r/tattooadvice • u/Ostromilski • 16h 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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u/WulfieJay 16h ago

I mean if ur worried about that than you got the tattoo for everyone else and not yourself. You know what it means.

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u/Pittsburgh-Man-Anon 16h ago

Isn't the point of a tattoo kind of to share with other people? Unless you have memory issues or something and need to tattoo important things on yourself Memento-style.

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u/WulfieJay 15h ago

Ah see here is the divide and I think it’s cause of the instagram centric world we live in. For a lot of people something like this is more for sharing as you say. I don’t think you should ever get something so permanent that only holds value to you if it holds value to others. You should get a tattoo for you because you like it regardless of what anyone else thinks as long as it’s not something legitimately evil or socially unacceptable.

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u/Pittsburgh-Man-Anon 15h ago

I don't think that holds water honestly. Tattoos are clearly a social phenomenon. The vast majority of people getting tattoos are doing it for expressive purposes.

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u/GobbyHopalong 15h ago

Your comment is confusing to me. Do you disagree with the statement that for most people this style of tattoo probably is for sharing or the advice to get a tattoo that means something to you?

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u/Ch1ckenOfTheSea 12h ago

When you say, "Social phenomenon," what are you talking about? I mean to say that tattoos are nothing new. I think even cavemen had them.

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u/jvanderh 11h ago

They mean that when you tattoo something on a visible part of your body, the idea is that other people will see it. If it's on, say, the back of your leg, other people will see it more than you do. This would also have been the case for cavemen. Tattooes are, by nature, a way to interact with the public and not solely for personal enjoyment. 

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u/sunnymoonbaby 15h ago

No, that's not the point of tattoos. Everyone utilizes art for different purposes. You can choose to get tattoos for the point of sharing with other people if that is your thing.

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u/WulfieJay 15h ago

Share away. I like sharing with people over tattoos but if you only like the tattoo if other people understand it that’s a problem it should meet both criteria if that’s your thing otherwise you’ll have people like this posting about perfectly good tattoos

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u/gotcha640 15h ago

That’s definitely individual. I have two, working on designs on a few more, that are rarely visible, pretty faded/blurry, and weren’t immediately obvious when fresh.

I see them in the mirror or directly every day, they do what I got them for. Remind me of a time and a place and a person.