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Tattoos on older women

(192 Posts)
MT62 Thu 16-Jul-26 19:37:36

I know tattoos are a thing now, & I’ll probably be slated, but whilst on holiday, & walking round the seaside today, I noticed a lot of woman in their 60s/70s have tattoos.
I think they probably had them in the 90s as the tattoos looked blue & faded.
I know friends of mine had them done, especially around the belly button, shoulder & lower back.
Some regret getting them done, two have had them removed.

Now all the younger people seem to have full sleeves & full thighs, & lower legs, is this trend persuading the older generation to get one?
I know, each to their own, but personally I don’t care for tattoos.
Just wondering what other grans think of tattoos?
Do some grans have them & regret getting them done?

Cossy Fri 17-Jul-26 10:01:09

Small children or not so small children have had those temporary “tattoos” for decades, though we called them “transfers” back in the day!

Silvershadow Fri 17-Jul-26 09:40:05

I don’t like them and wouldn’t have one. None of the family have them either. Most of the young men we employ to do various jobs in our home do have them, of varying sizes, designs etc. all are lovely lads, polite, friendly etc. not everybody that has them is a thug although some undoubtedly are. A female friend in her 70s has several on her foot and arms. Her son does tattoos. I notice she always wears long floaty skirts that cover most of them up. They are very obvious on her arms.

Astitchintime Fri 17-Jul-26 09:26:38

petra

boheminan

Oh...here we go again

Soon it will be false eyelashes, pumped up lips, false nails 😂

You forgot to mention the butt lifts and boob jobs 🤣🤣🤣

ViceVersa Fri 17-Jul-26 09:26:06

Oh, and I'm just thinking about some of the bands I like - some of the lead singers I absolutely love have loads of tattoos and they are some of the most gorgeous men I've ever seen in my life. I could stare at them all day!

Chocolatelovinggran Fri 17-Jul-26 09:25:12

I don't have a tattoo, but dancing and drinking..yes please.
Shall we fix a time and date, keepcalmandcavachon?

Plevey08 Fri 17-Jul-26 09:24:18

That's very funny keepcalm. I might try as well! 🤣

ViceVersa Fri 17-Jul-26 09:23:07

Cossy

Goodness, the judgement here is rampant!

Common, loathsome, horrible!

😱😱😱

Exactly. Whatever happened to - to each their own. Tattoos are a very personal thing and they're not hurting anyone else, so let others do what they want to their own bodies.

MT62 Fri 17-Jul-26 09:11:17

NathanaelWest

I personally don't have tattoos. I never had the desire. My wife has a few dotted here and there. They still look good on her.

But these full sleeves, legs, chest, neck and everywhere else... Each to their own. Not my business. But I think they kind of look cool on a younger body.

I know a guy who had full sleeves. Had them lasered off after he became a dad as he felt people regarded him as looking like a thug.

Bit of a thorny subject, tattoos. But they don't cause harm to others so I don't really care what people do.

There is a young dad on YouTube who blogs about his daily life.
He’s covered right up to his neck & sides of his face, but you can see he’s a very good looking & well spoken fella, who absolutely adores his daughters.
But just makes me wonder why anyone would want to do all that to themselves.
I mean years down the line if the kids (now grown up) say dad can I get my face covered in tats, I wonder if he would try & talk them out of it, or say ‘darling go for it’.

nanna8 Fri 17-Jul-26 09:11:06

I think people need to lighten up. Half the comments, I am sure, we’re tongue- in - cheek because who really gives a rat’s what people think these days ? If you think they look common or nasty you are totally entitled to your view and noone should judge you by that - it is what you believe and good for you.

keepcalmandcavachon Fri 17-Jul-26 09:09:49

JaneJudge

I think I'm most disappointed in the misogynistic comments more than anything on this thread

I think most people that are common know they are common and don't really care about it as much as the people commenting about it. Because they dance and drink and screw, because there's nothing else to do.

gringringrin
OK I'll see what I can do

Sago Fri 17-Jul-26 09:07:32

My daughter that had the tattoo years ago once picked up a photo of me in the 80’s, all big hair shoulder pads etc.
she really took the mickey out of me.

When she had finished I calmly said “ Isn’t it a good job I didn’t have to wear these clothes and have my hair like this forever, your tattoo is permanent”

That is the concern a permanent mark, it always makes me think of the Jews that were branded as they entered the concentration camps, they had to carry that with them forever.

JaneJudge Fri 17-Jul-26 09:04:24

I think I'm most disappointed in the misogynistic comments more than anything on this thread

I think most people that are common know they are common and don't really care about it as much as the people commenting about it. Because they dance and drink and screw, because there's nothing else to do.

MT62 Fri 17-Jul-26 09:02:11

Cossy

Goodness, the judgement here is rampant!

Common, loathsome, horrible!

😱😱😱

Since people usually nowadays get covered head to foot, barely wear clothes that cover them up, I think people can have a view on whether they like them or not.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some fantastic artistic ones out there but they will be stuck with them for ever more.
Think of that Girls aloud singer with that 3D rose all over her bum.
I follow an Australian guy on YouTube, he's bought an old house in Japan. He’s absolutely covered. Even has a knife tattooed down the side of his face. His Japanese neighbours don’t like his tattoos ((because of the yakuza), but now they know him they really like him.
He’s a lovely lad after you get past all his etchings.

I think it’s an interesting topic.

Even young tots on holiday had those pretend stick on tattoos to be like their parents.
I guess it’s not going to go out of fashion anytime soon.

keepcalmandcavachon Fri 17-Jul-26 08:52:09

I've seen some truly beautiful ones, always liked them on chaps but dread to think what I'd be sporting now if I'd had one done as a teen!

Kandinsky Fri 17-Jul-26 08:50:23

lavatory even!

Harris27 Fri 17-Jul-26 08:49:35

I think a beautiful girl in a lovely dress with tattoos awful😖my son has one I could have cried when I saw it. My dad had one on his arm and I thought it was just my dad. I just think women with them look rough. End of.

GrannyGravy13 Fri 17-Jul-26 08:48:49

Cossy

Goodness, the judgement here is rampant!

Common, loathsome, horrible!

😱😱😱

We have five AC, they all have a tattoo, some more than others, their bodies, their choice.

I will probably have a small one for my 0 birthday.

Our children are definitely not common or loathsome, mind you over the years they have all been horrible at some time.

I hope all posters who are so judgmental are happy to be judged by others for their choices 🤷‍♀️

Magenta8 Fri 17-Jul-26 08:46:40

I find tattoos fascinating but I would never have any as I am needle phobic and just having the necessary vaccinations is traumatic for me.

Generally, I think that what people wear or have done to their bodies is entirely up to them and none of my business to criticise.

Kandinsky Fri 17-Jul-26 08:45:52

Tattoos did go through a ‘trendy’ phase a while ago, but the overall opinion ( amongst people I know anyway ) is that they’re still ‘common’ - especially on women. Men can pull them off better.
I remember reading this in a book on Etiquette years ago and it always stuck with me:

Tattoos

Your attitude regarding these things should be that while you respect people’s right to be disfigured by so called ‘body art’, it is also your right to point out that an arm that resembles a public laboratory wall is not a good look.

M0nica Fri 17-Jul-26 08:44:20

Almost every young person with a tattoo will become an old, then very old person with tattoos.

The big problem now, is that while in the past, money was tighter, tattoos were limited in number and size - even on sailors. Now people can afford over time to have most of their body tattooed - and that really isn't a good look,

TerriBull Fri 17-Jul-26 08:42:47

I wouldn't comment to anyone who had them it's none of my business what anyone else does to their body. If being asked for an overall opinion about tattoos, I have to be honest and say I don't like them and I would never consider having one.

Cossy Fri 17-Jul-26 08:38:51

Bea65

I personally don’t like them but specifically on brides ..they detach from beautiful bridal dresses IMO

As I said, it’s fine not to like them, not to want one and even be upset that those close to you have chosen to have them.

It’s not fine to be insulting (you weren’t though, imo)

Bea65 Fri 17-Jul-26 08:34:29

I personally don’t like them but specifically on brides ..they detach from beautiful bridal dresses IMO

Cossy Fri 17-Jul-26 08:33:04

TerriBull

Threads about tattoos come up often and obviously divide opinions, which we're all entitled to. One of my sons has about 4, he knows I don't like them, but its his body and he has to live with them. I understand the first one in memory of a much loved half brother who died, although as his dad pointed out I don't need a marking on my body to remember my son, I think about him every day. He would ask me why I didn't like them. My views are this, I think limbs, especially on younger people look lovely without covering them in permanent inkings and they're so ubiquitous now they hardly mark, pardon the pun, of a desire to be individual, in fact if anything, they've become cliched I also tried to explain how growing up in different times, tattoos were extreme, something maybe bikers did and viewed as extremely rough and common, I know things have moved on from that attitude, but only occasionally have I liked or seen the signifcance, one was on an advert for a beast cancer survivor where the woman had a climbing plant on that area, that I did understand and it was for her eyes. How most of us all change throughout our lives opinions on so many things and of course how we externally present ourselves. Imagine being fixed in time say as we were in the '80s big hair, big shoulders. Looks are so often of their day and most people move on, but you can't with permanence.

I remember getting a really rude pm a while back from a poster who told me my views were judgemental about them, which made me laugh because I think she'd proved just how judgemental she was in actually sending a vitriolic pm to someone she doesn't know on a subjective matter which asked for our personal opinions known to divide. It's so much about personal taste more than anything else we're all allowed to have those!

It’s fine not to like tattoos and to decide that they’re not for you, but to be rude about them and the people who have them is judgemental.

Cossy Fri 17-Jul-26 08:30:04

Gran22boys

Still hideous and common. smile

In your opinion!

You may be jesting, but really who do you think you are calling things like this “Common and hideous”, is your inference that people who have them are also hideous and common?

I daresay people here might use make-up, wear clothes, dye their hair hair and decorate their homes in things I might consider both “common and hideous”, would I be so “rude, hideous and common” to tell them so? I doubt it as I have better manners!