Wednesday, April 9, 2008

picture perfect


I was asked yesterday whether we have a policy in our hospital that requires tattoos to be covered. I thought wow....we'd have a hospital full of younger workers covered in band aids. Since this is a children's hospital the only requirement we have is that if the tattoo is obscene or involves nudity it should be covered. This whole discussion got me thinking. Since I know that I'm from another generation I try to keep the whole thing in perspective. When I was in high school it became popular to pierce your ears. Girls were piercing each other's ears in the school bathroom and it wasn't long before I decided I too had to have my ears pierced. My grandmother was absolutely aghast at the idea of putting holes in my ears. In her day only ladies of the evening had holes in their ears. Here we are now...kids have more self acquired holes in their heads than natural orifices. When I look at the rings in their lips or the buttons on their tongues or those giant disc shaped holes in their ears (big enough to drive a smart car through)it just looks uncomfortable to me. The tattoos....don't really bother me but I can't help but imagine nursing homes in the future full of wrinkled old bodies with faded pictures on their butts. Those pretty young girls of today with their elaborate tattoos on their lower back....now where do you think those will end up. You'll have to smooth out the wrinkles just to tell what it is. The question in my mind is if I were 20 years old today would I look like a walking comic strip myself. I was never really one to "follow the crowd" but who knows. Just something to ponder.

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