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First of all, any young person who gets tattoos is an idiot. That said, I can remember when I first saw heavily-tattooed men, except maybe in movies showing a circus freak sideshows. I had just graduated from Navy boot camp and was on my first sea duty assignment.

Our ship's company in those days of World War II was a combination of new officers, new boot camp and service school graduates and a sprinkling of old "lifers" ... career Navy with from five to 20 years of service. My first job was a combination of mess gear washing duty and chipping paint on deck. In charge of us was always one of the old salts.

Many had tattoos running up their arms, around their backs and across their chests. It was fascinating to see what the pictures and lettering were all about. Although there were tattoo parlors all over the world, there were few in the US. More sprung up during WWII, and today they are as popular, if not more so.

Many of the old salts had served on ships and stations in China before the war, and that's where the most creative tattoo shops were at the time. They were considered odd for their tattoos, what-the-hell attitudes and heavy-drinking lifestyles, and because of their Far East experience, other sailors called them "Asiatic", which meant they were a bit crazy.

Of course, many of my ex-boot camp shipmates went out and got tattoos as soon as they could. They thought it would help give them the image of veteran sailors. In most cases, the 18-year-olds looked more like children wearing those paste-on decals. I resisted, not because the tattoos bothered any sense of propriety, but I thought it was an idiotic idea. I still do. The old cliche about men scrambling to get an old girlfriend's name tattoo removed when they had a new girlfriends probably happened thousands of times with sailors, soldiers and other men who did it in a drunken stupor.

Young people who get tattooed today usually do it to emulate rock stars and athletes, or they just do it on a dare or when drunk. In many cases, they wake up soon and look for ways to get them removed. Another group who should want to remove tattoos are those who are now old and see the awful results. There's nothing sadder than seeing old men or women who still have tattoos from their youth. The faded and sagging skin are daily reminders to them or anyone else unfortunate to see them that stupid mistakes were made and are now being regretted.

The only way to start the process of tattoo removal is to go to your family doctor or a dermatologist first. Get your tattoos examined closely by at least one qualified medical expert, and follow the instructions for getting rid of your skin graffiti. If you have considerable amounts of your body tattooed, it will be a long, expensive and painful experience. But, in the end, it will be well worth it.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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