Early last week, Australia’s Deputy Idiot Prime Minister Julia Gillard, (or “J-Gillz” as she shall henceforth be known), again proved what an oppressive, tyrannical power whore she is, slamming heavily tattooed women, saying that they were “making a mistake” in exercising their rights to get tattooed then going on to say that Australia’s “Raunch Culture” has gone too far.
Now, there are a lot of things the Government says and does that piss me off, but so far I have restrained myself from posting them here, purely because I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but when some holier than thou fuck from Canberra opens her mouth and condemns women for exercising their personal freedoms and making personal choices, I tend to get a little bit pissed off.
With the seemingly super conservative Labour Government and All Mighty Overlord Mao-Tse Rudd pushing to censor internet in Australia to levels only seen in China and Indonesia, and now legal aged girls with anything under B – Cup breasts are banned from posing bare breasted in magazines and on websites as the “images are too child like” J-Gillz’ comments are ringing alarm bells. What the fuck is this government trying to do?And furthermore, what the fuck is Australia coming to?
Without out getting too Political, what confuses the fuck out of me is that only a week earlier J-Gillz was the first to lash out at Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, over his comments about sex before marriage, going on to say “Australian women don’t want to be told what to do by Tony Abbott. Australian women want to make their own choices, and they don’t want to be lectured to by Mr Abbott” and right you fucking were Julia, right you fucking were. Australian women don’t want to be lectured by Mr Abbott, let alone a hypocritical half wit fool like yourself.
Last week I caught up with some tattooists, both male and female and put it to This Life’s Facebook friends to and have their say on J-Gillz comments and the Governments lunacy, here’s what was said…
“OK, so first, it’s pretty tired the whole gendered perspective on tattooing – it is not a female issue. If anyone proves to be motivated in getting tattooed from a fashion standpoint, then they will surely live to regret it, regardless of gender.
I have to scoff at the raunch culture comment – Her perspective is so baseless when we see that women were in fact some of the first ever human beings tattooed. Apparently one of the earliest people found was a Siberian woman who had been well preserved in the ice. She had talismanic marks all over her body, and it was alleged that she was a storyteller – A vocation highly valued in a time when there were few other forms of entertainment. They were a pivotal part of the community, and certainly not trying to elicit a sexual response. Indeed, at the turn of the 18th century in Japan, it was only women, and only those considered aristocracy, who were allowed to adorn themselves with tattoos.
It insults me as a woman and a tattooer that we do these things to evoke a response of a sexual kind from men. Every day I tattoo women who are unaffected, normal people wishing only to mark themselves with something important to them. I tattooed a mother and daughter the other day – the daughter was leaving Melbourne to pursue a dream job, so they wanted to get a little tattoo as a farewell, mother/daughter bonding thing. They were far from raunchy, I can tell you.
Jules needs to address fashion itself and the perpetuation of media influence in the portrayal of ‘raunch culture’ – music videos carry it way further than a bit of script on a wrist. She also needs to understand that tattooing is validated by it’s history – it is thousands of years old, and something that cannot be intellectually explained. It is a primal thing. Kids poke themselves with all kinds of things to make a mark in their skin, and they aren’t guided by fashion. One of my customers, a very suave, successful designer type in his 50s with 2 kids, has some fantastic old hand poked designs he did on his hands and arms when he was 12. It was, of course to the dismay of his mother, but that is where tattooing is validated for me. It is from a motivation beyond fashion, beyond media, it is just a human thing.
If people could just get over this tattoo thing. These women aren’t destroying their lives or their soul. It’s just a fucking tattoo. The biggest regret someone could have is not doing their research, not ensuring the shop is clean and sterile or choosing a tattooer that doesn’t care less about their tattoo, and only about the money they earn from it”.
Jane – Chapel Tattoo, Melbourne.
“It’s not her responsibility to worry about us and our futures. Many women are now tattooed with successful careers and normal lives. I’m not too sure why we are making a mistake. I think it may be because she is worried about how this portrays Australia or how it is ruining her image of how Australia should be. I think she is more worried about herself and how it reflects upon her, and why only women???”
Nicky – Via Facebook
“Basically, her comments do not affect me, nor should they really offend anyone else as clearly her statements come from an uneducated outsiders opinion on the subject.
She is categorising tattoos and body art under a “raunch” title, which i gather means she interprets the whole idea of being tattooed with sex and or women trying to show themselves as openly suggestive, somewhat..Well that is what its sounds like. That point of view just shows how backward thinking, or say, influenced by past generational ideas of what we as women represent.
For me, sex, raunch, and tattoos have absolutely nothing to do with each other, nor do they with many of the females I tattoo.
You cannot by any means categorise the reasons for being openly and heavily tattooed, as no two people are the same.
‘ all for women expressing themselves in any way they see fit, for me this involves a certain level of self respect, for others it doesn’t, each to their own.
She clearly hasn’t stopped to think about the increasing popularity of how tattooing is providing jobs for young artists, giving them the chance to showcase their masterpieces. It’s also giving people confidence to express themselves exactly how they want to be seen, creating a sense of pride in one’s own skin.
I’m heavily tattooed, and feel beautiful and confident in being so.
Really, she’s just got egg on her face in my eyes for being so openly misinformed and still publicly expressing her misguided point of view”.
“The body is the house of the soul, its time to decorate it”
Corinne Helmers – Mooloolaba Ink
“It just shows, once again, how outdated the beliefs and ideologies of our current government are. They are clueless. From Internet censorship to lack of an R18 rating for video games and now Julia Gillard having her say on tattoos.
People who have no understanding of what they are doing are being appointed to make major decisions. The Internet filter will not achieve it’s goal, the trials were unsuccessful despite the governments claims otherwise. Has Conroy even heard of instant messaging? p2p? torrents? Does he know how to use a computer?
Is she (Julia Gillard) aware that getting a tattoo is no longer classed as deviant behaviour and that is becoming more and more publicly accepted?
Our current government need to realise we no longer live in the mid 20th century where conservative religious beliefs were widely accepted, neither the Internet or video games existed and tattoos were seen as a form of deviancy. Though I don’t think they will.
Plain and simply, we need people who actually have an understanding of modern society, technology and digital media to run our country and Kevin Rudd using Twitter and Facebook doesn’t count, at all”.
Ben – Via Facebook
“Gillard needs to remove her head from the shoe box that she uses to form her opinions.
What has become of the Australian Labor party??
Question Time in Parliment, what a joke!!!!! “Riveting” viewing
It scares me that is all we have to offer in the running of our country”.
Jed Hill – Tattooist, Ballarat
“The hide of women in power, a most archaic belief system, next she’ll be saying we should be wearing Birkas”.
Milly Loveknuckles – Rock Of Ages Tattoo, Lennox Head
“I guess small things amuse small minds. I’m just a simple person who gets tattooed because it’s one thing in my life that makes it worth living, and i’m sure my female customers feel the same. People like Julia who can’t understand that to me are the same as ignorant racist fucks and I could really care less for their opinion”.
Meighan Mary – Alien Art, Mayfield
“Hahaha it actually makes me laugh.One of the guys from Korpus just tattooed his niece a couple weeks back, his niece works on Julia Gillards team, I’m gonna blame him for this! Hahahaha. Over all, who gives two shits what a wrinkled up politician with absolutely no life skills thinks. Us tattooed folk dont care that she has none”(tattoos).
Mick Squires – Korpus Tattoo, Brunswick.
“I got my first tattoo when I was 16, and don’t regret any of them. They have all reflected different stages of my life and being 20 now I won’t be stopping. I think it’s become al ot more expectable these days, although you still get those looks when you’re out in public. In the end it doesn’t change the person you are, I have sleeve and chest tattoos but I cover up at work so no one’s opinion changes about me, no one at my work knows, not because I’m ashamed but no matter how open minded people think they are, as soon as it comes down to it there opinion changes to the tattooed sterotype. I don’t judge anyone, I have lots of girlfriends who are heavily tattooed but most of them have none, the bottom line is people need to realise that a few pictures on a person doesn’t change their personality. I just like to be interesting to look at and treat my body like a canvas.”
Kandy – Melbourne
Julia Gillard well……. For starters I don’t know how much I trust some ones word who has a picture of themselves and Humphry B. Bear placed behind her desk.
I read an article the other day featuring a kind of day in the life of Julia Gillard, she went to a primary school where she was asked by a young boy how do you deal with difficult people? She appeared baffled ( ‘cause I guess it’s a pretty complex question for a women) and responds ” Well the important thing is to try to understand where people are coming from, you try and think what’s it like in their shoes?”
I guess she momentarily forgot that notion when she made her smart as usual comment about women and tattoos. Maybe next time she will conveniently remember when she is asked why she doesn’t have children and responds with her usual answer “everyone makes choices”.
As a female, I’m worried that she is going to look back on her media photos in time and really regret her sense of fashion, as for being a tattooist and tattooed, I’m worried she will never get a chance to experience a tattoo cause she’s probably pissed off a fair few tattooists.
As a tattooer I don’t know of one person or women, that hasn’t been aware that there tattoo is going to be there for life. In case you didn’t know Gillard, you have to be 18 to get tattooed, same age as women and men have to be to vote, funny that considering there is a huge population of tattooed people in Australia, next election should be interesting!! It’s not that promising having someone like Julia Gillard being concerned for my future.
You can be a tattooed women and be anything or anyone. Unfortunately society has judgemental people in all forms. I’m not really sure what runs through people’s minds when they see a heavily tattooed women/person but looks can be deceiving. Due to the large population of young women getting tattooed today I’m pretty sure when were all old being tattooed might be the least of our worries.
Julia I’m not really greatful for your concern, sorry but, I’m heavily tattooed and I’m ok thanks and really what are you going to do about it? Offer to pay for everyone’s laser if they happen to “regret” it? Probably not, there’s plenty more extremely important things happening in the world, find some concern for them. But if you change your mind and decide to get a tattoo, I’m sure you could find a tattooist especially female that would love the chance!
Stacey Ann, – Holdfast Tattoo, Perth.
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