A reader recently asked if some tattoo placements were more masculine or feminine.   It’s an interesting question!

There’s no doubt that some tattoo placements seem to be associated more with one gender than the other.   The classic place for a man’s tattoo is on a bicep.   The “tramp stamp” (just above the butt crack) placement seems to be favored mostly by women.   Women seem to like bracelets and anklets while men like arm bands.

But as with everything associated with tattoos, where they go on your body is your choice.   My daughter has a fantastic arm band, an original design incorporating a red-tailed hawk (her great-grandmother’s totem animal).   I have seen men with great designs on their lower backs.   It’s all a matter of personal preference, and if some genders choose one place more than other, that doesn’t mean the other gender is out of luck.

As I’ve said before, one of the most important things you can do before you get a tattoo is to think about where you’d like to put it.   You have to take a lot of things into consideration.   Will the ink need to be covered by clothing most of the time so it won’t put employers off, or do you want it to be visible most of the time?   Do you want the ink on an area of the body that is known to be painful to tattoo?   Is your design so large that it has to go on a larger area of skin?   Those things, far more than any notion of “masculine” or “feminine” placement, are what you should be considering.

If where you want your ink is a place favored by the opposite gender, that’s your choice.   You are, after all, decorating your own body in your own way, so who cares if someone else thinks it’s in the wrong place?   Just get the very best tattoo you can, with personal significance, and then sit back and enjoy your beautiful decorations.

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Many of us feel that our body art should be balanced.  That is, if we have a certain number of tattoos on the right side, we should have an equal number on the left.

Thus, after getting my first tattoo over my right collarbone, I got the second on the inside of my left ankle.  Then I got another over my left shoulderblade.  My original intention was to get a fourth tattoo on the outside of my right leg, but you know how life sometimes interferes with your best-laid plans.

I see the balance as right/left, inside/outside.  None of my tattoos even slightly resemble each other, although the tattoos over my collarbone and over my shoulderblade cover approximately the same area.  I added on to the tattoo on my left ankle, making it much bigger than it started out, and I would have balanced that with a fairly large design on the right.

But I had an unplesant reaction to the red ink in the “upgrade” on my ankle tattoo, so I have put further ink on hold for a while.  It still feels as though I should get one more to achieve that balance.

Now, in my mind, balance and symmetry are entirely different concepts.  One can have balanced designs that are not symmetrical, and symmetrical designs that are not balanced.  Put a gorgeous mirror-image artwork on your right hip and leave it at that, and you’re not balanced.

I admit my view on the matter is somewhat quirky.  Some people feel that in order to be balanced the artwork has to be pretty much the same on both sides.  Some people feel the subject matter has to be either the same or closely related.  Some see balance only as symmetry and require the artwork to be symmetrical across the center line, wherever it’s placed.

What are your views on symmetry and balance?  Did you make an effort to achieve one or the other or both when you got your ink?  I’d be interested to hear how we all feel about this.

photo credit: bobster1985,

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I don’t happen to think the style is very flattering, but I do have to admit to owning one pair of capri pants. And I bought them specifically to show off the tattoo on my ankle. Which I think is a good reason to buy something like that, which I ordinarily wouldn’t be caught dead wearing.

I have also bought other clothing with showing off my ink in mind. I have one hot pink shirt with an asymmetrical neckline that showcases my swirl of stars perfectly. Showing off the dragon on my back is a bit trickier, because I don’t think I look good in spaghetti-strap tube tops… but I have a couple. They show off my stars too, of course.

Most of the time I’m too averse to showing off my fat arms (aka Old Lady Wings) so the back tat stays covered. But once in a while I’ll get covered up with sunscreen and let it all hang out. Especially if I’m going to a tattoo show, where nobody cares about fat arms and short pants.

My daughter buys short-sleeved shirts to show off her armband, but she rarely displays the knotwork on her leg. Although she does have this dynamite evening gown with a slit up the side. Too bad there are so few occasions to wear an evening gown when you’re a grad student.

I’m seeing more and more ink on more and more people as I wander around during the course of the day and it makes me wonder how much more is covered up (like mine). Do we as multicolored people dress more often to reveal or to conceal?

photo credit: leogetz

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Many people figure they want it where they want it and if someone else objects, tough. I can understand that. And I’m as much an admirer of full sleeves and hand tattoos as anyone. But unfortunately the entire rest of the world isn’t like that.

Many employers still have dress code that forbids open display of body art. Yeah, stick in the mud, yadda yadda yadda… but they do.

Tattoos are permanent, or in the ideal world they should be. So why put limits on your future by putting something permanent in some area of your body that you can’t easily cover up? You’ve got plenty of skin that you can put clothing over if necessary, so why not start with those areas and think about the more visible places later?

I’ve even run into problems covering up the seven-star swoosh over my right collarbone. Most open-collared shirts reveal one or two stars, and a V-neck or scoop-neck shirt shows off most of the design. You can bet when I’ve gone on job interviews I’ve buttoned everything up just to be safe. It might well be that the interviewers would have liked the design, but I didn’t take any chances. Job interviews are stressful enough without worrying if you’re inflaming someone else’s prejudices.

Of course, once I was hired and had settled in and people had gotten used to me, then I felt a bit more at ease about letting a star or two show. Then I’ve been asked if the design was “real” (why no, I drew it on myself with colored markers just this morning) and people have asked to see the rest of it. Like most multicolored people I’m happy to show off my ink. But in any new situation involving employment and acceptance by one’s work environment it was better to start off slow.

So–think design. Think ink. Think placement. Getting a tattoo is something that requires more thinking than you think. Or words to that effect.

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