Last month I had the opportunity to go to the Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention. It’s amazing how just the word “tattoo” can get people’s faces all squished up into a look of disgust.

Artwork is artwork. What I always like about conventions is the camaraderie. That’s probably why they have entire conventions for one subject. Some people can look at someone with tattoos all over their body, with their head shaved and a tattoo on the back of their head and think, “Ick, what a freak!” But on the other side of that, you can look at that person and think, “Wow, what a free spirit!”

A free spirit is basically another way of saying that a person does not care what anyone else thinks of him or her. But isn’t that the definition of true power - being confident enough in yourself to know you’re good at heart and still want to have purple hair or whatever? I guess that’s the true meaning of not being able to tell a book by its cover.

Tattoos, people say, express a lot. And I have to agree there’s some good and some bad. When you see someone walking toward you with a swastika on their neck, it’s safe to say you now know something pretty big about them. But some of the beautiful ones I saw at the tattoo convention are basically just beautiful artwork.

There’s a passage in the Bible that says you should not “make any cuttings in your flesh...nor print any marks upon you...” (Leviticus 19:28). But what’s the difference from, say, coloring your hair, or shaving? Strictly speaking, is there a difference? Years ago, decades ago, there probably wasn’t.

I got to thinking about it, tattoos can help you out. Like I said before, you can’t tell a book by its cover. ...but you can a little bit. Someone’s walking up to you with a swastika tattoo, you basically know what their political views are. I just guess I’m drawn to the creativity and the artwork of tattoo artists. Like this guy right here with the elephant tattoo on his chest. If that were on a Ford Bronco, everybody would think that’s a great hood ornament. But since it’s in a tattoo, people might scoff at it.

Well anyway, in closing, thank you for all the comments on my dentist experience from last month. Next year let’s see if we can grab that groundhog and give him some notes on what he’s supposed to say instead of this six more weeks of winter.

Hope everything’s going well, and thanks a lot!

- Kevin S. Nash

Photo details: Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention, Philadelphia Convention Center, February 2014