my mum rather melodramatically declared that my rather modest anchor tattoo has "ruined" the "beautiful skin" that she "created". i guess one thing is for them to be sceptical of *my* tattoo(s), but my dad keeps starting discussions about tattoos in general (possibly promted by my watching miami ink all day) and how he's so sceptical of them because they send such "strong signals" and are so permanent and stuff like that. yeah, no shit, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing – he doesn't know what to say when i ask why that makes tattoos bad though.

so in summary, my conclusion is that when you become a parent you start hating tattoos. or alternatively that if your dad's a priest, don't ask him about tattoos.