Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 12,432 |
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On my arm," he says, and touches his bicep through his shirt.
His lovely shoulder.
In the silence, he says, "I didn't think you'd be this upset."
After a while, he says, "It wasn't just a drunken whim. I thought about it. I went to a professional. It cost £150."
£150? I think, briefly, of all the things I could buy with £150.
"It's just a tattoo," he says, when the silence goes on so long that we have nearly fallen over the edge of it into a pit of black nothingness. "It's not as if I came home and said I'd got someone pregnant."
It seems to me, unhinged by shock, that this might have been the better option.
His father asks, "Does it hurt?"
"Yes," I say, cutting across this male bonding. "It does. Very much."
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He says, "I'm still the same person."
I look at him, sitting there, my 21-year-old son. I feel I'm being interviewed for a job I don't even want. I say, "But you're not. You're different. I will never look at you in the same way again. It's a visceral feeling. Maybe because I'm your mother. All those years of looking after your body – taking you to the dentist and making you drink milk and worrying about green leafy vegetables and sunscreen and cancer from mobile phones. And then you let some stranger inject ink under your skin. To me, it seems like self-mutilation. If you'd lost your arm in a car accident, I would have understood. I would have done everything to make you feel better. But this – this is desecration. And I hate it."
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He may not have wanted to hurt me. I hope he didn't. But my feelings, as he made his decision, were completely unimportant.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; pack up the moon and dismantle the sun.
I am redundant. And that's a legitimate cause for grief, I think.
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 8,402 |
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yurble
A 21-year-old man gets a tattoo, and his mother overreacts. She knows her reaction was over the top, but that didn't stop her from airing it for the world to see - although at least she used a pseudonym, but that was probably just to keep herself from being stuck in a mental institution after people read about her feelings.Quote
On my arm," he says, and touches his bicep through his shirt.
His lovely shoulder.
In the silence, he says, "I didn't think you'd be this upset."
After a while, he says, "It wasn't just a drunken whim. I thought about it. I went to a professional. It cost £150."
£150? I think, briefly, of all the things I could buy with £150.
"It's just a tattoo," he says, when the silence goes on so long that we have nearly fallen over the edge of it into a pit of black nothingness. "It's not as if I came home and said I'd got someone pregnant."
It seems to me, unhinged by shock, that this might have been the better option.
His father asks, "Does it hurt?"
"Yes," I say, cutting across this male bonding. "It does. Very much."
After this, she refuses to speak to him for 3 days. She cries and can't eat. "I feel as if someone has died. I keep thinking of his skin, his precious skin, inked like a pig carcass." She whines to her friends.
Of course, it's all about moo. His body is hers, forever. The way she mourns his skin is just plain disturbing and reeks of possessiveness:Quote
He says, "I'm still the same person."
I look at him, sitting there, my 21-year-old son. I feel I'm being interviewed for a job I don't even want. I say, "But you're not. You're different. I will never look at you in the same way again. It's a visceral feeling. Maybe because I'm your mother. All those years of looking after your body – taking you to the dentist and making you drink milk and worrying about green leafy vegetables and sunscreen and cancer from mobile phones. And then you let some stranger inject ink under your skin. To me, it seems like self-mutilation. If you'd lost your arm in a car accident, I would have understood. I would have done everything to make you feel better. But this – this is desecration. And I hate it."
And here's the butt-hurt drama she ends the piece with, realises that she has a different role in his life now (or, as she sees it, no role at all):Quote
He may not have wanted to hurt me. I hope he didn't. But my feelings, as he made his decision, were completely unimportant.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; pack up the moon and dismantle the sun.
I am redundant. And that's a legitimate cause for grief, I think.
She needs to update her views on tattoos almost as much as she needs to leave her kid the fuck alone to make his own decisions about his body.
(Although I could care less that this doctor with tattoos belives in God, but I understand the target audience it's aimed at may care.)
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 15 years ago Posts: 12,447 |
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 15 years ago Posts: 1,802 |
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 883 |
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yurble
Maybe because I'm your mother. All those years of looking after your body – taking you to the dentist and making you drink milk and worrying about green leafy vegetables and sunscreen and cancer from mobile phones. And then you let some stranger inject ink under your skin. To me, it seems like self-mutilation. If you'd lost your arm in a car accident, I would have understood. I would have done everything to make you feel better. But this – this is desecration. And I hate it."
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 1,291 |
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 11 years ago Posts: 1,155 |
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 759 |
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 15 years ago Posts: 6,607 |
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But by deciding to have a tattoo, my son took a meat cleaver to my apron strings. He may not have wanted to hurt me. I hope he didn't. But my feelings, as he made his decision, were completely unimportant.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; pack up the moon and dismantle the sun.
I am redundant. And that's a legitimate cause for grief, I think.
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 855 |
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Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 18 years ago Posts: 9,964 |
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 2,975 |
NO. Do not paint an entire generation of women like the judgemental wacko you are.Quote
Is this what other women feel? Or perhaps, I think, with an uncomfortable lurch of realisation, just what older women feel.
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 12,432 |
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twolightersaday
Interesting that moo uses lines from 'Stop All The Clocks' by WH Auden. A poem probably written about the death of a lover, but I might be wrong.
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 5,716 |
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Tiquer
I will never understand people who are so overly dramatic--it's exhausting just to read about it.
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 11 years ago Posts: 880 |
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 5,716 |
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 13 years ago Posts: 2,975 |
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Zzelda
If you're like me, where you always find the book to be better than the movie, or you find that what others rave about is often 'meh' - watch what you do..
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 15 years ago Posts: 6,607 |
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Zzelda
And - such drama can be down right dangerous.
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Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 |
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 12 years ago Posts: 5,567 |
Re: Forever moo's property: "My son's tattoo hurt me deeply" August 13, 2012 | Registered: 12 years ago Posts: 1,536 |
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satansbitch
I wonder if moo would be so distraught over a daughter's tattoo.