Thoughts on humoring strangers

Posted by Julene on September 8th, 2009

It’s 11pm and I’m at the gym doing my thing when what I consider one of the most annoying things about being visibly tattooed happens–someone interrupts what I’m doing to ask me tattoo-related questions. It’s only natural for your eyes to be drawn to someone with a decent amount of tattoo work in public, I know I enjoy looking at other peoples’ tattoos. Out of the corner of my eye I notice a guy that’s been staring at me for the past 10 minutes and immediately do the only thing I can think of to discourage him from talking to me; I avoid making eye contact. I put my head down, pick up speed and using my peripheral vision keep an eye on this gawker’s location.

Tattoo gawker

Image via sugarfrostedgoodness.com

That sounds mean, doesn’t it? Avoiding people I can clearly tell either want to stare up close or strike up a conversation isn’t exactly friendly. I think the real issue is, I’m tired of being interrupted (be it in the gym or out at dinner with friends) by someone I don’t know. I can’t be the only one that feels that way; I’ve seen other, more heavily tattooed, people be downright nasty when someone comes up to them in public. As much as I understand where their frustration is coming from, I always seem to wind up humoring these strangers.

Trust me, in the back of my mind all I want to do is tell these people “I’m in the middle of something and really not interested in having this conversation.” I would never walk up to a girl and start asking her a bunch of questions about the dress she’s wearing; how much she paid for it, when and where she purchased it, etc. But I still took off my headphones and humored him through a borderline painful conversation about where I got my tattoos, as well as him showing me his $50 outlines he wants to get filled in. Typically, this is the point in the conversation where things get awkward. I’ve been touched, twisted, and manhandled by people that have approached me, and of course I’ve been treated to a number of super market strip shows – but both of those are topics in themselves.

Here’s my predicament–I don’t want to be nice to these people. I don’t necessarily want to not be nice to them either. What irritates me is the fact that I don’t think they would do the same thing if they saw someone on the street with an article of clothing or hairstyle they were intrigued by. However, I do feel that as being heavily tattooed becomes more common there is a certain level of decorum required to gain acceptance among mainstream society. I’m not saying I expect the average person to be comfortable with a guy covered from throat to fingertips wearing short sleeves, but I do think helping nudge things in that direction couldn’t be a bad thing. There is definitely an overall perception by society that a heavily tattooed individual falls into the criminal/social delinquent category by default, and I figure if they have at least one person they’ve met who didn’t act like a total jerk, maybe I can have a positive impact on how they approach tattooed people as a whole. On the upside, I try to use every single one of these as an opportunity to hand out a card to whichever tattoo artist I’m recommending. If nothing else, maybe I can help keep the flow of business up at shops I enjoy going to.

So you tell me, am I a fool for expressing an infinite amount of patience when dealing with these people? I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels obligated to at least be polite during these kinds of exchanges, but I’m also intrigued in the personal reasoning behind those of you that don’t bother with these niceties.

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  • Ruby Riot

    You know what I hate?
    Walking along minding my own business with my headphones playing my music, and then BAM. I’m pulled backwards slightly as someone has caught hold of my arm to look at my sleeve. I must of admit a couple of times it has happened I have gone straight on the defensive in case someone is trying to mug me.
    I have found speaking Spanish to people in the UK help, they talk to you like your dumb to express that they like your body art, but you don’t have to get into a long conversation with them.
    One day someone is going to catch me out on this though…

  • Ruby Riot

    You know what I hate?
    Walking along minding my own business with my headphones playing my music, and then BAM. I’m pulled backwards slightly as someone has caught hold of my arm to look at my sleeve. I must of admit a couple of times it has happened I have gone straight on the defensive in case someone is trying to mug me.
    I have found speaking Spanish to people in the UK help, they talk to you like your dumb to express that they like your body art, but you don’t have to get into a long conversation with them.
    One day someone is going to catch me out on this though…

  • Ruby Riot

    You know what I hate?
    Walking along minding my own business with my headphones playing my music, and then BAM. I’m pulled backwards slightly as someone has caught hold of my arm to look at my sleeve. I must of admit a couple of times it has happened I have gone straight on the defensive in case someone is trying to mug me.
    I have found speaking Spanish to people in the UK help, they talk to you like your dumb to express that they like your body art, but you don’t have to get into a long conversation with them.
    One day someone is going to catch me out on this though…

  • http://www.EvilLittleBlue.com Miss Blue

    I LOVE this topic, because there can be a million different answers and it can never be talked about to an absolute end.

    I am a tattoo artist, and although not heavily tattooed I do get questioned a lot. But not NEARLY As much as my husband who IS heavily tattooed. I am a pretty wild lookin chic, but next to my husband I am all but invisible to the public. In addition to his extravagant tattoos he has several facial piercings which include the two most eye-catching 5/8″-septum and 2″-lobes. People seem to have no tact and will gawk, either with a face of admiration or utter disgust. Some will approach and some will shout from across the room/street, “Hey! Did that hurt?” He can’t help but to ALWAYS reply, “Did WHAT hurt?” Since he displays dozens of things that the question could be directed at.

    I have always been rather impressed with him and how he deals with these kinds of advances and reactions to his look. He’s always very cordial with these people even if they themselves aren’t. He’ll answer every question gratiously as if it was the first time he’d ever been asked it. Even though we get the SAME exact slew of boring unoriginal questions dozens upon dozens of time per outing.

    Back when we first started dating I told him how impressed with him I was for being like that with people, I knew that I certainly wouldn’t have that kind of patience. Even though the questions are not directed at me I still find myself getting frustrated and annoyed FOR him. His wonderful response to me was this, “I don’t want to contribute to the stereotype about people of our ‘culture’, the modded culture. People of the general public often see us as mean, evil, ‘bad asses’, or just generally do not want to be bothered, mainly because most of us do this (get body mods of any kind) for ourselves, not to impress people. But people ARE genuinely interested, some time you might be answering questions for a person who has been contemplating getting a mod of their own but needed some openminded friendly insight to the entire subject. Or are trying to get a better perspective of understanding of a loved one who possibly has mods but doesn’t want to talk to them about it.”

    Sometimes the attention directed at him is quite RUDE, but no matter what whenever one person has the balls to pull him over to question him you can be sure there are three or more people right behind them who slowed their page to overhear the entire conversation because they didn’t have the balls to approach him themselves.

    One thing that people really get a kick out of is his tattoos. They are for the most part quite jovial and fun. For example he has an entire backpiece dedicated to classic children’s games (monopoly, Atari, Lincoln logs, cootie bugs, G.I. Joe, etc etc), and he has a tattoo of those glow-in-the-dark plastic vampire teeth we all wore as kids at Halloween time right next to a tattoo of that old classic BONE candies that come in a little coffin. I also tattooed a realistic looking bacon double cheeseburger right over his heart last year to display his LOVE for seeking out every 1+ lb cheeseburger joint he can find. Obviously people get a wide range of tattoo themes that best suit their personal interests or appeals, but he gets a great reaction from people who are delighted to see someone heavily modded that does NOT have any of the stereotypical “badass tattoos” like skulls, tribal, demons, zombies, or any othe other tattoo themes that outsiders would look at and might feel afraid to approach.

    In a different scenario I can bring up the grand finale of my response to this post, this happens to both myself and my husband and although I ALWAYS respond kindly this REALLY annoys me. People will ask about mine or his tattoos and THEN will feel the need to show us THEIR tattoos. Nine times out of ten their tattoos are TOTAL and UTTER CRAP. And I mean CRAP CRAP CRAP! I think that a lot of people who get tattoos who are of the standard realms of society: college students, the soccer moms, secretaries, fix-it men, executives, adult fast food workers, school teachers, (etc etc) might get a tattoo for a number of different reasons, but the majority of them get it just to look cool. This is proven by clients who walk into my shop with a print out of a photo of someone elses tattoo that they just randomly found on the internet and state that they want THIS exact tattoo. I will refuse to do it. They only want it because it looks cool on someone else, not to mention that it BELONGS to someone else. If it is obvious flash then I will copy it, because you know then that there are a million other girls with the same butterfly tattoo or stars on her foot or tribal armband, but if it is not obvious flash then who’s to say it wasn’t a custom piece. The person in the photo might have done their homework and sought out a high demand artist who took the time and paid for a totally custom piece, and are now walking around believing that he/she has a totally unique and one of a kind tattoo that nobody else has. Copying that would be violating the respect I have for custom work and I have NO problems with telling the client that. I then offer to design them their OWN custom one of a kind tattoo.

    So anyway, these people seem to feel they have a RIGHT to approach heavily modded people like us and then to prove that they’re “cool” or at least “one of us”. Like showing off their crooked and blown-out ENTIRELY too small to fit the body part it is on tattoo-party tattoo gives them some kind of validation that they are just as cool as we are.

    Sometimes I wish I either a)had the balls to and/or b)knew the least offensive way to tell people that the tattoo they just showed me is the biggest piece of CRAP I have ever seen (and hey! Guess what? I can FIX that for you! Here’s my card).

    I wish there was a way to educate people in what a good tattoo is. People seem to think that JUST because it is spelled right or at the very least it mildly resembles what it is supposed to be that it is a good tattoo. These are the people who go price shopping. They get a quote of say $100 from my shop but then feel the need to whine and complain saying that they already got a quote of $20 from the hack shop down the street. Half of these people do seem to eventually know how to tell that the bargain tattoo they just got really IS crap (you get what you pay for) and they end up coming back to me to FIX it, and end up paying just as much if not MORE than my original quote than then they’ve learned their lesson.

    Okay, I have gotten way off topic but I think I have made a good enough argument on the subject.
    discuss!

  • http://www.EvilLittleBlue.com Miss Blue

    I LOVE this topic, because there can be a million different answers and it can never be talked about to an absolute end.

    I am a tattoo artist, and although not heavily tattooed I do get questioned a lot. But not NEARLY As much as my husband who IS heavily tattooed. I am a pretty wild lookin chic, but next to my husband I am all but invisible to the public. In addition to his extravagant tattoos he has several facial piercings which include the two most eye-catching 5/8″-septum and 2″-lobes. People seem to have no tact and will gawk, either with a face of admiration or utter disgust. Some will approach and some will shout from across the room/street, “Hey! Did that hurt?” He can’t help but to ALWAYS reply, “Did WHAT hurt?” Since he displays dozens of things that the question could be directed at.

    I have always been rather impressed with him and how he deals with these kinds of advances and reactions to his look. He’s always very cordial with these people even if they themselves aren’t. He’ll answer every question gratiously as if it was the first time he’d ever been asked it. Even though we get the SAME exact slew of boring unoriginal questions dozens upon dozens of time per outing.

    Back when we first started dating I told him how impressed with him I was for being like that with people, I knew that I certainly wouldn’t have that kind of patience. Even though the questions are not directed at me I still find myself getting frustrated and annoyed FOR him. His wonderful response to me was this, “I don’t want to contribute to the stereotype about people of our ‘culture’, the modded culture. People of the general public often see us as mean, evil, ‘bad asses’, or just generally do not want to be bothered, mainly because most of us do this (get body mods of any kind) for ourselves, not to impress people. But people ARE genuinely interested, some time you might be answering questions for a person who has been contemplating getting a mod of their own but needed some openminded friendly insight to the entire subject. Or are trying to get a better perspective of understanding of a loved one who possibly has mods but doesn’t want to talk to them about it.”

    Sometimes the attention directed at him is quite RUDE, but no matter what whenever one person has the balls to pull him over to question him you can be sure there are three or more people right behind them who slowed their page to overhear the entire conversation because they didn’t have the balls to approach him themselves.

    One thing that people really get a kick out of is his tattoos. They are for the most part quite jovial and fun. For example he has an entire backpiece dedicated to classic children’s games (monopoly, Atari, Lincoln logs, cootie bugs, G.I. Joe, etc etc), and he has a tattoo of those glow-in-the-dark plastic vampire teeth we all wore as kids at Halloween time right next to a tattoo of that old classic BONE candies that come in a little coffin. I also tattooed a realistic looking bacon double cheeseburger right over his heart last year to display his LOVE for seeking out every 1+ lb cheeseburger joint he can find. Obviously people get a wide range of tattoo themes that best suit their personal interests or appeals, but he gets a great reaction from people who are delighted to see someone heavily modded that does NOT have any of the stereotypical “badass tattoos” like skulls, tribal, demons, zombies, or any othe other tattoo themes that outsiders would look at and might feel afraid to approach.

    In a different scenario I can bring up the grand finale of my response to this post, this happens to both myself and my husband and although I ALWAYS respond kindly this REALLY annoys me. People will ask about mine or his tattoos and THEN will feel the need to show us THEIR tattoos. Nine times out of ten their tattoos are TOTAL and UTTER CRAP. And I mean CRAP CRAP CRAP! I think that a lot of people who get tattoos who are of the standard realms of society: college students, the soccer moms, secretaries, fix-it men, executives, adult fast food workers, school teachers, (etc etc) might get a tattoo for a number of different reasons, but the majority of them get it just to look cool. This is proven by clients who walk into my shop with a print out of a photo of someone elses tattoo that they just randomly found on the internet and state that they want THIS exact tattoo. I will refuse to do it. They only want it because it looks cool on someone else, not to mention that it BELONGS to someone else. If it is obvious flash then I will copy it, because you know then that there are a million other girls with the same butterfly tattoo or stars on her foot or tribal armband, but if it is not obvious flash then who’s to say it wasn’t a custom piece. The person in the photo might have done their homework and sought out a high demand artist who took the time and paid for a totally custom piece, and are now walking around believing that he/she has a totally unique and one of a kind tattoo that nobody else has. Copying that would be violating the respect I have for custom work and I have NO problems with telling the client that. I then offer to design them their OWN custom one of a kind tattoo.

    So anyway, these people seem to feel they have a RIGHT to approach heavily modded people like us and then to prove that they’re “cool” or at least “one of us”. Like showing off their crooked and blown-out ENTIRELY too small to fit the body part it is on tattoo-party tattoo gives them some kind of validation that they are just as cool as we are.

    Sometimes I wish I either a)had the balls to and/or b)knew the least offensive way to tell people that the tattoo they just showed me is the biggest piece of CRAP I have ever seen (and hey! Guess what? I can FIX that for you! Here’s my card).

    I wish there was a way to educate people in what a good tattoo is. People seem to think that JUST because it is spelled right or at the very least it mildly resembles what it is supposed to be that it is a good tattoo. These are the people who go price shopping. They get a quote of say $100 from my shop but then feel the need to whine and complain saying that they already got a quote of $20 from the hack shop down the street. Half of these people do seem to eventually know how to tell that the bargain tattoo they just got really IS crap (you get what you pay for) and they end up coming back to me to FIX it, and end up paying just as much if not MORE than my original quote than then they’ve learned their lesson.

    Okay, I have gotten way off topic but I think I have made a good enough argument on the subject.
    discuss!

  • http://www.EvilLittleBlue.com Miss Blue

    I LOVE this topic, because there can be a million different answers and it can never be talked about to an absolute end.

    I am a tattoo artist, and although not heavily tattooed I do get questioned a lot. But not NEARLY As much as my husband who IS heavily tattooed. I am a pretty wild lookin chic, but next to my husband I am all but invisible to the public. In addition to his extravagant tattoos he has several facial piercings which include the two most eye-catching 5/8″-septum and 2″-lobes. People seem to have no tact and will gawk, either with a face of admiration or utter disgust. Some will approach and some will shout from across the room/street, “Hey! Did that hurt?” He can’t help but to ALWAYS reply, “Did WHAT hurt?” Since he displays dozens of things that the question could be directed at.

    I have always been rather impressed with him and how he deals with these kinds of advances and reactions to his look. He’s always very cordial with these people even if they themselves aren’t. He’ll answer every question gratiously as if it was the first time he’d ever been asked it. Even though we get the SAME exact slew of boring unoriginal questions dozens upon dozens of time per outing.

    Back when we first started dating I told him how impressed with him I was for being like that with people, I knew that I certainly wouldn’t have that kind of patience. Even though the questions are not directed at me I still find myself getting frustrated and annoyed FOR him. His wonderful response to me was this, “I don’t want to contribute to the stereotype about people of our ‘culture’, the modded culture. People of the general public often see us as mean, evil, ‘bad asses’, or just generally do not want to be bothered, mainly because most of us do this (get body mods of any kind) for ourselves, not to impress people. But people ARE genuinely interested, some time you might be answering questions for a person who has been contemplating getting a mod of their own but needed some openminded friendly insight to the entire subject. Or are trying to get a better perspective of understanding of a loved one who possibly has mods but doesn’t want to talk to them about it.”

    Sometimes the attention directed at him is quite RUDE, but no matter what whenever one person has the balls to pull him over to question him you can be sure there are three or more people right behind them who slowed their page to overhear the entire conversation because they didn’t have the balls to approach him themselves.

    One thing that people really get a kick out of is his tattoos. They are for the most part quite jovial and fun. For example he has an entire backpiece dedicated to classic children’s games (monopoly, Atari, Lincoln logs, cootie bugs, G.I. Joe, etc etc), and he has a tattoo of those glow-in-the-dark plastic vampire teeth we all wore as kids at Halloween time right next to a tattoo of that old classic BONE candies that come in a little coffin. I also tattooed a realistic looking bacon double cheeseburger right over his heart last year to display his LOVE for seeking out every 1+ lb cheeseburger joint he can find. Obviously people get a wide range of tattoo themes that best suit their personal interests or appeals, but he gets a great reaction from people who are delighted to see someone heavily modded that does NOT have any of the stereotypical “badass tattoos” like skulls, tribal, demons, zombies, or any othe other tattoo themes that outsiders would look at and might feel afraid to approach.

    In a different scenario I can bring up the grand finale of my response to this post, this happens to both myself and my husband and although I ALWAYS respond kindly this REALLY annoys me. People will ask about mine or his tattoos and THEN will feel the need to show us THEIR tattoos. Nine times out of ten their tattoos are TOTAL and UTTER CRAP. And I mean CRAP CRAP CRAP! I think that a lot of people who get tattoos who are of the standard realms of society: college students, the soccer moms, secretaries, fix-it men, executives, adult fast food workers, school teachers, (etc etc) might get a tattoo for a number of different reasons, but the majority of them get it just to look cool. This is proven by clients who walk into my shop with a print out of a photo of someone elses tattoo that they just randomly found on the internet and state that they want THIS exact tattoo. I will refuse to do it. They only want it because it looks cool on someone else, not to mention that it BELONGS to someone else. If it is obvious flash then I will copy it, because you know then that there are a million other girls with the same butterfly tattoo or stars on her foot or tribal armband, but if it is not obvious flash then who’s to say it wasn’t a custom piece. The person in the photo might have done their homework and sought out a high demand artist who took the time and paid for a totally custom piece, and are now walking around believing that he/she has a totally unique and one of a kind tattoo that nobody else has. Copying that would be violating the respect I have for custom work and I have NO problems with telling the client that. I then offer to design them their OWN custom one of a kind tattoo.

    So anyway, these people seem to feel they have a RIGHT to approach heavily modded people like us and then to prove that they’re “cool” or at least “one of us”. Like showing off their crooked and blown-out ENTIRELY too small to fit the body part it is on tattoo-party tattoo gives them some kind of validation that they are just as cool as we are.

    Sometimes I wish I either a)had the balls to and/or b)knew the least offensive way to tell people that the tattoo they just showed me is the biggest piece of CRAP I have ever seen (and hey! Guess what? I can FIX that for you! Here’s my card).

    I wish there was a way to educate people in what a good tattoo is. People seem to think that JUST because it is spelled right or at the very least it mildly resembles what it is supposed to be that it is a good tattoo. These are the people who go price shopping. They get a quote of say $100 from my shop but then feel the need to whine and complain saying that they already got a quote of $20 from the hack shop down the street. Half of these people do seem to eventually know how to tell that the bargain tattoo they just got really IS crap (you get what you pay for) and they end up coming back to me to FIX it, and end up paying just as much if not MORE than my original quote than then they’ve learned their lesson.

    Okay, I have gotten way off topic but I think I have made a good enough argument on the subject.
    discuss!

  • Ash

    Similar to Miss Blue, my partner draws the attention when we go out, and is questioned every time we go out about his 2″ ear lobes. The question is always the same ‘did that hurt’, and he always answers it politely.

    I am starting to find it annoying.

    It’s the people who want to cross boundaries and touch that annoy him.

    I think a universal, is those people who bring up your tattoos to talk about theirs. I don’t mind a compliment or answering a question, but I have zero interest in a conversation being sparked to show me your (always shitty) tattoo. I always act polite and with patience, but if it ever becomes an occurrence every time I leave the house, I may not.

  • Ash

    Similar to Miss Blue, my partner draws the attention when we go out, and is questioned every time we go out about his 2″ ear lobes. The question is always the same ‘did that hurt’, and he always answers it politely.

    I am starting to find it annoying.

    It’s the people who want to cross boundaries and touch that annoy him.

    I think a universal, is those people who bring up your tattoos to talk about theirs. I don’t mind a compliment or answering a question, but I have zero interest in a conversation being sparked to show me your (always shitty) tattoo. I always act polite and with patience, but if it ever becomes an occurrence every time I leave the house, I may not.

  • Ash

    Similar to Miss Blue, my partner draws the attention when we go out, and is questioned every time we go out about his 2″ ear lobes. The question is always the same ‘did that hurt’, and he always answers it politely.

    I am starting to find it annoying.

    It’s the people who want to cross boundaries and touch that annoy him.

    I think a universal, is those people who bring up your tattoos to talk about theirs. I don’t mind a compliment or answering a question, but I have zero interest in a conversation being sparked to show me your (always shitty) tattoo. I always act polite and with patience, but if it ever becomes an occurrence every time I leave the house, I may not.

  • john

    I have seen people do exactly what you are saying. I can’t imagine why people would think it is okay to just intrude on you that way. I know personally that I would never intrude in someone’s life to that degree. I have been guilty though of going as far as saying “Hey, Nice Ink!” It doesn’t happen every day, but I get annoyed when people ask me about my Harley just because of the way I look. I don’t ride.

    That being said, I can imagine a few other reasons for a guy to be staring at YOU at the gym that are not directly related to tattoos. I’m not saying that he wasn’t interested in your ink, just that you have other qualities that might also draw someone’s attention.

  • john

    I have seen people do exactly what you are saying. I can’t imagine why people would think it is okay to just intrude on you that way. I know personally that I would never intrude in someone’s life to that degree. I have been guilty though of going as far as saying “Hey, Nice Ink!” It doesn’t happen every day, but I get annoyed when people ask me about my Harley just because of the way I look. I don’t ride.

    That being said, I can imagine a few other reasons for a guy to be staring at YOU at the gym that are not directly related to tattoos. I’m not saying that he wasn’t interested in your ink, just that you have other qualities that might also draw someone’s attention.

  • john

    I have seen people do exactly what you are saying. I can’t imagine why people would think it is okay to just intrude on you that way. I know personally that I would never intrude in someone’s life to that degree. I have been guilty though of going as far as saying “Hey, Nice Ink!” It doesn’t happen every day, but I get annoyed when people ask me about my Harley just because of the way I look. I don’t ride.

    That being said, I can imagine a few other reasons for a guy to be staring at YOU at the gym that are not directly related to tattoos. I’m not saying that he wasn’t interested in your ink, just that you have other qualities that might also draw someone’s attention.

  • http://tattoosnob.com Julene

    @Ruby – I admit, I’m not a fan of the signature arm grab that seems to occur so frequently anymore… but like I said, that’s a whole different topic.

    @john – Why thank you, it’s good to know my aesthetic appeal goes beyond just all my “sick tattz, bro”. ;)

  • http://tattoosnob.com Julene

    @Ruby – I admit, I’m not a fan of the signature arm grab that seems to occur so frequently anymore… but like I said, that’s a whole different topic.

    @john – Why thank you, it’s good to know my aesthetic appeal goes beyond just all my “sick tattz, bro”. ;)

  • http://tattoosnob.com Julene

    @Ruby – I admit, I’m not a fan of the signature arm grab that seems to occur so frequently anymore… but like I said, that’s a whole different topic.

    @john – Why thank you, it’s good to know my aesthetic appeal goes beyond just all my “sick tattz, bro”. ;)

  • jana

    I’m starting to become rude to people who grab my arm or touch my back of pull parts of my clothing to see more of my tattoos. It’s not because they are asking questions that annoys me. It’s the physical contact.

  • jana

    I’m starting to become rude to people who grab my arm or touch my back of pull parts of my clothing to see more of my tattoos. It’s not because they are asking questions that annoys me. It’s the physical contact.

  • jana

    I’m starting to become rude to people who grab my arm or touch my back of pull parts of my clothing to see more of my tattoos. It’s not because they are asking questions that annoys me. It’s the physical contact.

  • miss may

    I go to the gym on a regular basis and I wear shorts, and a tank and that reveals a lot of tattoos on myself, I often here people remarking to one another or looking and I just do my best to politley ignore whatever is being said. If people directly come up and ask me, I just go through my whole speach without them asking questions after question. In one big long sentence I inform them where and when I got my tattoos and that I just like to collect art and none of them hold special meaning. If in a situation I have my wallet I offer them a bussiness card of the shops I go to ( I always carry a handful ) and let them know an artist could better help them with the questions they have for the tattoo there thinking of and want to share with me. I never want to be rude to these people, unless they are being rude to or about my tattoos. If given the chance I do like to point people in the right direction because people are not stupid, they just do not know and are not educated about tattoos. I do think though there is a time and a place to ask someone and that is not at the gym or in a restaraunt and so on. I also work at a shop so I think I always am trying to represent them at all times by being polite. I usually dont mention that I work at a shop ( I am not a tattoo artist ) because that only leads to more questions, but if I were to be rude then that person walk into my shop one day, I would feel bad.