Eh. I use forced in a loose sense. Shouldda scare quoted it. We were reading selections from a poetry anthology out loud in class, and I got passed the book to read the poem a few lines before the author used the N-word. I made the call to read it because I kind of felt trapped. I blushed SO HARD and just wanted to sink into a hole, but as some people from here pointed out, not my work so I have no right to edit it for my comfort. *shrug* It was a good lesson on the usage of charged words.

I grew up calling it a tank top and was a little shocked the first time I heard it referred to as a wife beater. (Probably sometime after I moved to Boston).

I didn't hear tramp stamp until "HIMYM" and I thought it was funny but also indicative of the sexism they often indulge on that show which I dislike. But I do think ass antlers is funny and fair game.

And I do think getting a tat down there is getting to be problematic the same way getting tribal tattoos on our bicep is problematic for guys.

Way back when getting a traditional tribal tat was unusual and beautiful and cool and then, over time, by association it became closely linked with jock/frat/douchebaggery. Context is everything, and the social context around that particular tatt is now kind of polluted.

I think the lower back tat is becoming problematic, in the same way I think the neck tat is a problem. It's kind of a "Woo Girl" (to reference HIMYM) thing to do now, just as getting a dolphin tattoo on your ankle, or a butterfly on your breast became a cliche. It's a cliched tat choice now. Cliches happen through cultural association and context and that's what's happened with those tats and those places.

Yeah, you can't pick your ink for anyone else -- for good reasons or bad. If its your own choice and reasons it'll still be lovely to you regardless of how society marches on.

just as getting a dolphin tattoo on your ankle, or a butterfly on your breast became a cliche.

laffs and laffs cause she effed that one up and got the dolphin on the boob and the butterfly onthe ankle.

Ah ... the 90's ...

in the same way I think the neck tat is a problem.

Whoa buddy my dad is gonna CUT you!!!

Because he's a badass with a neck tattoo, so he can do whatever he wants. Like a ninja.

(No, actually, I remain in a state of bogglement about the placement of his tattoo, but the man is 68 years old, survived 5 heart attacks and a quadruple bypass, and his younger brother recently died. I figure he's earned the right to get a tattoo wherever he wants.)

(And it's given my brother and I something to laugh about forEVER.)

(Also, if it had been my *mom* getting a tattoo, it would have been a goddamn garden gnome, so I think my dad's tat wins. Barely.)

Trifecta:

I'm still sad I couldn't talk my dad into getting a tattoo of a banana.

Now I am going to WASH ALL THE DISHES.

Now I am going to WASH ALL THE DISHES.

It's gonna be a Lutheran Massacreee!

Also, if it had been my *mom* getting a tattoo, it would have been a goddamn garden gnome, so I think my dad's tat wins.

Perhaps it would protect her when the garden gnomes begin their war on humanity.

People already said most of what I would have said about the wife-beater and tramp-stamp terms, so no point in me repeating all that.

I bought an end table from craigslist, then I decided it would work better as a night stand, so I carried it upstairs to put it next to my bed. Now that I see it there, I think it would work better as an end table downstairs, just not in the place that I originally put it. I already nearly killed myself twice trying to carry this table -- first when I was trying to get it in my car, then when I was carrying it up the stairs and one of the legs caught on the rug. Maybe I'll just leave it upstairs until someone who'll help me with it comes to visit. (Of course, knowing how social I tend to be, that could be years.)