Tatt mania

Just as the number of cooking shows has turned millions of Ramen Noodle eaters into home gourmets (and tremendous food bores many times), the number of Tattoo shows has sent countless millions to shops ranging from Thailand grungy to Park Avenue glitz.  Rather than buying Emril's latest cookware or Mario's latest Italian cuisine adventure, these people just can't wait to get tattoo'd.  Hey!  When will we have "Paulie's Home Tattoo Kit"?  Imagine the fun of self-torture with dozens of inked needles.  (No erasers, by the way).

When I was a kid, the only people with tatts were sideshow freaks and WWII veterans.  My step-dad, a post WWII German occupation troop ended up with tattoos.  I think he liked German beer...a lot...  By the time I met him, he had grown from a wispy 140 pound army teen to a 180 pound man with Popeye forearms, and the tattoos were no longer distinguishable.

I was in Florida at Clearwater Beach and there is no where else like a beach other than a nudie bar or MTV Spring Break show, I suppose, to view so many tattoos.  From the ridiculous to the sublime, it was like a catalog shoot for a tattoo company.  Memorial Day Weekend at a nearby Michigan State Park was like a family tattoo reunion.

Now, it's okay to get tattoos, I'm not trying to be a cranky-pants. But I have never seen an aging person whose tattoos looked good.  On top of that, it's beyond just "Mother" tattoo'd on a soldier's arm, it's entire portaits, relief maps, guilded body designs, and more. 

I look at Kat Von D on her TV show and look at an average looking woman with all kinds of stuff all over her.  I wonder what she lacked in her life to mark up her body so much. Was she looking for attention or looking to cover up and hide?  When I've watched her show  see she seems very insecure, even with all her seeming success.  I feel bad for her, hopefully the money and fame are worth it.

I think there are a lot of people in the world who feel an emptiness, an unworthiness, a lack of connection.  So many turn to gangs, maybe drugs, alcohol, tattoos,etc. to try to find a connection, a circle of people who understand them or like them.  And I feel bad for them.

Everyone I know has felt alone, outcast, maybe even unloved at some time in their life.  A few have committed suicide, some have entered into truly destructive lifestyles.  Most have come out of it okay, as they had a "home base" to touch and connect.  For many of those it was faith in God.  You know, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth and everything seen and unseen.

I have found in my life that people who seem to have a hole in their heart will try to fill it with something, anything.  And I think that hole is that they're missing a relationship with the One who has known them from the beginning, the One who has numbered even the hairs on their head.  See, you can have a very empty heart if you don't know your father. 

On an earthly level many children of divorce or abandonment struggle in life because they had no father to look up to, no father to be the moral head of the family, no father to be strong in the face of fear, of loneliness, of the unknown.  On a more eternal level, God the Father desires the best for you, an abundant life (which means good stuff and not so good, a full life's experiences) and He desires you come to him crying out "daddy!"  He desires to see you succeed, not fail.  But the effort is still up to you.

Now, I've seen preachers and pastors with tattoos.  Never seen tattoo'd Nun. I've seen teachers, laborers and executives with tattoos.  Really, it is a choice, as is all of life. And as always, the Father allows you freedom of choice. For each choice you make you will affect the path of your life and the ease or difficulty of walking that path.  You were made in God's own image.  Near as I can tell, he doesn't have tatoos.  He did not want you to be in this life to be miserable, or to lead a lifestyle that will make life difficult, perhaps even shorter than it otherwise would have been.  He created you perfect in His eyes. Understand the He looks at you just the way He wanted you to be, know you are important to Him whether you believe or not.  He believes in you.  God Bless.