Warning: Your Private Parts may be Offending Someone

Whenever you get a tattoo you feel immediately compelled to 1. text your best friend, and 2. share it on Facebook.  I have one tattoo and I did both of these.  I probably did the second one because I rarely have anything of interest to share on Facebook.  I'll admit that my life isn't that interesting.  I can accept that.  But many people have a tendency to add a third step.  3. give your tattoo a photo shoot!

Body art photo shoots can be, well, awkward.  Not only is the photo shoot for the tattoo, but also for the individual's body.  Getting a tattoo in a place like your chest, belly, thigh, or low on your hipbone give provide the opportunity to take provocative pictures of oneself.  Men show off their rippling pectorals, six pack, or bulging arm muscles.  Even if the tattoo is on an upper chest muscle the picture usually turns into a shirtless, full body photo.  Women similarly take photos of them showing off their flat stomachs, large breasts, or round bootay.

When people are proud of their bodies they love to show them off, and rightfully show.  But sometimes the shoot can get a little awkward.  I've already state that I get uncomfortable for what I feel are displays of over-sexuality.  People sometimes get tattoos in certain place because they feel it makes the tattoo sexy.  For example, the hipbone.  I agree, it's a very sexy place to get a tattoo.  But it's not always sexy when one pulls the side of their pants or panties down to their lady parts to show the tattoo to the world of social networking.  Usually, these photos don't come singularly, or even in pairs, but in a photo shoot in which few clothes are worn, and often worn incorrectly in order to better display the body art.

I have a specific anecdote in mind to further prove my point.  Yes, an anecdote!

Not even a full year ago I was still enrolled in my previous college.  It wasn't unusual for the students to wear few clothes.  One time I spotted a girl wearing her bra outside of her shirt.  But what sticks out in my mind most was the time when I saw a freshly completed tattoo in a rather disturbing spot.  It was early spring and I was enjoying my walk to one of the dining halls to get myself a spot of lunch.  And then I saw it.  A strange, perhaps extraterrestrial, perhaps distorted human figure, rimmed in red, printed on a young woman's thigh.  Her shorts were rolled up on the side of the tattoo and tucked into the underside of her panties to reveal the strange man she bore adjacent to her...will the word labia offend anyone?  For whatever reason my first thought was "It's March.  I'm wearing jeans and a jacket and I'm shaking."  Then I thought, "Tattoos burn the first few hours after you get them done.  I'm sure pants would hurt her leg."  And then I thought, "But a skirt never hurt anyone!  Why am I looking up her crotch right now?"  And I began to blush.  I diverted my gaze as I entered the dining hall.

I have now just proved the yellow section of this picture correct.  When you get a tattoo or piercing people's eyes are drawn to it, and that area in general.  I feel like I'm violating people when they show off their more private tattoos.  Many find it sexy and appealing, but others find it uncomfortable and sometimes even offensive.  Warning: revealing or just barely having the nipple, genitalia, or butt crack covered may be considered offensive to some.

Forever the honest,
Stephanie Lato