice doesn’t do winkies…; 8/19/25, 8:35 AM
Aggie said...: Like all new things that find a market and eventually become cheaper and more efficient, I hope that tattoo removal technology advances and becomes more affordable and commonplace. Too many stupid kids and too many middle-aged dummies pull the trigger on a tattoo because they're frustrated with something else in their life and can't bear to confront it.; 8/19/25, 8:36 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Even in the 70s and early 80s having a tattoo meant you were either a sailor or low class. It was trashy to have one. Its sad to see pretty young girls running around with ugly "tats" on their arms and neck.

Its one fad I hope ends soon. very soon.; 8/19/25, 8:36 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Having a face tattoo is a mark of mental illness? Makes sense.; 8/19/25, 8:37 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: @RCOCEAN II, men prefer debt-free virgins WITHOUT tattoos. My recommendation for young men is to find novice nuns before they take their vows.; 8/19/25, 8:41 AM
bagoh20 said...: When I was young and impulsive, I opened a bank account. I still have it. It turns out that chicks loves those.; 8/19/25, 8:46 AM
Howard said...: Yes, it's much better to hide your mental illness with fake normalcy.; 8/19/25, 8:53 AM
Dave Begley said...: "shitty tattoos" is redundant.; 8/19/25, 8:56 AM
Randomizer said...: In the late 80's, I was on a business trip near Boston. After my meetings on Friday, I drove into the city to look around. The area around Faneuil Hall looked lively, but I had to keep driving to find a place to park. When I found a spot, the neighborhood was all porn shops and Chinese restaurants.

A young Black guy came up to ask me if I wanted to buy some crack. No thanks. Then he asked if I wanted a prostitute. No thanks. He took a look at my business suit, and said, "Man, I think you're in the wrong place. This is the Combat Zone. Where are you trying to go?"

I told him, and he directed me to the subway and told me what line and stops I wanted. Crack dealers can be good chaps.

Wise and experienced tattooists might be similar. Better to caution people away from face or sleeve tattoos unless the customer is experienced and committed to the art.

Polite society may have a negative view of crack dealers and tattooists. Long term, it's unproductive to validate their concerns.; 8/19/25, 8:56 AM
Dave Begley said...: There's a show called "Ink Masters." It is a competition show. The people ("human canvasses") have their bodies used as part of the show.

The judges then critique the work and say how terrible the tat is.

I love this show!; 8/19/25, 8:59 AM
Howard said...: Dave Begley should tell that to Pete Hegseth; 8/19/25, 9:01 AM
tim maguire said...: Ann Althouse said...If that is the analogy, what is the semi-permanent ink and what is "wearing it without rubbing it off"? Dress and style yourself like your idea of the sex you wish you were and keep doing it, never stopping, no breaks (for X amount of time).

IIRC, when sex changes were a new thing (70's and 80's), living for a year as the opposite sex was the standard first step before any surgical procedure could commence.; 8/19/25, 9:01 AM
Jersey Fled said...: “ Yes, it's much better to hide your mental illness with fake normalcy.”

Better, yes. But really hard.; 8/19/25, 9:02 AM
Ampersand said...: It would be interesting to see a study evaluating the psychology and sociology of the young people who have decided not to get tattoos.; 8/19/25, 9:06 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: "Performative normalcy". It's the hot new thing.; 8/19/25, 9:07 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: @Ampersand, a good analogy would be the army. The number of enlisted/NCOs with tattoos: large. The number of officers with tattoos: Incredibly small. Pretty indicative.

Outside of Hegseth I've only ever seen one other.; 8/19/25, 9:09 AM
Big Mike said...: The best use of tattoos that I’ve ever heard of lets breast cancer survivors who’ve had mastectomies have the appearance of A cup breasts complete to nipples. Other than that, I don’t get it.; 8/19/25, 9:14 AM
Peachy said...: the 'get a tattoo' trend - so you can be hip and cool like everyone else - is right up there with smoking cigarettes to be cool.

lame.; 8/19/25, 9:16 AM
Old and slow said...: I dated a tattoo artist (an actual artist, she was also a successful oil painter) who had many stories like this. Apparently, refusing to do face and neck tattoos is common practice, especially if the person does not already have many other tattoos. She also refused to do any Nazi symbols. She also had lots of very funny stories. She told me I was the only guy she had ever dated who had no tattoos.; 8/19/25, 9:19 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: No bumper stickers on this Bentley chassis.; 8/19/25, 9:19 AM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/19/25, 9:24 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Turlington's Tattoo Removal - SNL
https://youtu.be/vBmvfW7WOUc?si=BFuoFstTOevnbXtF; 8/19/25, 9:26 AM
Quaestor said...: Perhaps the problem isn't facial tattoos. Perhaps it's the notion that autonomy imposes a duty on others. For example, the transexual position insists there's such a thing as misgendering. The typical trans believes his imposture imposes an obligation on everyone else to believe it as well. Normals balk at this, and they're objectively correct. If you contract to buy a broodmare, and receive a gelding, you've been cheated. This gender fluidity crap is crap with a capital crap. It's a fraud, a deception, and no one is morally bound to accept a deception as not a deception. Something similar applies to facial tattoos.

A facial tattoo could be considered a work of art. People who apply tattoos like to be called "tattoo artists", therefore their output is art, right? However, people who paint houses aren't usually called artists, nor do they insist on that label. They're house painters. The best are skilled artisans who work quickly and with a minimum of slop. The less skilled paint your hedges and your cat as well as your walls. This is not to say an artist may not choose a house as his canvas, but this isn't what one normally expects or contracts for. Greige walls with sage green trim. No Tuscan landscape on the southside, please.

By the same token, the typical tattoo applier is an artisan, not an artist. Again, this is not to say an artist may not choose tattoo as his medium. I'm saying this neither common nor expected. Be that as it may, the tattoo-ee may consider his face to be a work of art. That's his option, but it burdens no one with agreement. Art is a matter of taste. Some like pictures of helpless children bound to chairs, Democrat fundraisers mostly, but not everyone, thankfully. Some are offended. Offensive presentation is a marketing no-no, consequently most employers must look askance at a job applicant with a facial tattoo. The job involves absolutely no visual contact with the public, then the risk is low. Otherwise the ink can be a problem with no compensating up side.; 8/19/25, 9:28 AM
Lazarus said...: So it looks like we are slowly inching towards an "Althouse shows off her new tattoo" post ...; 8/19/25, 9:33 AM
boatbuilder said...: While in court waiting for a conference with a judge, I sat in on a hearing for a prisoner seeking a modification of his sentence for assault. The guy had a tattoo of an enraged pit bull running up his neck to cover most of one side of his face.
The motion to modify was denied. I don't think the tattoo helped.; 8/19/25, 9:52 AM
Quaestor said...: Turlington's Tattoo Removal

Classic.

Too bad it didn't stick.

Sydney Sweeney isn't inked, at least not where it shows. Maybe we've turned a corner. Maybe the Age of Trump is a Beatle-scale cultural nexus with all that portends for the rest of the 21st century. Maybe Florence has hired Ghiberti again, and Guttenberg is once more setting type... nah.; 8/19/25, 9:53 AM
Narr said...: Nothing illustrates Toynbee's observation that civilization changes from the bottom up better than tattoos.

In the '70s only bikers and some military veterans sported tats--one of the art history profs who had been in the Navy had a little nickel-sized rose tattoo on his forearm, and that was enough for people to comment on.

I was running the rare books and manuscripts department in the late '80s, and faced a steady stream of students coming in to use the books on tattooing, which were no longer safe on the open shelves.

The children of the elite (and would-be elite) adopting the customs of the formerly marginalized and despised.

As for all the tatted soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines my understanding is that the guys (and gals) that had been sent to kill and die in Shitholistan started tatting up against regulations, and then the manpower needs became so great that the tat-phobic policies had to be dropped.; 8/19/25, 9:55 AM
boatbuilder said...: Don't know the reason
Stayed here all season
Nothin's for sure but this brand new tattoo
But it's a real beauty
A Mexican cutie
And how it got here I haven't a clue.; 8/19/25, 9:56 AM
Quaestor said...: "[One] of the art history profs who had been in the Navy had a little nickel-sized rose tattoo on his forearm, and that was enough for people to comment on."

Some naval tattoos have an interesting history, largely rooted in seagoing superstitions. For example, sailors often had images of pigs tattooed on their feet. Apparently, these porcine portrayals were talismans against drowning. For a sailor, a rose tattoo might be in tribute to shipmates lost at sea, which makes sense given the longstanding symbolism of the rose in Western art. But what does a pig have to do with drowning? It derives from Polynesian traditions that European seafarers acquired during the Age of Discovery.; 8/19/25, 10:19 AM
West TX Intermediate Crude said...: The first tattoo I remember seeing was a string of numbers on the forearm of an elderly relative.
That is the major reason I have a viscerally negative reaction to tattoos.
I know quite a few very good people who have very nice artistic tattoos, but I have to suppress my first reaction to allow them into my life.; 8/19/25, 10:20 AM
dgstock said...: Tattoos used to be confined to sailors, convicts and Pacific Islanders, vaguely out-caste and transgressive groups. Now with every other granny sporting a sleeve tat and nipple rings body mod fashion becomes herd behavior.; 8/19/25, 10:32 AM
bagoh20 said...: Bad tattoos may be the best example of the extent to which the human mind can go astray. There are plenty if you follow the link.; 8/19/25, 10:51 AM
Just an old country lawyer said...: Is the Panama City Butt Mustache still a thing?; 8/19/25, 10:57 AM
Howard said...: You people are hilarious. The moralism makes you sound like like Hillary Clinton in an ill-fitting pantsuit hiding her rolls of fat.

Last month me my son and my two grandsons were at a primitive gathering in DownEast Maine where we were the only libtards there. Nearly all of the folks were hardcore Trump supporters JFK Jr supporters Pete hegseth supporters etc. lots and lots of military veterans and mostly blue collar workers and blue collar entrepreneurs

I would say about 2/3 of the men had visible tattoos and a little bit less than half of the ladies. These are your salt of the earth prime Trump supporting base.

It's clear you people are so far detached from reality that you actually enjoy the sights and sounds of keeping your head up your ass.; 8/19/25, 11:05 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Carlin on tats...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpRFvSyDWsY; 8/19/25, 11:06 AM
Old and slow said...: "Salt of the earth", you know, morons.; 8/19/25, 11:11 AM
n.n said...: Neither puberty nor affirmation nor liberal orientation. Raise the voting age to 21?; 8/19/25, 11:13 AM
Disparity of Cult said...: At least one of my father's civilian and "Greatest Generation" siblings had received a small tattoo indicating blood type. My childhood memories of this being discussed had associated it with WWII, but per Grok, it would have resulted from Cold War era "Operation Tat-Type" which was in place for less than a year in 1951-1952, and only in one county in Indiana, and two counties in Utah.; 8/19/25, 11:14 AM
boatbuilder said...: Howard--Just because good people have tattoos doesn't make them a good thing. (My son, a good person, has a large tattoo).
And please identify which one of "us people" criticized tattoos as a "moral" issue.
Get off your high horse.; 8/19/25, 11:23 AM
Lazarus said...: Tattooed blood types were a way of identifying SS members after the war. One way or another, Nazis had a thing for tattoos.

The passing of WWII into the distant past may explain the vogue for tattoos. No more KZ survivors with tattooed arms. No more uncles who'd been in the navy since the war, the ones you had to put out the ashtrays for.; 8/19/25, 11:32 AM
tcrosse said...: In the Navy, a chief explained that a tattoo was a bad idea because it was the sort of distinguishing mark that makes it easy to pick you out of a line-up.; 8/19/25, 11:49 AM
Jim at said...: I don't understand getting a tattoo. Never have. Never will.; 8/19/25, 3:32 PM
Humperdink said...: My wife told her son not come home with a tattoo when he joined the Air Force. Well he succumbed and had a tattoo inked inside his bicep, where you can’t see it unless he raises his arm. How stupid.; 8/19/25, 3:34 PM
Bunkypotatohead said...: Like graffiti on a building, except it's your own house.; 8/19/25, 6:02 PM
Mary E. Glynn said...: Dress and style yourself like your idea of the sex you wish you were
============
You are. In time people will come to accept you, or you will get your head bashed in. Whatevs.; 8/19/25, 7:00 PM
Jamie said...: I have 3 tattoos, all post-age 50. Two are on my biceps (women of a Certain Age often eschew sleeveless garments - I'm not there yet but I assume I'll get there one day) and one on an area of my upper back that is only revealed by swimwear - in other words, I only reveal them when I choose to. All three are Celtic knots in honor of my heritage. One symbolizes my kids, one my husband, and one my wanderlust. I regret none of them - but I'm glad I didn't get any until my husband's cousin, a liberal SoCal woman my age, wanted to commemorate her deeply mourned lost baby from decades before, and my husband wouldn't join her in inking himself.

By that age, I knew I could decide to do this, do it in a manner I could cover as I wished, and not regret it.

Howard's point is not amiss: maybe no one herein has said "people with tattoos are morally bad," but plenty herein have said "people with tattoos are stupid/have no impulse control/make themselves unemployable," and undeniably a LOT of Trump supporters do indeed have tattoos - including full sleeves and, I imagine, face tattoos. Now, I tend to think a face tattoo is indeed a mistake in every case except in cultures where it's traditional, as someone said above, and even there it does make you largely unemployable in the larger world. But an ankle tattoo? A biceps tattoo? Even a tramp stamp, which you reveal only to your nearest and dearest? Why are these so objectionable?; 8/19/25, 10:47 PM
Old and slow said...: Other people's tattoos do not bother or interest me, but they do make me question their judgement. It's sort of like listening to loud music in public. You are announcing things about yourself that others are uninterested in hearing.; 8/20/25, 6:21 AM