Let's see, I have enough money to spend on a tattoo or donate to a food-bank/homeless shelter, what shall I do? The answer would be easier to see if your family were struggling hand-to-mouth for survival; the question is ludicrous, it just wouldn't enter the mind to spend money on personal adornment until everyone has been fed.
It's virtually impossible for someone with a tattoo to read this post without having an upset; reading this will trigger the mind to manufacture justifications, explanations, and reasons, and a flaming make-wrong of the article's author. The reader will find him/herself automatically judging and invalidating the thoughts herein. Actions and behaviors made by a person who operates from integrity do not trigger the mind to explain itself. Truths and righteous behaviors, in service to the community and world, need no explanations or rationalizations. A tattoo wearer has no choice but to explain and rationalize his/her purchase.
Some thoughts:
- What more is there to say?
- What does it say about our society?
- Will conversations like this facilitate the completion of this trend? (yes, eventually).
- When a person is buying a tattoo they are unconscious. No conscious responsible person, knowing the condition of the planet, would think to flaunt their wealth in a hungry person's face.
- For someone with a tattoo who has since become conscious the tattoo has become a source of embarrassment, of shame. The same can be said of those who spent money on jewelry or body piercings; it's simply irresponsible and inconsiderate to spend money on vanity when people in other families don't have shelter and food.
- Most everyone who sports a tattoo was told at some time in their childhood that flaunting one's prosperity doesn't feel good to the person who has no discretionary spending money. This is an example of the effects of a truth being delivered from good ideas and hypocrisy versus one delivered from knowingness by a person who walks their talk. If a parent "told" their child to give to the less fortunate but themselves spent their discretionary money inconsiderately then communication did not take place. An example of, "Do as I say not as I do."
I'm not happy with the way this reads now but I wanted to get it out of my mind. I'll come back to rewrite it. More to follow.
I'm open to suggestions.
Kerry
