Are you feeling wild? Is a tattoo for you?
Gwen Stefani, now 40 and tattoo free
We can’t believe that Gwen Steffani is all grown up and now is getting ready to join the 40 club. It seems like just yesterday she was the young up and coming rock princess and too youthful to be counted in the ranks of us Fab after 40 gals… and what do you think, does she have a tattoo?
Whether you like them or not, the tattoo has been one of those fashion statements that has gotten popular in the last few years as an artistic statement and a way to show off your wild side!
Personally we, know that many of our over 40 friends have been “inked” for years and some that are contemplating it now, just for fun.
So you might be interested to read more about what the allure of this popular trend is, in this weeks Blogging Boomers Carnival #133 being hosted this week over at the wonderful Midlife Crisis Queen!
Do you have a tattoo? Tell us more below!
Dear Fabulous after 40 Readers:
Before you get a tattoo, consider this. I am an immunizing pharmacist and during the course of this year’s flu season, I have immunized hundreds of senior men (and a few senior women) whose arms are festooned with tattoos they got in their youth. After 30, 40 or 50 years on their skin, every tattoo I’ve seen is dull, faded and blurry. In addition, as skin looses its tone and elasticity, the tattooed image droops right along with the skin and it ain’t pretty to see. As I tell my 16 year old daughter as she watches LA Ink, image your grandmother with Kat’s tattoos.
Hi WL,
Thanks for the reality check! It might be a good idea to do some pre-tattoo homework and ask someone who is older how they feel about their tattoo(s)!
This is a great topic, because, unlike other appearance-related efforts that we over-forty women can attempt, this one lasts for the rest of your life, or is at least very expensive to remove. I got my one midlife crisis tattoo when I was forty. I had lived a very cautious life, and had avoided making choices that I thought I might regret some day. Never impetuous. At forty I realized that I was regretting some of my cautious choices after all, and I was also regretting that I had not been more impetuous and risk-taking (too many missed opportunities). I wanted to do something that was appealing but which I might regret later. I got a small tattoo, on my left shoulder, of a butterfly, a symbol to me of emerging from a depression, and also my love of butterfly gardening. Now, six years later, I often do wish I didn’t have it, but in the bigger picture, it is a reminder to me that being heedless can have its thrills and rewards, and I do not regret having gotten it.
I had always wanted a tattoo but was always afraid of what my mother would say…yes, as a grown woman I was afraid of what my mother would say. So when my son asked to get a tattoo I told him that we could go together to get one when he turned 18 and I turned 50. That was 3 years ago. Since then I got divorced, my son moved to the beach to live with his dad, I lost my job and my home. So this past summer, after I packed the last of my stuff into a POD and moved out of my house, I boarded a plane to Las Vegas to visit my brother. I had decided that I was going to look at the turn of events in my life as a new start. I started my bucket list and with my brother’s help I crossed several of those things off my list; I got LASIK, I went to the Grand Canyon, and sat out in the middle of the desert in complete darkness with millions of stars shining overhead. Then the last day before I came home I got a tattoo. It was just 2 months shy of my 49th birthday, but I decided to go for it. I was looking online just for fun, when I spotted the one design that made me smile. I loved the experience, I love the tattoo and I got it in a place where unless I showed it no one would see it. I don’t regret it and I don’t look at it as a mid-life crisis, but as finally doing something just for me, to make me smile, and I’ll never regret it.
Hi Kimbery,
Thanks so much for sharing your story! The more we get to hear from all of you out there we are realizing that so many decisions in life are not black and white, that there is usually a deep meaning or life experience behind much of what we do who make us all unique individuals. You say, ” I took the time to do something just for me”…well that makes us smile too!
Great to hear your voice on FAF…
Cheers!
JoJami and Deborah
Hi Pam,
Your story is so heartfelt, thanks for sharing. It can feel wonderful to just step off that “cliff of safety” and be a little daring in life! Three cheers to your butterfly and life after 40!
I just got my first tattoo at 51 last night. The look is that of a beautiful butterfly with two smaller ones on the sides. The pictures symbolizes rebirth and transformation and I absolutely love it. It’s on my lower back and is only there for my eyes and the select few that I choose to see it. I have high self confidence and keep myself in good shape. To me this means that I feel good about myself and am muti-faceted. I like feeling the professional, well groomed woman/mother during the day. Yet, there’s another side thats elusive and mysterious.
Hi LInda,
Thanks for sharing your story! You sound like a wonderful, fun person, who is confident about herself and yet has a creative side to her!