Why Put a Bumper Sticker on a Ferrari?

Asst. News Editor

Published: Saturday, January 28, 2012

Updated: Thursday, February 2, 2012 16:02

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I get it. It's the 21st century. You're cool, you're rebellious, you're cutting edge, you have a point to prove, and you're a woman. Awesome.

Ladies, I know you're at least at the legal age of making your own decisions, but before you decide to get a tattoo, allow me to let you in on a little secret. A secret you may have not fully realized yet thus far in your life. What you must understand is, as women, we are – naturally – beautiful creatures.

Seriously, though. Your body literally has the ability to turn heads. Guys drool over us. We hold some serious power in our hands, because – as corny as this sounds – we hold the world's beauty.

But something girls seem to forget nowadays, or maybe have not been taught, is that women hold the world's class and elegance in their hands, as well. So what's more attractive than a girl with a nice body? I'll tell you what: a girl with class. Looks may not last, but class does. And so do tattoos.

An elegant woman does not vandalize the temple she has been blessed with as her body. She appreciates it. She flaunts it. She's not happy with it? She goes to the gym. She dresses it up in lavish, fun, trendy clothes, enjoying trips to the mall with her girlfriends. She accentuates her legs with high heels. She gets her nails done. She enjoys the finer things in life, all with the body she was blessed with.

But marking it up with ink? That's just not necessary.

I'm not here to say a girl should walk around flaunting her body like it's her job – that's just degrading. Instead of getting a tattoo, a more productive use of your time would be improving and appreciating the body you have been given, not permanently engraving it.

Can you get meaning out of a tattoo? Arguably. If you want to insert ink into your skin as a symbol for something greater than yourself, then maybe you are proving a point to yourself or the rest of the world.

But at the end of the day, are you really a happier person? Has this tattoo, for instance, caused you to learn something new about yourself? Has it challenged you? Has it led you to self-growth? Nothing comes out of getting a tattoo. You get a tattoo, and that's it. You do something productive, though, and you see results. That's a genuine, satisfying change in life. Not ink.

Invest your time, money, and effort into a gym membership, or yoga classes, or new clothes, or experimenting with different hairstyles if you're craving something new with your body, not a tattoo.

I promise, it will be a much more rewarding experience, and you won't find yourself in a rut when your future grandkids ask you what's up with the angel wings on your upper back as you're in the middle of giving them a life lesson on the importance of values and morals.

God knows the last thing this world needs is another generation of kids questioning their basic values and morals.

Email: lisa.khoury@ubspectrum.com

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139 comments

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UB Student

Fri Feb 10 2012 21:37

I'm aware this is an opinion article, but I know there are also more eloquent and sophisticated ways to express your opinion without making it sound like one giant, angry diary rant. I don't fancy tattoos either (shocker), but I felt that you went about expressing your feelings the wrong way and forgot that anything published online or in a newspaper is also part of the public domain. I am sorry for all the negative attention you have received from this, but try to take it in stride, listen to the constructive criticism, and build off it to enhance your writing career. One thing you can certainly take from this, is the experience you received and the lesson learned. This isn't the end for you, Lisa, and I wish you the best with your future, just remember who your audience is.

Anonymous

Thu Feb 9 2012 22:40

As an actual UB student who READ THE PAPER (and not online), I think you people actually need to know where this article was. It wasn't on the front page. It wan an opinion article, against a writer who supported tattoos.

Everyone keeps saying what she did was 'classless' and 'a disgrace'. I think you all are being classless for these comments. What you clearly fail to realize is that the Spectrum is a COLLEGE paper and this was written by a COLLEGE student. This is not the New York Times or the Washington Post. The amount of backlash for an opinion article in a college newspaper is absolutely pathetic and embarrassing.

Lisa Khoury, I hope that you do not give up Journalism. Everyone here at UB is behind you and supports you, even if it's against people with tattoos. UB STANDS TOGETHER.

Anonymous

Wed Feb 8 2012 18:34

'Nothing comes out of getting a tattoo.'
Really? How would you know if you've never gotten one? How do you know my tattoo doesn't serve as a reminder every single day of my life that I am better than self-harm? That every time I have the impulse, it's there to remind me that I deserve to love myself, to be healthy.
Tell me nothing came from that experience. Please.

Tattoos are an individual choice, and no one has the right to impose their beliefs one way or another on anyone else. And no one has the right to judge anyone on whether or not they have tattoos (except for your employer, who can choose how they want their business represented. But I don't think that's the case here, am I right?). Your instinct may be that a tattooed person is a classless individual... but is that right? Or is that just what you've been conditioned to think.

And by the way, as a woman, regardless of the fact that I am a tattooed woman, I am wholly offended by this article. I am more than a head turner, I am also intelligent, and possess the ability to exist without a man to make sandwiches for.

KIUSCG

Wed Feb 8 2012 15:36

This is distasteful to say the least. I wish no ill harm on anyone but I do hope this and your fake apology don't go unnoticed in the career path that you chose. People who have tattoos and get things such as portraits of loved ones or military careers are never frowned upon. We as women are accepted for who we are no matter what we look like or what tattoos we have. You act like every woman in the world who has tattoos gets distasteful things THIS IS NOT TRUE. You need to look in the mirror and make sure that before you post things you can live with the regret. The wording used in this column is very disrespectful and insulting; you have an utter disregard to how other people view the world. Yes, this is the twenty first century, it is a different time where different things are excepted if people don't like it then they don't have to look or pay attention. I don't mind that you are expressing your view points because this is a free country and we all have a right to express our self, that is a given right just like those of us whom choose to get tattoos that is our RIGHT! Some of us with tattoos are successful women who happen to have family and friends think they are very elegant and classy. My biggest problem with your column is your lack of justification. I am right there with Corvo, I am a mother and I have tattoos, I am not setting a bad example because my kids know there are rules. Your post along with everything else in magazines makes children think they have to have the most expensive clothes that they have to shop at the mall or get their nails done or be high maintenance to be beautiful. This is very far from the truth, very far. People with tattoos do not have lower morals just because we choose to express ourselves differently. This is like you saying if you get your ears pierced you are tampering with the women's body to be elegant or classy. Tattoos are in the same concept whether you like it or not. Your point of view is based on a young naive high school students view not real life. There is a lot more going on in the world related to raising young women than having tattoo's write about something really worth your time, and not rubbish such as this where you will have millions of viewers whom find it distasteful.

Although i dont really care for your response due to the irritation you have caused my email is angelize114@hotmail.com

Anonymous

Tue Feb 7 2012 15:58

As a person who doesn't have tattoos, I still find this article, and her subsequent "apology" to be quite offensive. The tattoo portion of this article is almost secondary to the misogyny and sexism going on here. Lisa clearly doesn't value herself as a person, and as a result doesn't value any women. She derisively writes how we should go to the gym and traipse around in new clothes constantly in order to feel a sense of self worth. Honey, people don't always get tattoos for attention, or to paraphrase you "decorate their temple", sometimes, and hold on to your 1950's pillbox hat, they get them for themselves. For deeper personal reasons that a haircut could never suffice to demonstrate. I really think the people defending you on here are friends or family because I sincerely doubt anyone reading this from an outside view thinks so highly of you as to defend this tripe. How are you even on a newspaper? Was the only mandate that you be able to partially string a sentence together? I hope you enjoy the backlash, because it is so incredibly well deserved.

Anonymous

Tue Feb 7 2012 15:49

Are you actually this ignorant? You get nothing out of a tattoo but you get something out of a haircut? You are so pathetically pitiful at writing that you almost aren't even worth replying to. You really deserved the backlash you got and frankly I hope it hurt. Misogyny in female form is truly a sick and sad thing. Are you trying to set women back half a dozen decades? Maybe it's your life's goal to go to the gym and and buy new clothes, that's fine. But how dare you preach that all women should do those things in lieu of getting a tattoo? If you had merely stated an argument based solely on your personal reasons for not wanting one, that would have been fine. Not everyone needs to get tattooed, but your view on people who have gotten them is disgusting and ignorant. Also, Ferrari? We can all see your photo sweetheart. Maybe try something a little closer to the truth next time. From all sides.

Kim

Mon Feb 6 2012 14:42

Congratulations on your feeble attempt to completely bury any landmarks that were reached by the feminist movement. Not only does your article blatantly objectify women, but it also pits you against other women who, at one point in time, were in the same damn struggle together. If our only two options are to be fools with tattoos or fools without, I guess I know the column in which you fall.

As for me, I have no tattoos. I'd rather be covered in them than be closed minded.

Nothing disappears on the internet. This article is your tattoo.

Jason Tung

Sun Feb 5 2012 13:02

Read my post very carefully , for it is a comment upon the articul , and not as you propose, an attack upon the author. regardless of how infernally ridicules her views seem to be

Sat Feb 4 2012 18:39

Whenever commenters react in such an over-the-top negative manner such as this, it is clear that the writer of the article has swerved far too close to exposing a terrible truth and must be silenced forthwith. For the tattooed, acknowledging the reality that you have made the disastrous and permanent mistake of advertising to the entire world for all time that you are a shallow, vain and self-absorbed twit with terrible judgement is simply too much to bear. The messenger must be sacrificed at all costs. Hence this response.

The writer has also learned a valuable lesson about the leftist masses (Remember, Tea Party: no tats. OWS: nothing but tats). They are ruthless, bloodthirsty and totally devoid of any class or basic human decency. Expose them at your own risk.

Nobody with a tat who was confident and at peace with his/her choice would react in such a rabid manner.

Anonymous

Sat Feb 4 2012 18:19

Dumbest article I have read in a long time.

proper grown up

Sat Feb 4 2012 15:59

Moron.

anxiousgeek

Sat Feb 4 2012 15:57

"But at the end of the day, are you really a happier person? Has this tattoo, for instance, caused you to learn something new about yourself? Has it challenged you? Has it led you to self-growth? Nothing comes out of getting a tattoo. You get a tattoo, and that's it. You do something productive, though, and you see results. That's a genuine, satisfying change in life. Not ink."

I could not disagree more. Tattoos are obviously not your thing, but for some of us, it's more, it's something else. It's art.

And you come across as terribly shallow and superficial.

Stockholm23

Sat Feb 4 2012 12:49

I think you should just stand for your opinion. I wasn't upset by your first article, even though I completley disagreed. You sound like you need more life experience, you´re young. When weé young we aren't always as morally imaginative as we perhaps become over time, and in our meetings with other people and subcultures. Just stand for your opinion, what you wrote in the first article is what you wrote. Why take it back? Also, I am sorry for the backlash you recieved. It was hardly constructive, and completley out of line.

so many rude reponses...

Sat Feb 4 2012 03:56