Well, goodness gracious! I step out of town for the merest moment . . . out of range of the internet for only a tiny slice of time . . . and when I check back in, I find a full scale kerfluffle in progress! And I missed the whole thing! At least, people still seem to be fairly well riled up . . . but I missed the moment where I can actually spit on my hands and join the discussion. To do so now would inevitably be that awkward thing that happens to you sometimes in groups . . . you know, you say something loudly right at the moment when everyone else has quieted down. Never fails to be embarrassing.
So rather than say what Mom and Rachel have already so admirably said, (aside: Well jobbed, Mom and Rachel!) I am merely going to comment in passing that I went on a float down the river in Boise while you were all having this amiable discussion, and I was noticing what a terrible pack of ugliness was also floating down the river with us. I actually started counting to see what percentage of people didn’t sport some yuck-a-duck piece of artwork on them somewhere or had stuck themselves full of unsightly plugs. My guess is that it was only about 10% untainted on the river that day. I was inwardly cheering for the people who had managed one way or the other to reach the ripe old age of 25 without committing a rash piece of indiscretion that is forever going to date them in a most unflattering way. It’s like somehow chaining yourself forever to the music of the Bangles or something. Very hard to recover from that. I mean, you can totally guess someone’s era and which high school reunion they’re going to be attending next based on their tattoos / piercings. Have you ever tried that? Loads of fun when you’re stuck waiting in the car for someone at the mall, or conversely, floating down a river in Boise. There’s the early nineties ankle tattoos . . . then that got a bit old and totally overdone and not nearly edgy enough anymore . . . so forward thinking ladies moved it to the shoulder blade. That seems to have been when hearts, flowers, and palm trees were the done thing. Then when the midriff shirts got to be darned near mandatory and waistbands dropped to dizzying lows, everyone tore into the eastern symbol lower back tat and the belly button rings like there was no tomorrow. Then there are the poor unfortunate souls who kept right on going and now have a selection of styles to choose from. They’re kind of like the people who decorate their houses with new trends without ever cleaning out the old . . . so they have the dried flower swag and toll painted goose over the golden oak bookcase of the eighties . . . and a clawfoot mahogany coffee table of the nineties . . . and a pottery barn apothecary chest of this decade.
Oh shoot. Did I let my opinion slip out? Embarrassing . . .
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What a great way to end the discussion!!! I’m laughing out loud. We ARE ending the discussion??…right?!! You’re a hoot!
Love it! And yes I agree, it’s the perfect way to end the discussion!
As I have observed this discussion from afar I have to say that we here in the south don’t see so much as you all are apparently seeing there. We southerns are usually later on the trends then you north westerners are, but that is okay by me!!! Oh we have plenty of tatoo/body piercing “salons” so there must be lots of people hiding their “art”.
That’s a great summation!
I was just remarking to my 17 yr old daughter (as we were observing a particularly colorful display) that I wonder if when her children are 20 or so if tattoos will be considered an “old lady thing” like Harley Davidsons are starting to be now.
I’m so thankful she has absolutely no desire for a tattoo!
O.K. It is going to seem like I am opening up another can of worms. Sorry ’bout that. I couldn’t sleep last night though so here goes.
I think the difficulty here still lies in being consistent. If we are required to tell our Christian sisters that they are in sin because of there piercing, etc. We should be required to approach all of the men in church with “beer guts” and tell them they are obviously overindulging in their “Christian liberties” and are in sin. Not to mention what they may be doing to there liver.=} Can we really know the heart? Is there room for liberty or should we gals stop wearing make-up, pierced ears, high heels, perfume and the like. I am really not trying to be difficult here. I am just wishing someone had a really clear answer. I am happy to wear, “a sunbonnet and gingham” if that means that I will be more in accordance with the will of God and his Word. We in reformed circles seem to delight in our liberties as long as they are “acceptable” so go ahead and smoke that cigar but repent from your waywardness if you have a tattoo. This seems inconsistent to me. Perhaps I am naive. In many ways it just seems easier and better to release the “inner fundamentalist” as your Dad/Husband was discussing.
I am asking these things in the sincere hope that someone “older and wiser” will help a woman out. Many thanks.
P.S. You are also free to ignore me if you are weary. I can accept that too.=} I have six children I am raising here and would love all the help I can get for when they are older and wading through these waters.
Aubree,
No one here has suggested we start telling our sisters they are in sin. We cannot know the hearts of others, and we have a hard enough time knowing our own. (And we should be careful when we say, as one commenter did, that all the girls he knew with nose rings had done it for good reasons. How in the world could he know that!)
I suggest we let our own hearts keep our attention. These posts are intended to help us think about such things with a Christian mindset, and recognize that the world speaks a language that we as Christians should be able to decode. As long as we deny that the world is speaking through these things, we will continue to get it wrong.
Thank you for clarifying and helping me sort.