Tattoos

When I was young tattoos were a sign of a really tough guy.  A Navy guy, or Marine.  Someone who got drunk in some far away place and woke up with "Mom" inked forever into his arm.  There were jokes about spelling errors - I won't put any here because of copyright concerns; just google tattoo spelling errors. 

Tattoo on arm.  I think this is the
coolest of the tattoos I've observed
so far.  Really elaborate colorful. 
I wonder how long it took to get this
done.  Did it hurt?

Tattoos were a sign of tough because they are created by using a needled and inserting ink into you skin.  Needles puncturing skin cause pain.  To tolerate lots and lots of needle punctures signified a high tolerance for pain.  I'll never have a tattoo.  I have zero tolerance for pain. 

Football is a painful sport.  All that hitting hurts.  Ergo, football players have high tolerance for pain.  Ergo football players are likely to have tattoos.  

I've mentioned that practices tend to get boring for me.  So it shouldn't be a great surprise that I starting noticing tattoos during practices.  Today I'm just posting some samples of what I observed.

Tattoo on leg.  I think that's a fish. 

Tattoo on leg.

Tattoo on leg.

Tattoo on leg. 

Tattoos on leg, tattoos on arm.  Can't tell for certain but I think she has tattoos on both arms.

Tattoo on arm.

Tattoos must be popular in Hawaii.  The following photo is Maila Capers-Cristobal sporting a big tattoo on her left shoulder.  The tattoo tells a story which Maila and sister Malie were starting to tell me but we didn't have time to finish.  The photos after Maile's shoulder tattoo feature tattoos on her dad's forearms.  They are fancy script spelling out his daughter's names.  Cool.

Maila Capers-Cristobal has an elaborate tattoo on
her shoulder.

I don't remember his name.  He is father of Maila, on our right, and Malie on our left.  He
has his daughter's names tattooed on his forearms. 

And this script spells Maile.

The fancy script spells Maila.

I wonder why tattoos are so popular.  I wonder if all tattoos have special meaning?  Or is that just a Hawaiian custom.   I wonder I wonder I wonder.  So much in life I don't understand.