I wish I were willing to get a tattoo.
The aesthetics themselves I could take or leave. But the intent leaves me jealous.
In getting a tattoo you are making a decision today that will be with you for the rest of your life. You are making a life altering choice without having it forced upon you - as I was in getting a job or going to university. You are changing something.
It is showing the willingness to act. It is showing agency.
Sometimes the argument is made the other way - in getting a tattoo you are changing your body and, in doing so, surrendering control over the outside world. What nonsense! If you change the things you can control you are alive. You have a Nietzschian will to power. You are a master, not a slave. There are other things you can change too. How much bleaker to accept all things as they are without challenge?
To Dostoevsky some form of self destruction was a necessary quality in being human. Either perfect rationalism or perfect ethical behaviour set out a bounded course of acceptable action; neither of which allow sufficient freedom to be human - you are instead an automaton on rails .
I prize rationalism and utilitarianism. What is the point of paying money and enduring pain to put a permanent imprint on your skin?
When did I last make a decision that made me feel alive?
I wish I were willing to get a tattoo. But I am not. Instead I write a blog post.
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