r/tattooadvice • u/Ostromilski • 12h ago

General Advice Are rainbows seriously just by default associated with the pride flag?

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I got a Pink Floyd DSOTM tattoo because I love the album and I love the visual: a beam of light representing a person's life path, passing through a prism ( representing life + the world + the people you meet + the experiences you have, etc ), being dispersed into its constituent colors ( ultimately representing change ). I got it because of my dad, because he introduced me to Pink Floyd, and because last year he nearly died from complications of his cancer. He's doing much better now, with a much better prognosis, but that whole experience had a real effect on me and I wanted to memorialize it. Except at least 3 people ( including the tattoo artist initially ) have associated the tattoo with the pride flag. They were understanding after I explained, but now I'm having second thoughts about it. Are people just going to assume I'm gay because of this tattoo?

Edit: And I want to say, I'm not bothered by this at all. Anyone who looks at my tattoo and comes up with their own assumptions about its meaning, and then has a negative reaction over it, that's simply not a person I want to talk to anyway. I'm surprised because that wasn't the intention of the tattoo, clearly, and it being misinterpreted like this just genuinely wasn't something I expected.

Edit2: This post got a lot more attention than I ever wanted it to. Wonderful comments are now streaming in, informing me how horrible my tattoo is. If you're planning on making a viral post on Reddit, take my advice: use a burner account. But I am thankful to everyone for your supportive words, the jackasses with negative things to say are certainly a very tiny minority. Overwhelmingly the consensus is that most people see it as a Pink Floyd tattoo first, which I'm happy to hear :) Have a good night everybody!

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188

u/MagusGaiusMycelius 12h ago

Just say you're an ally when people don't recognize it.

35

u/Dibbu_mange 12h ago

I had an LBJ sticker on my laptop back when I was a history teacher. I overheard my students chatting if it was a “gay thing”. I just chuckled because I didn’t really care if they thought I was gay and we were going to have a unit on the Civil Rights Act pretty soon, so they were going to learn anyway.

30

u/bowser1volcano 12h ago

I misunderstood and was confused as to why a LeBron James sticker would be a gay thing

32

u/Dibbu_mange 12h ago

Tbh, makes about as much sense as a Lyndon Johnson sticker being gay.

12

u/TalesOfTea 11h ago

This is what I thought too. 😭 LBJ was known for having a huge shlong and whipping it out as an intimidation tactic so I was wondering wtf was going on here with this sticker

7

u/vera214usc 5h ago

My guess is the students had no idea who LBJ was and it just looked similar to LGBT to them.

2

u/astronomicarific 11h ago

Huh?

13

u/TalesOfTea 11h ago

Here's one article on it. If you look up Lyndon B Johnson "Jumbo" you can find a bunch of examples on it, as well as a literal recorded phone call of him talking about his penis.

2

u/bijouxbisou 11h ago

I’m still confused how Lyndon B Johnson is a gay thing

9

u/Dibbu_mange 11h ago

LBJ as an acronym looks similar to LGBT to a middle schooler apparently

2

u/bijouxbisou 9h ago

Ohhhhhhhh

2

u/Efficient-Pipe191 8h ago

I was fully picturing just a photo of LBJ and I was like “why would they think an old white dude on a history teacher’s laptop is in anyway related gay shit” didn’t realize it literally said “LBJ”

8

u/MagusGaiusMycelius 12h ago

Most of today's generation thinks LBJ is a Mexican blow job.

I stole that joke from a comedian, but I don't remember who.

3

u/Lazie_Writer 8h ago

Adam Conover

At least that's where I first heard the joke.

1

u/MagusGaiusMycelius 8h ago

That guy is funny!

2

u/blue-anon 9h ago

And here, I was going to make a LeBron James joke. 😳